Pascal’s Wager Reconsidered

Every after-life posited
For the supernatural soul
Comes with a caveat emptor—

Some other after-life belief,
Somewhere, carries in its fine print,
Sometimes even in its headlines,

The warning that souls holding faith
In slightly different systems
Will suffer eternal torture—

There is no faith safe to believe
Without fear of some other faith.
So why not wager on nothing?

No pain, no suffering, unless
One of the fiercer faiths is right,
And only one of them can be.

With the way they keep splintering,
Preaching death to one another,
What are the odds any faith’s right?