I admit it. I bought 4 Mega Millions tickets. I got 2 for the Wednesday drawing and 2 for the Friday. “But Ben, why would you throw away 4 perfectly good dollars.” Two reasons:
1. There is not much risk on the front end. I will not miss $4.
2. The potential rewards are freakishly out of proportion to the risk.
The equation is slightly altered if there is an office pool. The basic math is the same, but there is an additional component of pain avoidance. Nobody wants to be the poor sucker left to manage the office after the pool of recipients has quit without notice.
I know that the odds are astronomical that my $4 will have any impact. But my lizard brain tells me, “Go for it.”
I wonder if this scenario has application in the religious realm. Specifically, I wonder how many people cling to a faith, not because they believe it, but because the potential rewards/punishments are also “freakishly out of proportion to the risk.”
I could easily turn the question back on myself. Am I taking a huge risk by not towing the evangelical line my four score and seven? I am laughing to myself as I write this. Because while the odds are astronomical, I believe there IS a lottery. I can make no such claim on any of many religious lines.
Hmmmmmm…
Gotcha. the reason I knew my ‘boyfriend’ was not really my boyfriend, He said he had to split the winnings 40 ways if they won. Uhhhhhh he never mentioned 1/2 of the 1 of 40 was me.Mmmm just one of several hints.
Hardly thought this was fair as I’ve said forever that if I ever won -we don’t have a lottery here in Nevada; apparently living here here is frightening enough. okay the legal gambling too,….
The point being I’ve always said if I won a jackpot of the Cali lottery I’d pay off my mom’s house, Demon Seed’s (daughter) tuition to Stanford and ALL of my GOOD friend’s debts he’d be included.
Clearly I’m not on his list.
NOTE: Miss R Now Available for a dinner date
Pascal’s Lottery Ticket. Love it!
I haven’t run into many just-in-case-it’s-real Christians. But maybe that’s just because such Christians are unlikely to profess their religion….
Lotto and Religion — they are all buying hope. They don’t care about the cost.