12th October 2025
I laughed and laughed! My life is ‘controlled’ by algorithms – and in this case they don’t make sense but I didn’t care. (I just saved £180 on my insurance!) My insurance premium rose over 12% and before the automatic renewal happened, I thought I’d enquire about the premium. There was little the lady on the phone could do she said as all the premiums were set by (the algorithms) but perhaps we could look at the policy details. So we did and I had a number of drivers on the policy from the previous year when we had loaned the car and when I removed one driver the premium went down! Fantastic! When I removed the next driver the premium went up – but not as high as the renewal quote. And that’s when I started laughing as I put Charlotte back on the policy so that my premium went down! I was so incredulous that I asked the lady to double check, then triple check, then email me a new insurance statement – which she did then and there – and sure enough, my insurance premium is lower because of some algorithm somewhere!
Who am I according to the algorithm? A worse driver than Charlotte? Is it because I am male, older than she is, drive more miles? Does the algorithm think that if she’s in the car with me, I’ll be a better driver – the so called civilising effect of women on men? What assumptions are behind my insurance premium calculations? How accurate are these assumptions in relation to the ‘real me’?
I don’t know the answers but as algorithms increasingly are used for information dissemination, and in such things as transportation and navigation, processing data, insurance coverage (obviously!), finance and banking, screening job applications, recommending judicial responses, even in the creative arts, so the algorithms reflect the biases, prejudices, favouritisms, of the programmer. The algorithms really are in their creator’s image! For good or for ill. (But then again what is good and what is ill here?)
Now if I was a peasant in a feudal society then it is the ‘algorithm’ of the landowner, liege, or lord that would impact me and determine my life, my livelihood, my family. I may live well or not. We all live in a world of rules and regulations, laws and licences, but increasingly it is the character of our leaders that is on show. We live in the time and place God has placed us – and under all sorts of ‘algorithms’ – but the key thing is to determine our identity – who are we? Who am I? Of course, we might add the question, ‘To whom?’. (Who says so?)
So who are we before God? Does he use an algorithm to deal with humanity in categories or does he take a more personal approach? In the story of Jesus, we encounter not just a generic God – an ‘algorithmic’ God – but a Being who speaks and says ‘I’ and ‘you’ to us! We encounter Jesus who says, “You’ve heard it said but I say to you …”. The cross and empty tomb proclaim a very specific God – and as Jesus walked along the road to Emmaus he effectively ‘preached himself’ through sharing the Law and the Prophets – hence we say today that hearing the Apostolic message and the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms is encountering Jesus … personally. At Lord’s Table, Jesus speaks to all who commune as he gives himself (his body and blood) in and with the bread and wine, “for you!”. There’s nothing ‘algorithmic’ going on here! Those in Christ can know who they are before him and in him – precious, unique persons loved by a gracious God – and now we’re called to follow Jesus in all the algorithms of this world – living in repentance and grace!
GS