Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper, you are live from the Path. You're listening to Live from the Path. My name is Ben Foose. We're joining you from the Pathway Studios here in Johnston Proper. And I want to welcome you to the program, especially if it's the first time that you've been joined us on the show. We are about honest faith, fierce grace, and donkeys. Yeah. I said like three people asked me about those donkeys this week. They seem indistinct. Do you think it's misleading that we put it in there? I mean, you look at the picture of this donkey on the thing, and we're talking about faith, grace, and donkeys. Do you think someone really thinks, hey, man, it's a livestock show?

I suppose so. We're talking about livestock. It's possible. I don't know. I feel like we were trying to encapsulate that Jesus people aren't – the culture of Christ is not exactly terrible, terribly boring. You know that you can get into the thought process of Jesus every once in a while and still talk about what you had to eat or what TV show you thought was funny. And I think that's what we were trying to get away from with the donkeys. I don't know if people know that, though. I suppose if I was just randomly looking at a website or something or at some piece of information and I read that, I'd be like, that's odd. See, now that would intrigue me. That should be the kicker. Faith, grace, donkeys.

Obviously, we like it. I might have to check it out. Anyway, hey, you're listening live from the path. Thanks for joining us tonight. And here's what we've got going on. We're going to be going through our – we're on week number eight of our GodIsImaginary.com proofs. These are 50 supposed proofs that God is imaginary. Seven weeks, God is still standing. I think so, yeah. But we'll keep plugging away at them, see how things are going on week eight. This week, proof number eight is think about near-death experiences. This one's going to be tricky because remember we were down at Spirit Midwest Music Festival last year and we got our own showcase.

You remember the three of us got up and talked for like a half hour or something to try to explain our show? And someone brought up the book. What was that book about the – Heaven is for Real. It was Todd Burpo. Something like that. He's a little kid or something. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, this ought to be interesting. I'm very interested. Yeah.

So we'll talk through that. Also, we got some Dear Life on the Path, Iron Sharpens Iron, and we're going to be going through that. Give us some advice. People need help. You know, see, this is what leads me to believe that your marketing techniques like the Fierce Grace whatever donkeys, maybe it's not going over well because this tink, tink thing that you keep trying to roll into the Iron Sharpens Iron, it's just – it's lame-o. Tink, tink. Double lame-o. I think – All right. Fair enough.

Also, you know, we had Carl from the Incredible Pizza Company scheduled to come in here, and I'm not sure what's happened to him. Good night. I hope he's not gotten himself lost in the forest. It's late. I fear that he's watched the show. That's a possibility. That's very possible. Is the door unlocked? Can he get in? Yeah. I think he can get in.

Now, I will submit, though, like the good Christian thing to do is to call and say, look, fellas, your show is kind of junk. Yeah. I just – I can't tie my organization to yours. Then I would, with a graceful heart, say, you're probably right. You're a pretty smart guy. Good decision. I got a list of people in a notebook somewhere that said these people have the gift of discernment. And people that call and say, hey, man, you know what? I can't come on your program. Jesus is the high bar and you guys are the low bar. I say, put that guy in the book.

When I need advice, I'm calling him. We know where to go. Yeah. So I'm a little disappointed, but I'm sure we'll run into him again sometime. I've heard good things about this. I was checking out their website earlier today, and it's a Jesus company. Like across the board, it's a franchise. It's a Jesus company. And the reason he came to our attention was is they offer pizza to churches. Yeah. Yeah, like because of the incredible pizza. I don't know exactly where it is here.

It's in Urbandale. In Urbandale. So like if you call them ahead of time and say, hey, look, we're bringing the church in to eat, they said, oh, you know, they'll give you free pizza. You know, you stick around and pay for the games or whatever, but like they'll feed the church after the – Why haven't we planned a party? That's what I'm saying. And this is a clever marketing ploy, right? And obviously he doesn't have tipped waitstaff. Otherwise, it would be a straight revolt. But other than that, I mean, that's a pretty – that's a great idea, and it's a good way to serve people. And I'm impressed on all occasions.

Well, I mean, it's like what? Do you have a room or something? I mean, how do they know who's getting free pizza? It's a buffet. You pay to eat. I've been in there before. I can't remember what I went there for. But like – so you pay right up front, and as soon as you're in, you're in, and you can eat whatever you want to. I got you. They got ice cream, and they got free sodas, and macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. Yeah, see, that sounds all right to me. See, it was pretty fun.

I mean, we'll have to call them anyway. I went go-kart. Hey, here's what we'll do. They have a go-kart? Yeah. Okay, here's what you do. You call them up like we're – because you're a representative of Pathway Church in some regard. Call them up and say, look, we're going to want this free pizza, and then we'll just record the phone call. And you just do a quick interview. Oh, yeah. By the way, what are you about? That's a good idea.

We'll do it slide-by. We'll stop inviting people on the show and just call them on the phone. Yeah. Act like we're trying to do – That way they don't have time to screen it. We'll send pants out with a video camera. Yeah, that'll guard the views. Pants, you're in, eh? Okay, pants can do it. All right, so anyway, that's what we've got going on the show tonight. We're going to give some advice. We're going to walk through our proof.

