Barry's Blog

March Madness. In nineteen days, sixty-three college basketball games will be played, all with a view to crowning the men's national champion in Atlanta on Monday evening, April 2nd. Over the years we have even coined the word, "bracketology," to describe the art of choosing who we like in the tournament.  NCAAsports.com has free March Madness On Demand streaming video. Sportsfan.com and cbs.sportsline.com lets you create a paperless pool, so you can personalize your site with team logo while tracking online the different outcomes of NCAA games.

The numbers are staggering. Seventy-nine percent of workers participate in office pools. It is estimated that it will cost employers $237 million for every 13.5 minutes workers spend on the Internet tracking games, and it is estimated that a total of $1.2 billion will be lost in worker productivity during the tournament. And get this. An estimated $4 billion to $5 billion wil be wagered on the tournament this year - about a third on the Internet. And when the games are over, distractions could linger. Apple Computer is offering condensed versions of each game through its iTunes Music Store for $1.99.

Who is the favorite to cut down the nets in Atlanta on April 2nd? USA Today analyst Danny Sheridan has listed North Carolina and Florida as 3-1 favorites to win it all. The Badgers of Wisconsin are 10-1 odds, and the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech are 200-1 favs. He has Jackson State listed as a 50 sextillion-to-1 favorite to cut down the nets. "In case you don't know, sextillion is a 1 followed by 21 zeroes," Sheridan said. "Somebody actually called me and said I shouldn't be bringing sex into the NCAA tournament." Hmmm...

In many ways, life itself is One Big Gamble. Nothing we do that is of any importance carries with it a guarantee of success, nor is there anything we can do to assure even our own personal safety and well-being from day to day. Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and Christian apologist, was the Danny Sheridan of 17th century France, and was known for his famous Wager Theory on God's existence. Pascal wrote: "Either God is or He is not. But to which view shall we be inclined? Reason cannot decide this question. Infinite chaos separates us. At the far end of this infinite distance, a coin is being spun which will come down heads or tails. How will you wager?"

Pascal believed that each of us is either betting for God,  that He exists, or betting against God,  that He does not exist, by the way we are living right now. To Pascal, there is no eqivalent to staying home from the track, or more apropos to March Madness, not placing our bets. There is no middle ground. In fact, we are already making one bet or the other. Which is it? Which should it be?

So what does the atheist "win" if he bets that there is no God, and he is right? Presumably, one "benefit" will be that he will never know that he was right. For if there is no God, there probably is no life beyond the grave, or existence of an individual's consciousness after death. True, he derives a certain freedom from his wager to do whatever he wishes. He can design his own lifestyle. But he is a person focused entirely on this world, since he believes it to be the only world there is.

For the Christian who bets on God, he will at least enjoy the satisfaction of finding out that he was right. And even if he were to "lose" the bet over whether there is a God, he would not be forced to face his error. For if there is no God and no existence beyond death, he could never have an experience beyond death that will disappoint. Atheism brings with it, at best, only a finite expectation, whereas Christian theism carries with it an infinite Expected Value. No disparity could possibly be greater. Therefore, says Pascal, a rational gambler will bet on God.

The Christian "wagerer" will conduct his or her life in such a way that he begins to gain a new measure of control over his passions, however imperfect that control may yet be. He will also have a transcendent and meaningful purpose for living, and a source of psychological comfort in this world of turnoil and pain. T.S. Eliot once observed, "I had rather walk, as I do, in daily terror of eternity, than feel that this was only a children's game in which all the contestants would get equally worthless prizes in the end." 

I think he was on to something...

For FinishingWell,

Barry Morrow