Religious Singularity

A religious singularity occurs whenever a given belief system predicts infinite repercussions for a finite deed. An example is Heaven and Hell in Christianity (and a few other religions), according to which the finite deeds done on Earth have an infinite affect in the eternal afterlife. Such a singularity makes it worthwhile to maximize the chances of going to Heaven no matter what the impact is on quality of life on Earth because Heaven is eternal but Earthly life is finite.
Relationship to decision theory
In decision theory, the goal is to optimize the expected value of the utility for a given set of decisions. In other words, the goal is to make a choice that has the best "average" result. The term "Utility" simply quantifies different levels of reward and punishment.
Many decisions involve trade-offs between costs and benefits. For example, imagine that a worker who wanted to get a job needed to pass an interview. For simplicity sake, assume that doing well on the interview is the only thing that the worker needs to do to to get the job. The more this worker prepares for the interview, the better the chances of getting a job. Eventually, however, the cost of preparation exceeds the benefits. If the worker is so well prepared that there is a 99.99% chance of landing the job, the (finite) cost of preparing an extra hour would exceed the very small extra probability of getting the job (finite reward). A rational individual in this case would balance time preparing for the interview with likelihood of getting employed.
Religious singularities cause this rational cost benefit analysis to break down. In the case of religion, it is uncertain how much piety (devotion) God requires to go to Heaven. Being more pious and sinning less increases the likelihood of going to Heaven (reward), but costs more to do on Earth (punishment). Note that there are rewards on Earth to being pious, but that these are finite and will not exceed the costs of extreme piety. The fact that Heaven is an infinite reward creates problems. Imagine a priest who already spent a long time soul cleansing. This priest is almost sure to go to Heaven, but it is never possible to be exactly sure about God's intentions. Thus the priest would have a high chance of going to Heaven, perhaps 99.99%. If the priest were to soul cleanse more, the chance would go up, perhaps to 99.991%. Heaven has an infinite payoff, unlike in the job interview case in which the payoff was finite. Thus the extra 0.001% chance of payoff still constitutes an infinite return, so it is worth the finite extra cost of additional soul cleansing. Rational decision theory would say that no matter how small the increased chance of Heaven is, the extra "soul cleansing" is still worth it because of the infinite payoff. Thus, rational decision theory predicts devotion of one's entire life to going to Heaven, no matter what the costs are to the current life. This dilemma is a special case of Pascals wager.

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