Also, hey, man, I came across this story. And the question is, does belief in heaven and a forgiving God lead to higher crime rates? You guys want to do this one? This is kind of cool. Okay. Okay. All right, here we go. Here's the story. Can we blame God's mercy for higher crime rates? This is the seemingly bizarre question that the New Scientist magazine is asking this morning as the outlet explores eternal damnation and the ways in which faith interacts with, complicates, and impacts criminal activity. The focus of the article is a new study from the University of Oregon in Eugene, which they spelled Yugen, which seems to show that there could be a correlation between belief in heaven and a forgiving God and breaking the law. Dr. Azeem Sharif, a psychology professor, and his team looked at global data that highlights people's beliefs about life after death and also looked at information collected by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The massive examination included 143,000 individuals, 1,000 short of the Jehovah's Witness heaven, living in 67 nations. Obviously, such a massive sample enabled the team to include a diversity of religious backgrounds. Obviously, is also spelled incorrectly. In most of the countries examined, it was more likely that people reported a belief in heaven than in hell. So most people believe in heaven versus hell as if they're exclusive. Right. Okay. From this, the researchers were able to examine the intensity and degree to which each nation's belief of heaven outpaced its acceptance of hell. The goal was to explore how differences in beliefs surrounding both postmodern localities impact crime. Interestingly, here's what the researchers found. Even after controlling for crime-related issues like gross domestic product, income inconsistencies, population density, and life expectancy, national crime rates were higher when nations believe strongly in heaven but have weak acceptance of a hell. Belief in a benevolent, forgiving God could license people to think they can get away with things, Sharif explains.

But he cautions that this speculation is preliminary and that causation hasn't yet been proven between religious beliefs and crime rates. Yeah, but that's a load of stuff here because they're just choosing to believe whatever they want. It's not a de facto religion that they're coming back to. You know what I'm saying? Like in a Christian religion or any belief in God really, I don't know, what's Muslim teach? What's the Muslim – is there a hell? Islam, excuse me. Yeah. I know there's a heaven. There's got to be – yeah, the infidels, I mean, and the great Satan and all that. Okay, so here's the thing, right? Like they're not subscribing to any certain religion and then breaking the law.

They're just picking whatever they want, parts of the religion that they choose to believe in, and then breaking the law. Like that doesn't really prove anything. Like obviously if they believed in God, then the religious doctrine, the religious book that they go to, you know, no matter what it is, that specifies that there is a hell. And they choose not to believe that there's a hell. Then that doesn't show that you have a religion at all. It just shows that you have an optimistic eye when it comes to reading religious texts. Well, yeah, so I suppose actually this makes a lot of sense, right? Because you're talking about people who are presented with a religion that believes in both – that demonstrates both heaven and hell, and you say, I only believe in heaven. You're a guy that's just going to do whatever he wants. Yeah. So, I mean, wouldn't that normally correlate to higher crime rates because you're just going to do what you want? Right.

You look at the prescribed way of living and you go, ah, I do what I want anyway. You're just a rebel. Yeah. You're a guy that looks at society and rules and goes, whatever, I do what I want. I don't know that that's – here's – why do these people make money? Seriously. Okay, now listen to the example – listen to their explanation. They said, when exploring the issue, the notion that a weaker belief in hell could spawn greater crime rates does make some sense. After all, acceptance that heaven exists indicates that individuals see themselves as being rewarded for their lives on earth. However, the central underpinning of an unpleasant place such as hell is that people will be punished for poor behavior on earth. If a culture embraces the former, not the latter, then the only thing its inhabitants can look forward to after death is guaranteed pleasure. Now, that doesn't really make any sense though because like the – they said acceptance that heaven exists indicates that individuals see themselves as being rewarded for their lives on earth.

But are people really thinking that they're being rewarded for their crime on earth with a visit to heaven? Now, excuse like convoluted thoughts like aspects of what I would say the Muslim faith is where like they think that they're doing a good thing. But like generally speaking, no one is stealing a Heath bar from the get-and-go and saying the Lord will bless me in heaven because of it. Streets of gold will be mine. Crunch, crunch, toffee bar. I don't know. You find that a lot in like the old school mafia type relationships where they're like taken from the rich, given to the poor. I support the neighborhood. And like they find that they have a deep respect for the – most of it were Catholic church back in the day. You know what I'm saying? Like they tie themselves very heavily to a religion and then ignore it completely. Yeah.

Well, I suppose they didn't tell you what kind of crime it is either. Like I suppose it could be – I mean we're talking jaywalking because no one gives a crap. Right, yeah. That's kind of a big deal about what level we're talking about. Maybe if we're like organized murder. Murdering people, yeah. Oh, this is going to get me a ticket to heaven. I don't know. I don't know who am I to decide what laws are important. I don't know. Jesus said, you know, obey the jurisdiction that you're under.

I've put the governments in place. You do what you're told. It seems kind of weak to me. Here's – okay. So I did some study on health this last week. I was talking to a guy that I'm in an LTG with our whatever, our Bible reading class and our accountability deal. And we just got to forego our normal whatever, 30 chapters of reading and just do a Bible study on hell. We decided that neither one of us do much in way of topical Bible study. And so we did it. And what we were trying to – we were trying to come to grips was is exactly, you know, what the Bible says about it and where you can, I don't know, have your own ideas and where you can't. You know, where you can – you have an imagination without calling it gold, you know, or just have, you know, some facts on it. And it was actually a very interesting Bible study.

