# Poll: Gamble on the afterlife.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 15, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871 "2006-09-15T19:16:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/1 "2006-09-15T19:16:40Z")
Disclaimer; I’m not using this as an analogy for any actual religion. This isn’t a trick, or anything like that, but a genuine question. Please don’t say “i’d pick this, but of course God exists/doesn’t exist” - I don’t care what you actually believe in this instance.
Ok, you’re walking along and suddenly, **Zog** the Holy Frog appears before you, and makes you realise it’s the ultimate god-type-thing. It makes you an offer; you can choose to either agree or disagree to it’s proposal.
If you agree, upon your death **Zog** tosses the Magical Coin of Decision (+5). If it lands heads up, you get eternal happiness in an afterlife (with your definition of happines). If it lands tails, you get eternal unhappiness (again, your definition).
If you disagree, **Zog** leaves and you will not hear from it again; when you die, you do not get the coin toss, but just cease to be - no afterlife one way or the other.
So, **Zog’s** waiting for your decision. Would you choose a 50/50 chance for eternal happiness, or choose the second option to avoid the risk of eternal unhappiness?
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/2 "2006-09-15T19:18:56Z")
50%??? for eternal unhappiness?
I’d rather have no afterlife then take that chance. Not like I’m going to know after all.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/3 "2006-09-15T19:21:29Z")
I’m sorry to say this sounds like a really bad version of ‘Deal or no deal?’ :eek:
But actually it’s easy for me.
I couldn’t be happy knowing that people were suffering eternal unhappiness. I consider Zog to be a b_st_rd.
Therefore I would either choose ‘cease to be’ or go for ‘eternal damnation’ and lead a revolt against the dictator.
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### Author:  [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/4 "2006-09-15T19:28:44Z")
Wow, that would sick. Do I have time to think about my decision?
F%ck it, I am a gambler. Flip the damn coin, Kermit.
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### Author:  [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/5 "2006-09-15T19:31:57Z")
I would choose ceasing to be since the prospect of eternal life is inherently depressing to me.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/6 "2006-09-15T19:53:17Z")
> [@glee](#):
>
> I’m sorry to say this sounds like a really bad version of ‘Deal or no deal?’ :eek:
>
> But actually it’s easy for me.
> I couldn’t be happy knowing that people were suffering eternal unhappiness. I consider Zog to be a b_st_rd.
>
> Therefore I would either choose ‘cease to be’ or go for ‘eternal damnation’ and lead a revolt against the dictator.
I second that motion.
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/7 "2006-09-15T20:31:25Z")
Is this a variation of Pascal’s Wager? That he could change the odds on the coin flip to something like 99/1, just by leading the moral life he would’ve led anyway?
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/8 "2006-09-15T20:41:55Z")
> [@glee](#):
>
> I’m sorry to say this sounds like a really bad version of ‘Deal or no deal?’
>
> But actually it’s easy for me.
> I couldn’t be happy knowing that people were suffering eternal unhappiness. I consider Zog to be a b_st_rd.
>
> Therefore I would either choose ‘cease to be’ or go for ‘eternal damnation’ and lead a revolt against the dictator.
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> I second that motion.
Consider yourself appointed deputy leader! 😃
We will have plenty of time to overthrow the accursed Zog…
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/9 "2006-09-15T20:45:15Z")
Kill frog. Steal coin.
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### Author:  [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/10 "2006-09-15T21:18:21Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> Kill frog. Steal coin.
That’s your answer for everything.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2006, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/11 "2006-09-15T22:12:13Z")
That’s not much of an answer for hypotheticals involving neither frogs nor coins.
Me, I’d French fry the fucking frog and melt the coin down for, I dunno, a Magic Tie Bar of Decisiveness or something.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/12 "2006-09-16T02:15:11Z")
I figure I’ll gamble on the coin toss. Worst case, tails…even if I can’t raise or join a rebellion of the unfair damned in Hell, I’ll just follow [Capaneus’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capaneus) example, as a show of defiance to Zog.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/13 "2006-09-16T23:12:04Z")
Any chance that after the coin toss, I can explain I’m a reform Zoggist and ask for best two out of three?
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/14 "2006-09-16T23:29:58Z")
Hmmm. Either I’d choose annihilation, or if I get to define “unhappiness, by my definition” then and there I say “Unhappiness of course including my good buddy Zog the Frog suffering ten times as much as I am. _Do_ be careful how that coin toss comes out, won’t you Zog old boy ?”
He probably wouldn’t let me though . . .
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### Author:  [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/15 "2006-09-16T23:46:24Z")
I wouldn’t be interested in an afterlife set up by such a bastard as this hypothetical Froggod, so I’d choose to end my existence. The actual odds of a 50/50 deal are of less interest to me than the worth of a diety that would propose or enforce such a “bargain.”
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### Author:  [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/16 "2006-09-16T23:58:28Z")
Actually, the whole hypo puts me in mind of Edward Gorey’s [_The Insect God_](http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/811.html), which ends:
> [@](#):
>
> They stunned her and stripped off her garments and lastly,
> They stuffed inside a kind of pod:
> And then it was that Millicent Frastley
> Was sacrificed to THE INSECT GOD!
The link isn’t quite the same without Gorey’s drawings, but oh well . . .
_:: Off to re-read “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” ::_
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### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/17 "2006-09-17T01:33:41Z")
No freaking way I’d take that chance. Cessation of existence all the way.
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/18 "2006-09-17T03:23:29Z")
> [@Jodi](#):
>
> Actually, the whole hypo puts me in mind of Edward Gorey’s [_The Insect God_](http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/811.html), which ends:
>
> The link isn’t quite the same without Gorey’s drawings, but oh well . . .
>
> _:: Off to re-read “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” ::_
Yet another reason I’ve always liked you :). _The Insect God_ and _The Gashlycrumb Tinies_ are personal favorites.
As for mighty **Zog** - does that +5 effect the odds of it landing on heads? If not, then nope. Ain’t worth the risk.
- Tamerlane
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-gamble-on-the-afterlife/372871/19 "2006-09-17T18:55:48Z")
Seems like I’m bucking a trend here… I’m curious enough about the possibility of an afterlife and squicked enough by the idea of non-consciousness that I’d probably take the frog up on the offer. (Also, the fact that I haven’t really experienced much hardship in my life might have to do with it.)
All the people talking about leading an anti-frog revolt reminds me of the story (probably Asimov) about a powerful immortal energy being who starts granting afterlives to the most intelligent living creatures it finds, duplicating them in energy when they die. Turns out that it wants to die but isn’t sure how, so it’s trying to make its immortal souls come to hate their ‘god’ (if they don’t start out that way,) so they’ll spend eternity thinking of ways to off him.
One of these eons, somebody will figure it out.