[David Sklansky]

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Challenge still stands. You have to believe that you have NO chance of going to heaven unless you are sure that Jesus is the son of God but are almost certain to go to heaven if you do believe that. (This eliminates all Catholics and most Christians and Ken Jennings as well.)

50K bet on the math SAT taken in half the allotted time.

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You withdrew this a long time ago. Do you honestly not remember?

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I remember. But I withdrew it only because it was stirring up cans of worms about polygraphs and my motive for it was misunderstood. Not because there was an actual taker I was trying to avoid.

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David,

I have a friend who meets this criteria. He goes to church every Sunday and he believes that nonbelievers are going to hell. While he is nice to people of all faiths he honestly believes that those who do not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior are going to hell. He could easily pass the polygraph about his religious convictions.

He graduated with honors from Cornell Engineering. I am sure that he could score perfectly on the math SAT or any other math standardized test.

Just to clarify: You will pay for a polygraph test to be issued and then you will both take the math SAT in half the allotted time and if he scores higher than you then you will pay him $50,000? I have to assume that this is going to be a tie at 800 a piece 99.99% of the time because it is so simple to score an 800 on this test but if this is truly a freeroll I am sure that he will take it.

If you would like to change the test to a more difficult one where it is not guaranteed that both parties score perfectly then he would probably outscore you in that one too.

If this is the case please PM me so that I can put you in contact with him to set up a date for the tests.

It is ok if you want to back out of your offer again. I don't expect you to take the side of a bet where you can only lose.

-Steve

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He has to also believe that believers go to heaven automatically. Works mean nothing. (So Mormons are disqualified.) Plus you can't allow for belief occurring after you die, as Daniel Negreanu does.

The idea behind all of this of course is that any God who would send to hell pious, good people simply because they honestly believe that the Jesus story is a myth contradicts the idea of a just God. Doubly so if he will reward believing scoundrels. Thus very smart people are extrmely unlikely to believe such drivel.

I wouldn't be surprised if your friend actually doesn't meet the criteria. And if he does, the fact remains that even the best engineering students aren't likely to be in the top 10,000 smartest. And in my younger days I would have made the challenge one quarter of the allotted time and eaten him for lunch. But now I am old and senile so I have to stick to the original plan. But it was never designed to be a private affair.