Bookmaker Paddy Power are currently keeping a book on the existence of God. The odds are, according to the book, 4 to 1, and the odds of Russel Brand, English comedian, actor, author, columnist and television presenter, being God is, apparently, 500 to 1. On their website, Paddy Power state that "scientific proof must emerge by 31st Dec 2009, to confirm his omnipresence in order for bets to be deemed winners".
It's not a coincidence that this bet emerges at this particular point in time. Recently, a fund raising, for the putting of adverts saying "There's probably no God" on London buses, started. Professor Richard Dawkins, famous atheist and bestselling author of The God Delusion, supports the campaign by matching any donations up to £5,500.
Also, recent developments in the Large Hadron Collider project seems to have given people hopes of obtaining proof of the existence of God. The odds of the bet have fluctuated in correlation to events in the collider project, maybe not too surprisingly, since the scientists of the project are hoping to find the so called God particle. However, proving the existence of the God particle would not equal proving the existence of God, and therefore, anyone taking the Paddy Power bet, in the hopes of winning on such an event, is mistaken.
So, without the hopes of finding a proof through the collider, we're back where we started in the ancient hunt for proof of God's existence. And I bet the odds against any proof to emerge within the next year are significantly larger than 4 to 1, no matter how likely the existence of God is deemed to be.
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External links in this post:
Paddy Power's website
Donation page for the Atheist Bus Campaign.
Other references:
English news site Telegraph.co.uk on the bet
It's not a coincidence that this bet emerges at this particular point in time. Recently, a fund raising, for the putting of adverts saying "There's probably no God" on London buses, started. Professor Richard Dawkins, famous atheist and bestselling author of The God Delusion, supports the campaign by matching any donations up to £5,500.
Also, recent developments in the Large Hadron Collider project seems to have given people hopes of obtaining proof of the existence of God. The odds of the bet have fluctuated in correlation to events in the collider project, maybe not too surprisingly, since the scientists of the project are hoping to find the so called God particle. However, proving the existence of the God particle would not equal proving the existence of God, and therefore, anyone taking the Paddy Power bet, in the hopes of winning on such an event, is mistaken.
So, without the hopes of finding a proof through the collider, we're back where we started in the ancient hunt for proof of God's existence. And I bet the odds against any proof to emerge within the next year are significantly larger than 4 to 1, no matter how likely the existence of God is deemed to be.
__________
External links in this post:
Paddy Power's website
Donation page for the Atheist Bus Campaign.
Other references:
English news site Telegraph.co.uk on the bet
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