this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024
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xkcd #2947: Pascal's Wager Triangle (xkcd.com)
submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd
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In contrast to Pascal's Wager Triangle, Pascal's Triangle Wager argues that maybe God wants you to draw a triangle of numbers where each one is the sum of the two numbers above it, so you probably should, just in case.

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[–] danc4498 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I’m not sure I get what this is saying.

[–] TeddE 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Pascal was a famous thinker of their time, particularly in mathematics.

Two of the ideas they're remembered for are Pascals Triangle and Pascals Wager.

Their triangle is a helpful tool for combinations of things. Their wager is a (kinda bad in my opinion) argument for why you should believe in the Christian God.

The xkcd comic is a combination of both ideas

[–] BradleyUffner 4 points 4 months ago

Ahh, so I did actually understand it... I thought for sure I was missing something since they are usually way more clever than this.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Blaise Pascal is famous for 2 things:

  1. Pascal's triangle. This describes how to expand expresions of the form (a+b)^n as well as to compute how many ways there are to pick k objects out of a set of n (ignoring order.

This triangle is computed by starting with 1 at the tip, then having each element be the some of its 2 parents (except the diagonal edges with only one parent, which remains as 1)

  1. Pascal's wager. This is a theological argument for a belief in god that goes "if you believe and god doesn't exist, nothing happens. If you don't believe and he does exist, you suffer for eternity. The logical choice is therefore to believe"

The natural conclusion is therefore to believe in all gods. If procelatizing happens in just the right way, and no one realizes people are talking about the same god, you end up with a triangle of polytheists, where the number of gods they believe in is given by Pascal's triangle.

Edit: gid -> god

[–] BradleyUffner 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

All hail Gid!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Gid is gud

[–] Crashumbc 1 points 4 months ago

Finally something to believe in.

[–] danc4498 1 points 4 months ago

Thanks! I wasn’t familiar with 1.