I'll tell you one thing. Reincarnation is out. That's out. Hebrews puts the straight stomp to it. It's not allowed. It's appointed for a man once to die. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And then for judgment. Yeah. And so – but one of the things that, like, I've run into this in the last couple, three weeks is people's version of hell. And they kept saying, like, I see hell as just as a separation from God.

I said, I think the Bible will support that. I believe that's true. But that's all they see out of it. You know, they said that, like, there's no – Like, what they say – and here's the thing. I don't know why. I don't know why people are – they're like, the separation from God would be terrible. And I said, I agree, but, like, that's just not how the Bible describes it. And really, if that was it, then, I don't know, how he explained it to me is like there's an ocean, right? Like a big ocean of people in heaven, and you were never a part of it. And finally you come in, you die, you go into this ocean, and then you're like, oh, I get it now. I get it.

This whole thing makes perfect sense to me, community and love, and I totally get it. And then God plucks you out of that ocean and puts you in a test tube over by yourself. And that's how you're going to spend eternity. That's kind of – You know, it's deep. You know, given that, it's totally metaphorical. But, like, I feel like you're ignoring, you know, biblical instruction on it. Like, Jesus refers to, you know, cutting your arm off, getting your – you know, if it causes you – if your eye causes you to sit and plug it out so your whole body doesn't have to go to hell, you know, to the fire. Yeah, it's so bad, do whatever it takes to not go there. Right, and, I mean, Jesus himself is like, eternal fire, eternal fire, eternal fire, you know. Yeah, we'd be a nation of teeth.

Yeah, exactly. Like, it's there over and over again, and they said, well, it's really just a metaphor because we can't understand the intense burning of the separation from God. And I'm like, you know, here's the thing. Like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know that I care. Like, I care, but, like, the separation from God and the burning eternity, it's kind of the same to me, you know. I don't know that you have enough biblical facts to go on, hey, it's just a separation and that's it. But really, like, when it boils down to it, I just don't know that I care enough to put a whole lot of time and effort into it. Like, I get it. Whether it's fire or just separation from God, either one is terrible.

You know, either one is just a bad way to spend eternity. So you just as well do your best to avoid it. But I don't know, like, I've had some real misconceptions about what heaven is, how you get there, and what hell is in general, you know. And what it turns out, I'm not so near as concerned about what hell is as I am, you know, that you know how to get into heaven, you know. And I've talked to multiple, like, two guys this week that have thought, they look at heaven and they go, well, you just keep getting another chance. So let's say you didn't do well this time. You come back around, and it's finally when you're good enough, then you go into heaven. And I'm like, you guys read the Bible. Which Bible are you reading? Yeah. That is just not how it was explained. That just doesn't even make sense because if that's the case and we're, like, all working our way toward heaven, we're all at different levels and different, different, we've advanced different amounts.

Wouldn't we have a little bit of back knowledge? Wouldn't we be able to come into life going, oh, man, that last life, you know, when I was a frog, you know, I just wasn't really acting very well. I mean, we'd have, like, something to learn from it. Right. I didn't come into this life thinking, well, I have some things I've learned from my last life, so therefore I can improve this life so I can jump up another level. So, I mean, it was almost comical because one of the things he said was, is he goes, you know, and I believe that's true, too, because people have called me an old soul. And I said, people have called me a lot worse. That's it? That's all they got? I hope that whatever this guy's opinion is, is the truth, right? And so, like, just because someone looks at you and goes, you've got an old soul, that doesn't really mean that you've been reincarnated six times and now your soul has gained knowledge, you know? That's awesome.

And the funny part is, is the proof guy that we talk about, the guy with 50 proofs of why God is imaginary, he's against old souls. He looks at everyone before us and goes, they're dullards. They don't know anything. You know, their intelligence is nothing. If you don't live in this day and age, been on an airplane and looked at a BlackBerry, you don't know anything, right? And so, but the guy that I talked to was like, I'm an old soul. And, you know, I've just, I've accumulated this love for everybody over the last six lifetimes, you know? And I don't know. It's funny because, like, one of the proofs kind of hit me when we were talking about it when he goes, look how ridiculous the Santa Claus story is and then look how ridiculous your religion looks to people who don't know it, right? And it makes so much sense to me, but, like, when I hear myself explaining it, I'm like, that's probably not going to go very well. And, you know, it's not my job to water down the gospel at all, but, like, it is my job to try to meet them where they're at, you know, because Christ did that for me. And so, you know, that's the best I can do.

And so if you guys are just joining us on the chat, thanks for hanging out, by the way. We have some issues with the video feed, but I think we're back up and rolling. Excellent. So the conversation has kind of spawned out from an article about a guy talking about whether a belief in heaven and a forgiving God leads to higher crime rates. They did a study, and they said although they don't have a causation, there is a correlation to people that believe in heaven but don't believe in hell, and those countries that incline towards that also have higher crime rates. And it kind of brought on the thought about not believing in hell or concept of the belief of hell. Yeah. I thought it was an odd article. I mean, it just didn't make sense to me. It didn't – the dots didn't quite connect. I don't know where – seriously, I don't know where people get the great money to do this. I listened to a guy today on the radio that was talking about how he always wanted to do deep-sea exploration for Amelia Earhart's records.

