Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Insurance Biblical??

What do you think?

Here's a quote from David Wells...
"What has replaced the idea of providence, of God's exercise of his rule in life, is chance and luck, and evil has simply devolved into bad luck ... perhaps ... the six hundred thousand who died in the American Civil War contribued much to the demise of the idea of providence ... However, it was not just war that contributed to this sense of the decentering of the world. Everything in the modern age seemed to point in this direction: why one person was unemployed and another was not; why one woman got pregnant and another did not; why some got fatal diseases in the prime of life and others did not; and why some struck it rich and others remained paupers. Life, it seemed, is just a large, complex, and unpredictable accident. This was the context in which insurance companies began to thrive in the nineteenth century . They developed actuarial charts in an attempt to handicap chance. But was the buying of insurance, this making of bets against the future, really different from gambling? It was hard to know. [Above All Earthly Powers pp. 241"]

A few quick things...first, we often justify paying so much for insurance because the possessions that keep us so in debt are so costly. Are we any different than bond-servants to these possessions? A slave serving created things? Second, what's the difference between us [who "NEED" to have insurance] and our ancestors who didn't? Possessions! Healthcare! Oh how we could use to live more simple lives... Lastly, insurance isn't all bad [actually good stewardship almost requires it in this country where you can sue for almost anything], but we can't complain about the state of gambling, because thinking rationally and honestly ... insurance companies have some of the same implications and effects on our society. Just some food for thought. Insurance is good but don't let it be your god!

Think about this the next time you say, "Good Luck!"

2 comments:

Josh said...

The difference between insurance and gambling is that you can't win with insurance.

Bryan L said...

True JWD. Insurance is only designed to return you to your original state, not better no worse.