Scenario: A person P on this planet has to decide between two options:
Be an atheist (A)
or
Be a theist (T)
What should his strategy be? should he go with the first option or the second one?
Assumption: Person P believes in rationality which implies that, he will go with that option which gives him maximum payoff ( return or gain or any kind of profit).
Solution:
Two possible conditions can be there
God Exists (GE)
or
God Doesn't Exist (GDE)
for each of the conditions and the associated options, there can be two kinds of payoffs:
He will get screwed by God: Screwed
or
He won't get screwed as there is no God: Not Screwed.
Payoff matrix:
Since person P is supposed to behave rationally, he will choose the dominant strategy to maximise his payoff (gain).
Dominant strategy: Game theory says that dominant strategy (option) is the one which is better than another strategy (option) for one player, no matter how that person's opponents may play.
In this case, strategy " Theist" has highest payoff as the outcome is "not screwed" in both the conditions.
Conclusion: One should always try to be a theist no matter god exists or not. Mathematically this policy will bring him the highest gain.
------Illustration coined by Prof. V.K.Handoo.
------Illustration coined by Prof. V.K.Handoo.