Oh, yeah. Oh, like the crash, right? He goes, but we've never been able to do the ultrasonic deep-sea remote camera vehicle until we finally got enough money. And so I just thought, who's donating money to this? I mean, who sits at their home and will wish I could find a team of scientists to dig up Amelia Earhart's remains? That would be really cool. Because it's just tearing me up in my house. I just can't take any more. And I just – I don't understand. The scientific community just blows me away. Yeah, yeah. Okay, hold on a second.

So I got some more information on this study. Participants were given the opportunity to commit petty theft with no chance of being caught by lying about the number of anagrams they had successfully completed. Sharif's team found that those participants who had written about a forgiving god claimed nearly $2 more than they were entitled to under the rules of the game, whereas those in the other groups awarded themselves less than 50 cents more than they were entitled to. Note, everyone cheated. Everybody. Yikes. Nobody played the game straight. Yikes. When you take all of this research together, it does start to build a stronger case. It is unclear the degree to which these lab-based psychological experiments translate to large-scale societal effects, but according to Sosus, such a link is at least plausible.

It's just something – they wouldn't have to pitch and say, here's what we want to do. First of all, like what – let's say you find this is true. People believe in a forgiving god and then they commit more crimes. What are you supposed to do with that information to begin with? And so – Yeah. Let's – You're experimenting is like, hey, I just like to ask questions. Oh, that was interesting. Like what a waste of your time. You know what? Yeah.

My mind kept kind of going back to Paul, the apostle, talking in Romans, you know, shall sin increase so that grace may abound? Yeah, by no means. Look how awesome God's grace is. The more I sin, the better he looks because he keeps forgiving me. That explains the religious people at $2 more of anagram. There must be something about – I mean, because why would Paul write that unless it was an issue? People were going, hey. It's weird you say that because this came up in a conversation two weeks ago with someone. And I – like I've read that a bunch of times and I keep thinking, who would think that? I know. It's like, hey, God is great.

He has plenty of mercy. I'm going to do bad stuff so that people can see how great he is. Like seriously, what kind of logic is that? Let's just see how far his mercy goes. Were you going to forgive this? I mean, what if he doesn't? I mean, he's going – Yeah, that's – well, I mean, I don't know. He set up the statue, right? He can do what he wants. Exactly. Like I don't know that I would gamble.

I mean, as far as our current setup, as it stands, as the Bible reads, grace will cover it, right? But like – I mean, he's God. He can kind of say, look, I've had enough. You know, we're done. We're done. You know, maybe that's – how many times I have talked to someone who likes it in a marital crisis, you know, and is a believer. And as a believer, I'm going, okay, you believe in God? Yeah, yeah, okay. Well, God says don't do this. And they'll sit there. I don't know how many times I have people say, well, God will forgive me. I'm going, you are going with your eyes wide open into complete rebellion against God, assuming, ah, he'll forgive me.

That's a whole different ballgame than, ooh, I messed up. I slipped. I fell to temptation. Right. That's like – and I sit there with my mouth open going, I don't know I'd do that with my faith. Yeah. Here, God, let me slap you in the face. Yeah, you'll forgive me later. Yeah, sometimes it seems like it's – for some reason it actually occurred to me today, like all the advice that we give out on marriages and, you know, sticking it out and you're in a contract with God when it concerns your marriage, right? Ding, ding. Yep. And for some reason, like it occurred to me, like, what if my daughter who turned 25, you know, came to visit me and her mom and she's like, my husband, he's wailing on me, you know, or, you know, he leaves me by myself.

He's gone for three weeks at a time. He's got nothing to say to me. He's mean to the kids. You know, let's say he didn't hit me. He's just a jerk, you know. And like, boy, I mean, your faith has got to be – it's got to be rooted. It has to be rooted to answer – to be able to handle that. You know what I'm saying? Like I can't imagine looking at my own daughter in the eye and saying, you've got to stay. Well, honey, suck it up. You've got to stay, you know. But like seriously, I mean, that's a tough conversation.

And you better have one hand on the Bible and one eye closed while you're praying trying to figure out, you know, give me the strength to say this because you want nothing more to grab your kid. Grab your grandkids and say, you can live here. I love it. I can show you love. We love people here. And there are times – it really depends on how deep you're going here is, you know, if it's truly an abusive situation, you know, you've got to get out of that. But there are times, there are many times I have counseled people to say, you know what, you need to just separate. You need to lay down the law. I always recommend – boy, this book's probably 30 years old now. I don't know how old it is. Dobson, Jane James Dobson's Love Must Be Tough. And say, hey, read that book.

There's probably some more modern ones now that are along the same line, but I honestly don't know because that one's so good. I have an old soul. I have an old soul. My third life that worked really well. But, you know, his whole premise is you leave and say, here's the deal. You're not – you know, here's what – you need to earn me back basically. And it's not divorce. I mean the whole thing is you don't get divorced. You separate. But the purpose of we need to start dating again because this obviously isn't working. And it's so easy for me to say, you know, I have a good relationship with my wife. Well, that's kind of where I was coming from too.

