Pascal’s Roulette

February 8, 2012 By Bengie 67 Comments



Filed Under: General, Humor 67 Comments
About Bengie

Graphic designer by day and web cartoonist "Bengie" by night; drawing a weekly webcomic every Wednesday for the Friendly Atheist blog. Bengie also 'arts' the bi-weekly audio comic Slackjaw: The Working Dead
www.slackjawcomic.com

  • Freelancer

    This definitely elicited a chuckle, if not a mild LOL.

    PS What is the symbol with the 3 triangles that are interlaced? (NOT the STAR OF DAVID). I Thought that was a goofy graphic design thing from the movie Kung Pow!

    • Michael

      I think that’s a variation of the valknut.

      Interestingly I bet on Thor and won, which ought to also have won given the valknut as a result. I suspect I know too much about minor religions to enjoy this game.

      • Michael

        Just to reply to myself, yes I took the time to confirm, that’s being used to represent Odin so it’ll be the Valknut. You can look it up on wikipedia.

        Hmm, a shame they didn’t follow the example of American Gods or Wikipedia could be on the list.

        • Trina

           Had to reply, since you mentioned “American Gods.”  I’m a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s books!

        • Trina

           Had to reply, since you mentioned “American Gods.”  I’m a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s books!

      • Michael

        Just to reply to myself, yes I took the time to confirm, that’s being used to represent Odin so it’ll be the Valknut. You can look it up on wikipedia.

        Hmm, a shame they didn’t follow the example of American Gods or Wikipedia could be on the list.

    • Michael

      I think that’s a variation of the valknut.

      Interestingly I bet on Thor and won, which ought to also have won given the valknut as a result. I suspect I know too much about minor religions to enjoy this game.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=593675787 Glenn Davey

    Really? We’re censoring Allah? On Friendly Atheist??

    • Anonymous

       I think the point is actually to poke fun at the insane censorship rule. After all this site has hosted at least 2 draw Mo days, so I’m guessing it’s not about fake respect (read: fear).

    • Anonymous

       I think the point is actually to poke fun at the insane censorship rule. After all this site has hosted at least 2 draw Mo days, so I’m guessing it’s not about fake respect (read: fear).

    • http://yetanotheratheist.com/ TerranRich

      It’s a censorship of Mohammed.

      • Mairianna

        No no no…There just isn’t enough room on the board for the 72 virgins!  

        • Michael

          Tim Minchin theorised that god might be a rude body part, in which case that might explain the censorship.

      • Mairianna

        No no no…There just isn’t enough room on the board for the 72 virgins!  

    • http://yetanotheratheist.com/ TerranRich

      It’s a censorship of Mohammed.

  • Geminichick

    Spun the roulette wheel about 8 times and didn’t get a match until I put my chip on the FSM.  This thing is brilliant!

    • Erik Cameron

      Probably coincidence. Had chip on FSM for many spins before winning.

  • Trina

    Thor came up on my spin – I had placed my chip on the icon at the top left of the gods to choose.  Was that Anansi, does anyone know?  

    • Anonymous

       Err the top left is the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

    • Anonymous

       Err the top left is the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

    • ANuRa

      The only Anansi reference I know is a spider god featuring the novels “American Gods” and “Anansi Boys”, masterpieces of Neil Gaiman…

      • http://conuly.livejournal.com/ Uly

        Anansi is an actual trickster figure popular in Africa and everywhere settled by Africans, so you hear Anansi stories in the Caribbean and in the US as well.

        Perhaps most famously, Anansi freed all the stories in the world. One of his ploys in that tale was a sticky doll made of honey, which the antagonist hit until he got stuck fast. You might be familiar with that story from Br’er Rabbit (where it’s a tar baby), but variants on that theme appear all over. It’s like in the west having a girl losing a very small shoe (Cinderella).

    • ANuRa

      The only Anansi reference I know is a spider god featuring the novels “American Gods” and “Anansi Boys”, masterpieces of Neil Gaiman…

  • Trina

    Thor came up on my spin – I had placed my chip on the icon at the top left of the gods to choose.  Was that Anansi, does anyone know?  

  • Beckie

    Is there a legend or key to what these symbols mean?

  • Beckie

    Is there a legend or key to what these symbols mean?

  • http://tch3.com C High

    My favorite is to not bet and spin the wheel. ;-)

  • http://tch3.com C High

    My favorite is to not bet and spin the wheel. ;-)

    • Michael

      It says it seems strange that the best winning move is not to play, but isn’t that true of roulette anyway?

    • Michael

      It says it seems strange that the best winning move is not to play, but isn’t that true of roulette anyway?

      • Anonymous

         You must be a youngin’! :)

        How about a nice game of chess?

        • http://squeakysoapbox.com/ Rich Wilson

          It’s a WOPR all right!

      • Michael

        Actually, with time to reflect, this analogy only holds up because the wheel doesn’t have a result where there are no gods.  If you add that option then people who worship a god are twice as likely to avoid punishment than an atheist. Oops.

        • Kevinc2793

          By what metric?

    • Tardistalk

      My favorite is to not bet but move the chip right to where the wheel is going to land, before it does.  Good thing there  are no deities watching me cheat. :P

      • Tardistalk

        In a way this also makes the game more fun/challenging. When you win, each god has an amusing sentence. This is now a Legit Game! :D

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HUHIP23UNZBYV737J7HU4Y2Z4Q GetReal

    LOL – So I suppose this is presently the top 20 most popular, out of thousands of deities made up over time.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HUHIP23UNZBYV737J7HU4Y2Z4Q GetReal

    LOL – So I suppose this is presently the top 20 most popular, out of thousands of deities made up over time.

