• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Game theory problem: You're agnostic and dying. Choose your God.

GQgeek

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Mar 4, 2002
Messages
16,568
Reaction score
84
You're into your final days and thinking about what will happen after you die. You're not convinced that there's nothing, but you're not sure there's a deity and/or an afterlife either. Then again, the idea of burning in hell for eternity because you're a non-believer doesn't seem all that appealing to you. The problem is, which deity(ies) should you prostrate yourself before? Or even if there is a deity, is it better to stay neutral?

In addition to yourself, the other players are all the possible gods of human history, if one or many of them even exist. This includes the deities from today's major religions, but also popular deities from religions that have fallen out of favor. And one shouldn't rule out the possibility that if there is a god that he might be different from all the gods we've ever worshiped.

So, what do you do?
 

dah328

Distinguished Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2003
Messages
4,581
Reaction score
114
Make sure to choose a god who is gullible enough to accept a deathbed "conversion." :)
 

dfagdfsh

Professional Style Farmer
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Messages
22,649
Reaction score
7,932
it seems like someone has seen a beautiful mind one too many times
 

Sir Humphrey Appleby

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
1,914
Reaction score
71
Pick the one who takes us into heaven for being good, because there's no other way I'm getting in.
 

Blackhood

Distinguished Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Messages
2,895
Reaction score
376
Approximately 1,980 deities in recorded history. Chances of picking the right one - 1/1,980.

You're better off embracing your true belief - as "god" made you that to falsify faith. "god" will know that you picked at random and thats not true faith, so even if you pick the right one, it wont count for anything. At least if you stay Agnostic/Atheist you're just being the person that "god" made you.
 

erictheobscure

Distinguished Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
8,954
Reaction score
9,110
Marduk. Hasn't been worshipped in a good long while, so he'd probably appreciate it.
 

Jamesgatz

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2010
Messages
1,483
Reaction score
520
Oden / Odin, the Viking God. Valhalla sounds like a lot of fun, although I suppose viking Gods don't give a **** about one's deathbed thoughts.
 

indesertum

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
17,396
Reaction score
3,888
You could say you believe in a god but saying isn't believing.
 

globetrotter

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
20,341
Reaction score
422
honestly, its seems that islam and catholosm have relativly low threasholds for heaven, belief and a desire to embrace god.

most dieties, if you haven't been worshiping them and sacrificing, they won't do **** for you.



on a seperate note, if I were really shoping for a religion, not based on what would happen to me when I died, I'd go with hinduism or Islam. they both make sense, in very different ways, to me. and their liturgy, also in diffent ways, is cool
 

indesertum

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
17,396
Reaction score
3,888
I would say Islam and to a small extent catholicism has you offering sacrifices and going through rituals to merit salvation
 

lasbar

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
22,718
Reaction score
1,322
Catholic ...

I have carried enough guilt all my life to get my redemption...
 

Ebichuman

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
1,123
Reaction score
1,097
This isn't really a game theory problem, but in the spirit of that theory you should pick the deity which offers the worst punishment IF not chosen...
 

MyOtherLife

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
Messages
6,468
Reaction score
522

The "burning in hell for eternity" is really just a christian belief, ....


Actually the word 'hell' is nowhere to be found in the Bible, rather a place of 'howling and gnashing of teeth' is described.
 

erictheobscure

Distinguished Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
8,954
Reaction score
9,110

Actually the word 'hell' is nowhere to be found in the Bible, rather a place of 'howling and gnashing of teeth' is described.


What the hell are you talking about?

http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=hell&qs_version=KJV
http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=hell&qs_version=NIV
http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=hell&qs_version=NASB

I'm guessing you'll counter by saying that the word "hell" isn't found in the original Hebrew or Greek Aramaic. If so, "howling and gnashing of teeth" is similarly nowhere to be found in the original since the phrase is also a translation. Would probably be accurate to say that the word "hell" has now assimilated into itself all sorts of meanings from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament--a point that reinforces scottooks's comment rather than yours.
 
Last edited:

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 55 35.5%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 60 38.7%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 17 11.0%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 27 17.4%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 28 18.1%

Staff online

Forum statistics

Threads
505,162
Messages
10,579,084
Members
223,884
Latest member
mickspilloto
Top