Pascal’s Wager

"The words of one of my favourite poets, Ernest Dowson are quite often with me, 'Non sum qualis eram / I'm not as I was.' And though I know as well as you do that there is no point in arguing about the actual date or time of departure because I'd like to think there would be no good time - I hope you'll agree with that. Something I urgently thought I ought to do or say - and one mustn't supine or give into self-pity about that, but at this moment I have to say, I feel very envious of someone who is young and actively starting out in this argument. In the meantime, we have the same job we've always had; which is to say - as thinking people and as humans - that there are no final solutions, there is no absolute truth, there is no supreme leader, there is no totalitarian solution that says if you will just give up your freedom of inquiry - if you will just give up - if you will simply abandon your critical faculties, a world of idiotic bliss can be yours. We have to begin by repudiating all such claims; grand rabbis, chief ayatollahs, infallible popes, the pedlars of surrogate and mutant quasi-political religion and worship; the dear leader, the great leader, we have no need of any of this; And looking at them and their record, and the pathos of their supporters, I realize that it is they who are the grand impostors, and my own imposture this evening was mulled by comparison. Thank you very much."
- The last public speech by Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

There is a guilt reserved for that fearful day
In great denial, I will say no more
I will reserve that shame for the thieves and whores
In great denial, I will say no more

There is a silence that comes eventually
In great denial, I will say no more
There is no longer a reason to laugh
But what do you have to lose when you're pissing into the wind?