  • Keith Collyer

    one spin, chose Freyja and won. Come the day, I’ll be saying “so long, suckers”

  • Keith Collyer

    one spin, chose Freyja and won. Come the day, I’ll be saying “so long, suckers”

  • http://twitter.com/TominousTone Tom Lawson

    I picked Satan, of course, and left it there. It took eleven spins, but I won!  Woohoo! Better learn the fiddle…

  • http://twitter.com/TominousTone Tom Lawson

    I picked Satan, of course, and left it there. It took eleven spins, but I won!  Woohoo! Better learn the fiddle…

  • Vukota

    Does anyone know what the “censored” god is? I spun the damn wheel about 30 times and gave up trying to land on it. Other than that frustration, pretty pretty cool.

    • Beckie

      That one is Allah. I’ve landed on it.

    • Beckie

      That one is Allah. I’ve landed on it.

  • Lyra

    I picked Kali randomly (I picked a symbol I didn’t know and put my chip on it). When i finally won (and it took some spinning), all I could think was, “Hmm, I’m not sure winning in this instance is a good thing . . . “

  • Lyra

    I picked Kali randomly (I picked a symbol I didn’t know and put my chip on it). When i finally won (and it took some spinning), all I could think was, “Hmm, I’m not sure winning in this instance is a good thing . . . “

    • http://conuly.livejournal.com/ Uly

      Would you rather LOSE? Against Kali?

  • http://conuly.livejournal.com/ Uly

    Fun fact: Blaise Pascal actually DID invent the roulette wheel! (Or so says google.)

  • http://squeakysoapbox.com/ Rich Wilson

    But I wonder how many of these are competing Gods.  As in, if you choose to worship Thor, and land on Odin, do you lose?  Or Horus/Ra (wasn’t Horus on there?)

    Am I taking it too seriously?  It would be nice to get a transcription of all of them without having to spin a gajillion times.

    • bengie

       Wish Granted!

      FSM – Ramen!

      Zeus – May he Strike down anyone who mentions  Jupiter.

      Dionysus – Jackpot!

      Poseidon – for a deity with  that stylish wet look.

      Athena – Triple Threat: Brains, Brawn and Beauty

      Odin – In matters of blind theology, the god with one eye is king.

      Loki – Eat your heart out, trickster gods!

      Thor – Who else on the wheel had a hit movie last year?

      Freyja – There’s a Rebecca Black joke here, but that’s so last summer.

      Brahma – For a guy with so many arms, he takes a “hands off” approach.

      Kali – Goddess of destruction. Just so we’re clear, that’s a skirt of human arms.

      Yahweh – Or the highweh!

      Jesus – Sin, repent, repeat.

      Satan – The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincingthe world that fiddles rock.

      Seraphim – They do All of the work with none of the credit. Why Not give them some?

      Allah – Not pictured.

      Osiris – His manhood was eaten by a catfish. some jokes write themselves.

      Ra – Haven’t you heard? The Bird is the word! (of god)

      Anubis – You ever notice what “god” spelled backwards is?

      Isis – The nile is flooded each year by the ideal mother’s tears.  So, eat your veggies.

      No Bet – A strange game. The best winning move is not to play.

      • chicago dyke, evolved outlaw

        that was hilarious. thank you. ‘eat your veggies,’ lol. 

  • Aguz

    Put my chip in the symbol for Venus, got Athena and won… How does that work?

    • Keith Collyer

      Same goddess. Venus was adopted by the Romans from the Greek Athena

      • chicago dyke, evolved outlaw

        no, Venus = Aphrodite and Minerva = Athena. 

        • bengie

           Should have gone with an owl.

  • Annie

    Fun!  Who is the purple grape guy?  I kept spinning to see which gods were represented, but landed an awful lot on Thor.

    • Katherine Lorraine

      Dionysus (Bacchus) – god of wine, parties, and debauchery. You land on him, the subtext says “JACKPOT!”

    • Aaron Foster

      Bacchus/Dionysus

  • chicago dyke, evolved outlaw

    Inanna, slayer of The Mountain and Lady of Battle, is very annoyed to have been left off and will smite you shortly. her sister Ereshkigal will hang you on a meathook in the underworld for all eternity after that. 

  • Anonymous

    Woot! I won with FSM.

  • http://www.facebook.com/AnonymousBoy Larry Meredith

    This still falls for the false premise that god will only reward you if you believe in/worship him (her? it? them?). Even if we were to hypothetically say that some higher power exists that rewards or punishes humans in the afterlife, there’s no evidence that belief or worship is a condition for reward. So even if that higher being did exist, atheists have just as likely odds of getting in to a “heaven” as anyone else. The wager is entirely pointless. It’s worse than the lottery or a roulette spin. No matter what you bet on,
    your odds are the same as the people who aren’t even playing.

    • Stogoe

      “no evidence that belief or worship is a condition for reward.”
      I hereby quote the entire Christian Bible at you as evidence against this ridiculous notion.

      • http://www.facebook.com/AnonymousBoy Larry Meredith

        and then I ask for evidence that the bible is true, you point the bible as evidence, and thus begins your circular logic.

    • Victoria

      Heck, there exists the possibility of a self-loathing deity who would eternally punish anyone who believes in it, therefore making it safer not to believe.

      • http://www.facebook.com/AnonymousBoy Larry Meredith

         Maybe there also exists the possibility of a deity that has moved on to overwatch much more interesting things happening throughout the universe and doesn’t give a fuck about sorting and accommodating us for an eternity. Why does it always have to be all about us? I wouldn’t blame that deity for thinking we were a bunch of needy pussies.

  • Sam Yates

    I’m rather disappointed by the lack of Great Cthulhu on this list.  The FSM is nice and all, but he lacks a certain majesty.