Like I thought about it and I thought, you know, like I couldn't think of any reason on – you know, imagine a divorce in my future, you know, because, I mean, we work at our marriage. And, you know, sometimes it just stinks and sometimes it's fantastic, but it's work either way, you know. But, like, I don't know what it feels like to be in that situation where, you know, someone promised that they would take care of you and someone promised they would stand by you and support you and walk with Christ with you. And then they didn't. You know, they lied, you know, and you're supposed to look at them and go, well, he's had a contract. Right. They lied and they don't care. Yeah. It would be the difference if I lied because I had the intention of doing the right thing and then I stink and I didn't do the right thing and I'm trying to do something different. Right. If he, like, came in every day and, like, threw a vase on the floor and said, so grace may abound. And then walked out again, you know.

That's a real jerk, you know. He knows enough about the Bible to be really dangerous. You're listening to Life in the Path. Thanks for joining us tonight and every Monday night from 10 to 11. We are broadcasting from 10 to 11 p.m. The show is going to an hour. Mostly because of the e-mails we were sent. Yeah. Everybody goes to sleep. Yeah. Why would they do that? So grace would abound.

Yeah. So grace would abound. We kept forgiving him. Grace stopped abounding for our 11 to 12 hours, so we're just going to cut it. And the thought really here is that to give you guys a shot, we, you know, I don't know if we talked about this on the air so much, but we broadcast at the time that we do, Mike and I both have young kids and we'd like to be home to put them to bed. And, you know, there's various things take us out of the house, hit and miss, and if that's Monday was a night where we both could be home and help put the kids to bed, and so we wanted to do that. And so to do that, the kids go to bed at, you know, an iffy hour, 8, 9, whatever. But that gives us time to get in here and fire up the show at 10.

So that's why we broadcast when we do. And we're going to go from 10 to 11 and try to give you a really great show in that one hour and encourage you to hang out. Should I start next week? It's this week. This was the week, Dan. Oh! We've got to reel it in. Bummer. Well, I hope they have grace. So you guys can hang out. You can still get to bed at a relatively decent hour.

You can listen to the whole podcast. So that's the goal. We'll start seeing you from 10 to 11. And thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging out with us. All right. Well, so I don't have any country to move to or anything where I can commit more petty crime. Nah. I mean, did he say America was part of that study? No, he didn't really say. Yeah, of course not.

Yeah. All right. Hey, well, let's get to the proofs. Here we go. So GodIsImaginary.com, we're on proof number eight. We're walking through the – it's a 50-week journey on the 50 proofs that God is imaginary from this fella. This guy also runs the site GodHatesAmputees.com. Seriously? Uh-huh. Yeah. And basically, the thought behind this one is if – fine.

You think God can do miracles. How come he never heals an amputee? He never regrows an arm. He heals things that otherwise you could attribute to medical something. Like, a blind man sees. He still had eyes there. He didn't grow an eye. So, like, but you chop off a guy's arm and his arm never grows back. It must imply that God implicitly hates amputees. Hold on. Does he also own the site EvolutionHatesAmputees? Because I don't see the evolutionary molecules growing a new arm either.

You know what I'm saying, Mr. I-want-to-grow-things-out-of-nothing? Well, but he's not – evolution doesn't claim to. I think he's saying that – although God didn't claim to either. No, it doesn't say in the beginning God decided I regrow arms. Just for a heads up. What the Bible basically says is I'm God. I do what I want. Oh, you know what? Sorry. I didn't read this right. Why does God hate amputees.com? Oh.

Oh, he wasn't saying it was deaf. No, it's the same thing. It's implied that he does. So if you go, why does God hate amputees.com, why won't God heal amputees, this is the most important question that we can ask about God. What? Do you think this is his full-time job to keep up on these websites? I think he's a bitter, angry man. Oh, hey, man. Shoot. Okay. I'm not – here's what we'll do.

We'll talk about this next week because the guy at the GodinScience.org guy – He's awesome. – has gone through and kind of tried to answer this. Okay, cool. And he's probably way better than we are. Oh, yeah. Okay, so – Do you think so? What's the website, the evidence for God? It's GodinScience.org. Okay, this guy – I mean, he has like some kind of creepy Michelangelo-looking fella on his website, like right at the top.

It's kind of cheeseball-looking, but he writes some very excellent articles on GodinScience. Same thing with – what's that other place that we look at? The poached egg. Yeah. He's a huge apologetics man, and he's very, very good information. Very, very good. Cool. Yeah. All right, so here we go. Here we're looking at number eight. Here we go. Think about near-death experiences.

Many Christians find the phenomenon of near-death experiences in these to be proof that God, in quotes, and the afterlife, in quotes, exist. As described – an NDE contains these characteristics. The sudden awareness that one has had a fatal accident and not survived, an out-of-body experience, a sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, a pleasant feelings, calmness, a sensation of moving upwards through a tunnel or narrow passageway, meeting deceased relatives or spiritual figures, encountering a being of light or a light, possibly a religious figure like Jesus, God, Buddha, being given a life review, a feeling of being returned to the body often accompanied by a reluctance to return. Things like heart attacks, near-drowning, and severe loss of blood can all trigger near-death experiences. NDE's have been experienced by thousands of people and have been widely cataloged in

a variety of books. Many of these books are spiritual or religious in nature. What is not mentioned is that there is a drug called ketamine that produces all of the elements of an NDE when it is injected into normal, non-dying people. In other words, an NDE is a natural, chemically-induced state that the human brain enters. The trigger for an NDE is a lack of oxygen to the brain and body. If you read scientific papers, you find that there is completely chemical and completely non-spiritual reason for the features of every NDE. Sufficient proof that there is no God? Actually, I agree with that whole thing. Yeah. I've never been that impressed with near-death experiences.

