Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent for the Telegraph of London, reports:
Since opening its book just two months ago, punters hoping to have their faith rewarded have placed £5,000 with Paddy Power.
It began taking bets on the question that has plagued thinkers for centuries in September, to coincide with the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider that physicists hope may lead to the discovery of an elusive sub-atomic object called the “God particle”.
Initially the odds that proof would be found of God’s existence were 20-1, and they lengthened to 33-1 when the multi-billion pound atom smasher was shut down temporarily because of a magnetic failure.
But interest in the wager has increased greatly following the recent launch of a campaign to have atheist adverts placed on London buses declaring that “there’s probably no God”.
As a result of a flurry of small bets Paddy Power, which also runs books on who will be the next Pope and the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, has cut the odds on proof being found of God’s existence to just 4-1. . . . .
Paddy Power’s book on the theological topic was only opened this year, but the notion that it is a good idea to gamble on God’s existence was first put forward in the 17th Century.
The French philosopher Blaise Pascal argued that although God’s existence cannot be proven through reason, it makes sense to have religious faith since a person has everything to gain – an “infinitely happy life” – and nothing to lose by doing so.
1 response so far ↓
morsec0de // November 6, 2008 at 1:24 am |
“and nothing to lose by doing so. ”
See: Every religious war, every persecuted religious minority, and every child because a parent chose to pray instead of taking them to the doctor.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.