"religion is a mental disease"-Benito Mussolini
This quote epitomises the modern attitude people have towards all religions, what better ways are there to spend your time instead of being brainwashed in a Church on Sunday mornings, at youth groups, at Christian meetings at uni, during personal prayer sessions and bible reading? Life is too short to spend on such things, I wouldnt invest all the time I have in this lifetime in hope of a better afterlife since there is no guarantee of it, as in I have never see evidence of an afterlife after death, so I see religion as a mental disease and a huge gamble on life. Surely you can spend more time on self improvement and on helping the rest of the world rather than reading from an ancient bible that has no relevance to modern day life.
Talking as someone from an Actuarial background, Gambling is worthwhile on 2 occasions.
1. IF there is one outcome
2. If the expected[average] payoff is better than even, which is calculated from looking at the possible payoffs and their probabilities of occurence. Since the "afterlife" can never be proven or seen by the naked eye from people in our dimension, the positive payoff for this gamble is non existent. On the other hand, the negative payoff which is the valuable time consumption is very very real.
So I rest my case