Yeah, I mean, he just, I didn't prove anything. I mean, I totally agree with him. You can't base your faith in God on an experience, and he's talking about an experience. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to risk eternity. Now, wait a minute, Dan. You couldn't base your faith in God on experience. Paul was blinded. That was, the experience was he was blinded and taken down to the next town. Right, but then he had a conversation with Jesus, and that's what turned him. He wasn't like, I'm just saying, you can't go like, oh, that's a cool sunset. Oh, a sunset.

God loves me. I mean. These are all facts, Dan. I'm missing out where you're following. I'm just saying, so if it's a rainy day, does God not like you all of a sudden? Because I'm experiencing, oh, no, grace may abound. I'm feeling down today. It rains today. God wants to know why you hate rain. God hates me. You thought everybody loved rain. That's a bad one.

I mean, that's his weakest one yet. I don't even, it wasn't even one. Yeah, it really isn't. I mean, there just wasn't anything there. I don't know anybody that claims that near-death experiences are a production of Christ. I don't know anybody that says that. I really, I've never read those books because I just think they're not scriptural. I mean, there might be some scriptural content to it or something, but it's not, I'm not going to base my life on some dude's experience in an emergency room. Here's the thing. I don't, I can't say whether they're true or not. Like, I don't, they could be, you know, some of them are flatly not, like, they claim some

things that are not biblically sound. Right. Some people are like, I went up there and I saw, you know, a gal that I've never seen before, and I told whatever my parents about it when I got back, and they're like, that was your sister. She died when you were like two. You know, we've never told you that. You know, that stuff's really creepy to me. And if it's not Jesus, it's something else. And that's more and more creepy, right? So, I don't know whether to say that's not Jesus. I don't know.

It could be. I don't know. You know, it's none of my business, really. But like, I mean, when a flat comes out, like, there's not even evidence of God working that way. Like, in the Bible, and God works in a lot of ways. He writes with a finger on a wall, you know, to scare people. And he floods the entire planet. Just to scare people. Hey, you. I've been reading through Daniel, and I'll tell you what, that teckle, teckle, many parcels. That's kind of cool.

That's a creepy time. That's a creepy time. Don't mess with the temple glasses. Here's the phrase that I like. You've been, what is it? You've been put against the weight of measure, and you've been found wanting. You know, like, I put you up against something, and I'm not impressed. You're not measuring up. I'm really disappointed. So disappointed, in fact, I'm not even going to send a whole hand. The Bible just says fingers, right? I'm just going to send a finger-like operation to write on walls to creep you out.

How do you think that, did they hear it? Was it like, you know? I mean, how do you suddenly go, hey, there's a finger on the wall? I've always wondered about that. Well, and those temples were made of rock. Yeah. You know, like, it was engraving rock. You know, like, I don't know. That would be very cool. Same finger that did the Ten Commandments? Could be. Anyway.

Call the finger. I digress slightly. But as far as the near-death experiences go, well, first of all, this proof isn't a proof of nothing. And as far as the near-death experiences go, you know, it's one of those more charismatic parts of our faith that I don't have any experience in, and I don't know one that has experience in. I'm not going to say that it's true or not true, but we certainly – it is not a flagship of the Christian faith. The flagship of the Christian faith is you're a sinner. You need a Savior. Jesus provided the sacrifice for you. That's it. And I think the broad point here is it's completely unnecessary for the salvation story, right? It's not a special way in which God reveals himself to you.

He's done that. He's provided a Bible. He's been here and gone already. He's coming back. It is not needed for your story to turn the world with it. Like, he's using you as a special prophet of him because of your near-death experience. Right. And it does not – neither prove him nor disprove him. Yeah. It's just an experience. Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, like, that ketamine thing is true.

Think about what people do to themselves, even with drugs. It's how your body reacts to chemical imbalance or lack of oxygen. It's why people are always choking themselves and trying to get it on with somebody. Like, they just make stupid decisions. Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, that was unnecessary. I have heard about that. I don't get it. I don't know. People are always doing it. Well, honey, it's Wednesday. Yeah, they are.

Get the belt. That's what happens. It's on the news all the time. That guy from Kung Fu had it. I heard it. David Carradine. Danging in a closet or something. I was like, dude. Okay, let's turn this thing back around. I don't get it. There's some things I don't get and I don't want to get. I'm just saying, like, people do weird stuff because their body will react to it.

He cuts off the oxygen for some reason or another. Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, like, the body will do that. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that that does happen. Like, your body's starting to shut down and your mind starts going widely. You start seeing a bunch of lights and stuff. Cones and rods don't work anymore. I don't know. It seems reasonable to me. And I think he's under the broad sweeping miscategorization of God. And this happens a lot with people who don't know God. But, like, they think that God and science are fighting.

