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Pascal's Wager Triangle

Title text: 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.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a BOT WHO BELIEVED THE N BOTS ABOVE HIM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.

The comic is a conflation of Pascal's Wager and Pascal's Triangle. It's structured as a layout that emulates Pascal's triangle, an infinite triangle of numbers where the top number is 1 and each value below is the sum of the adjacent number(s) above it. The second row has two 1s (each the sum of the single 1 above), and the third row has a 1 (the sum of a single 1 in the second row), a 2 (the sum of both 1s above it), and another 1, and so on. It plays important roles in binomial expansion, probability theory, and other areas of math. While Blaise Pascal did not invent the triangle, it is named after him (an example of Stigler's law of eponymy).

        1
      1   1
    1   2   1
  1   3   3   1
1   4   6   4   1
        .
        .
        .

Pascal's Wager is a philosophical argument proposed by the same Pascal. Essentially it says that if God exists, both the rewards for believing in God and the punishment for nonbelief are infinite; if not, the cost of belief and benefit for nonbelief are negligible. Therefore, if there is a finite possibility that God exists, however small, one should believe in God.

The comic merges the two: each Cueball is wagering his proof of a god or gods to the Cueballs below him, thereby creating Cueballs that believe in all the gods of the two Cueballs above him. In the second row, the two Cueballs each believe in one god, as intended by the original Cueball. However, in the third row, the Cueball in the middle interprets the two proofs offered to him as proving the existence of two gods. Theoretically, this expansion would continue for all integers as the triangle grows, giving rise to a belief in escalating numbers of gods towards the middle interior of the triangle. This is clearly not the intent of the first Cueball, who simply wagered the proof of his one god, but he has no control over the situation below him.

It is unclear why the Cueballs behave in this fashion, instead of treating all the proofs as proving the existence of the same god. Perhaps each one rewords their arguments for god(s) sufficiently to make them sound different than other gods. This is not without precedent; for instance, scholars of comparative mythology believe^{[actual citation needed]} that the religion of Proto-Indo-European peoples splintered into many disparate religions of Europe and West Asia.

This comic may be referencing a common counterargument to Pascal's Wager — that it works equally well for any hypothetical god which offers paradise for one action and damnation otherwise. This can even include hypothetical gods with contradictory criteria for entrance into paradise. In this case, the Cueballs apparently chose to believe in n deities to cover their bases.

The title text suggests that everyone should draw a proper Pascal's Triangle, since there is a possibility that God wants you to do so, and if they do then the benefits of pleasing God or the costs of displeasing God could be high, whereas if they have no such desire then there is minimal cost to drawing one anyway. The failing of this logic is that God may have a positive preference for you not to draw a Pascal's Triangle (though at least according to the Catholic Church this is unlikely, as Pascal himself is on the way to beatification.)

Pascal's Wager was previously mentioned in the title text of 525: I Know You're Listening.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[Cueballs, each holding some document, are shown in a triangular arrangement, with arrows pointing from upper to lower Cueballs:]

        C1
      C2  C3
    C4  C5  C6
  C7  C8  C9  C10
C11 C12 C13 C14 C15

[The pattern may continue downwards, off-comic, as the lowest rank are only half in-frame. Some of the following speech bubbles that are edge-adjacent are not entirely in view as they extend sidways off-pane, but are still given here in full.]

C1: Hey, you two below me! Here's a proof that you should believe in my god!

C2 & C3: I'm convinced! Hey, you two below me! Here's a proof that you should believe in my god!

C4 & C6: I'm convinced! Hey, you two below me! Here's a proof that you should believe in my god!

C5: Ok, I believe you both! Hey, you two below me! Here's a proof that you should believe in my two gods!

C7: I'm convinced! Hey, you two below me! Here's a proof that you should believe in my god!

C8 & C9: Ok, I believe you both! Hey, you two below me! Here's a proof that you should believe in my three gods!

C12 & C14: Ok, I believe you both! Hey, you two below me! Here's a proof that you should believe in my four gods!

C13: Ok, I believe you both! Hey, you two below me! Here's a proof that you should believe in my six gods!

[The speech bubbles of C10, C11 and C15 are not seen at all, but would all be a "my (singular) god" quote.]

[Caption below the panel:]

Pascal's Wager Triangle

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