Like, they're just – there's nowhere where they meet and they're always going to be wrong. If you choose God, then you can't choose science. And I find that to be so false it's not even funny. I find out that's – I really – this is just my opinion. But, like, I really feel like most of our youth get deterred away from God because the church is so hard-nosed about fighting science. And science is so hard-nosed about fighting God, they say, whatever. And they get the science a lot more. You know what I'm saying? And the school's got them for eight hours a day for five days a week. You know? And instead, they show up to youth group and we're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. When really, we're just probably not educated.

Most of those are probably – yeah, yeah. Yeah, most of this sounds right. Now we've got to look it through a discerning eye. We've got to put it up against the Bible. But, like, God and science are not at war. Like, science is just how God did stuff. And there's people out there that are researching it to find out how he did it. And that's a very cool profession, frankly. And we'll talk about that too next week is they're supposed to have a press release on this – the God particle, this Higgs-Boson collider. And it's an interesting thought because it's supposed to be the base work for what had to exist for the Big Bang to have existed. So the question is, like, does this mean anything? Does this mean anything to what – to how we look at the world and how it was created and God's hand in it?

And so we'll talk a little bit about that next week because I think it's an interesting discussion. It doesn't mean what – I think a lot of the way the press will cover it makes it seem like it means. But it's good to – you can start reading it and then completely bow out because it's a lot of, like, scientific kind of babble. Right. But we'll go through it just a little bit next week and see if we can get you up to speed on the Higgs-Boson God particle because there should be a pretty big release, I think, yet today or tomorrow talking about finding the God particle. We're all about defending your faith, right? If you have a faith and a grace, then you should be able to explain yourself. Right. You're not going to find God wanting, right? Like, you're not going to say, oh, the Higgs-Boson has been put on the scale and God is wanting. Right. That's not the way it works.

True. So if God is who he says he is, this has to fit within the confines of what he's done. Now, listen, when we talk about defending your faith, right, like, just because you don't know the answer right now does not mean God has failed you. You know what I'm saying? It just means you need to have some research to do. It means you don't know, right? It doesn't mean God does not know. It means you don't know. You have some research to do. Find out what they're talking about. Find out what they're asking and find out if it bounces biblically. There's a ton of part of science that totally – I mean, it meshes in.

Like, the Bible has explained it, you know, and there's no problem there. So don't – you know, as soon as you hear science and God, don't just throw your hands up at the air and go, I don't believe that. Huff, huff, huff, huff, huff. You do believe that. God said you do. Look it up. Inform yourself. Get some information. And here's the weird thing is that, like, the study of science is ultimately the study of God. They just don't realize it. Like, they're attributing that work to something else. But, like, the things that people will look at and say these two things are not consistent, they're studying God.

They're just studying his work, and they're looking around and seeing what he has done. Now, can you imagine the scientific advances we would make if they would just say, God did this, right? Like, then you could say – then you could start to put it together where, okay, here's where we're at. If we work under the assumption that God did this, then we could fill in the middle. You know? Yeah. Let's pretend there was a designer and there's a purpose for this as opposed to a random act that it just happened. Right. Think how much more we can know. There must be some purpose. This is part of a puzzle. Where does it fit?

And how does it work? I think that would help us a lot. Yeah. I feel like we could learn a lot more. Yeah. Man. What? That was kind of creepy. Why are you doing that to me? What do you mean? Why do you make me look like an elf? The camera has three inches.

You're listening live from the path. Thanks for joining us, Chad. Thanks for hanging out so far. So what's our final thoughts on our proof is that it's not really a proof at all. That's just kind of weird. It's just kind of informational. Here's the thing is when I was listening to you read it, I'm like, I didn't know I thought that. I didn't know I thought near-death experiences were a product of Jesus. This is new to me. As a matter of fact, the Bible actually is pretty clear. Death and not death, right? Death risen.

I don't remember any near-death experiences. That's more of a human condition trying to hold on to one or the other. Well, yeah. It's in Luke where he talks about the chasm. There's a chasm here and people don't cross back from it. You know what I'm saying? Once you're in it. Unless something fabulous like Lazarus, but even then, the story wasn't about, oh, I saw these bright lights. The story was, look what Jesus did. He could bring the dead back. Right. Even after four days.

Lazarus was probably mad. I was like, man. Ah, I was there. I don't know. If you really know who he is, I don't think you get mad at him. Just like, maybe disappointed. Yeah. Yeah. Jesus, can you send me back now? They get it. I don't know. That story was necessary so that God could put in, he stinketh.

Into the King James Version. There's two short sentences. Jesus wept and he stinketh. Yes. Right after that was, and then I buried the Shroud of Turin right behind this. Blah, blah, blah. 70 centimeters from here. Years later. This will be great. It'll be an amusing end. All right. So we're going to say, we're going to toss this one as a, this really isn't even about

God. He's just arguing whether people have near-death experiences. We're on number eight and he's had at least two of them. He's just trying to hit 50. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there's even bonus. I didn't even see this. There's 50 proofs plus bonus one, two, three. Oh, man. These are going to get divey. All right.

So next week, number nine, proof number nine that God is imaginary, understand ambiguity. Okay. I'll do my best. That's kind of vague. Yeah. Yeah. My guess is that this has to do with, I think this is a prayer issue again. Prayer. What cured you? Let's imagine you have cancer and you are a believer. You pray to God for a cure. What cured you?

Was it the chemotherapy or was it God? Okay. So that's next week. Proof number nine, understand ambiguity. If you want to check it out beforehand, you can go to godisimaginary.com backslash i9.htm. Or if you just go to godisimaginary.com and on the right-hand side, you can check out the proofs. Read them before you can buy them. Yeah. Check them out. I mean, it'd be kind of fun to do on your own, really. I mean, read them and see if you can defend yourself.

You know, can you defend Jesus Christ against a guy that thinks like that? Because honestly, some of those are probably conversations you might have at work. When you, hey, you're a believer, what about this, you know? And it could be an honest question from someone. This guy, I don't think he has honest questions. He's just trying to be obnoxious. But, you know, some people might have. I find a lot of my conversations, like when they get down to the brass tacks of it, not how I live my life, but why I believe in God and where they think it doesn't measure up. It really has to do a lot with science. It has to do with carbon dating. You know, it has to do with this.

It's not provable. And just read up on it. You'll find God there, right? Like, carbon dating is probably accurate for, oh, I don't know, about 400 or 500 years. And then it starts to get real iffy on how they do it. They can only test it. How do you disprove that? Well, here's the thing. Like, it's a theory after a certain point. And that's exactly all that it is, right? Like, you can prove that carbon breaks down at this certain rate per year, right? Well, they can only prove that as long as they've been testing it.

And after that, they just start guessing. Well, you know, they think that carbon does this, you know, like a diagonal. And really, it could very well dive. Well, and see, some of them are around, like, you know, a year 1,000. And some of those thoughts are around the order in which they thought something, right? Like, prior to carbon dating, if you had an idea of what you thought something was X old, I thought how old this thing was. And then you discover carbon dating, which you can verify or validate in that you can, like, take in this, duplicate in the lab, right? You can see how carbon breaks down. But then you say, well, how could it, and then we did the same thing to this thing that we thought was X number of years old.

I've already assumed that the thing that I said was X number of years old was actually that old. And so now I have to make carbon break down or behave in a way that validates the original thing I said. Right. Right? And so that becomes the fallibility. You didn't witness either of those things. You can't witness how long it takes or how carbon reacts in certain environments or how long. And you also don't know how old that other thing was because you decided how old it was before carbon dating existed.

And then you kind of chose how carbon breaks down based upon… This is the new standard. Right? I mean, these are just simple things, right? Like, if you don't know that, you should probably know that. Like, I don't know as much as I should, but like, you know, I know enough to say this is where they're coming from. This is where the Bible's coming from. This does not make the Bible not true. It just flat out doesn't. It does not make the Bible untrue. It doesn't make creationism untrue.

It just doesn't. It doesn't even take the time stamp that the Bible's, you know, roughly put into place. It doesn't make it inaccurate, you know? So don't just throw it to the wind. Wow. I'm sorry. So I had put in the search, God hate amputee, to try to find this website. Okay? Here's the fourth result is amputee women online, exclusive deals on amputee women. Low prices, fast delivery. The internet is not discerning. Grace may abound there.

That's bad news. Oh, man. You're listening to Life in the Path. Thanks for joining us here on this Monday night, broadcasting here from the Life in the Path studios. Hey, if you are out and about, you can check us out. We're going to be at the Wellspring Book and Bible. Is that what it is? Book and Bible? Well, Resource Center? I don't know. It sounds pretty hip.

It sounds good. Yeah, there you go. It's at Wellspring. It's in West Des Moines, Urbandale. It's on Hickman. Douglas. Yeah. Is that 104th or something? Yeah. I don't know. So anyway, we're going to be there. There's a local day out there on Saturday, and it's pretty cool.

They're going to have a bunch of guys performing. Jeff Arendale is going to be out there playing. Zach Swobin is going to be out there playing. Tim Cooper is there. Sean Covington, who was in the studio last week, he's out there playing. So lots of guys from the show are going to be hanging out there playing some tunes. Also, local artists, both fiction and nonfiction artists are going to be out there hanging out, signing books. You've got to buy them, and then they'll sign them. Will there be any poetry? You know, I don't know. Can we make our own poetry?

Yes, absolutely. Here's the deal. We're broadcasting. We're going to be out there from 11 to 2, and we can do what we want. Are we outside, inside? I think we're inside. Because we've got to have internet, so I'm assuming. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm going outside, man. It's hot out there. No doubt.

I don't do that stuff. I thought they were having all the local stuff outside. No. No, we're going in. That's good. I don't know. Well, I guess I assume I better talk. I read that somewhere. Oh, crap. It's going to be hot out there. I will come up with something. 11.

Oh, man. It'll be fine. Okay. Anyway, so we're going to be out there at the local day at Wellspring, and that's going to be from 11 to 2 on Saturday. Also, the 13th is going to be the following Friday night. Manifest is going to be at the Indian Only Community Church, and opening for him with Double J and Saved on Sunday. We'll be broadcasting from there. That'll be a show. Yeah. That'll be a ton of fun.

We'll be on our own stopping ground, so this will be the third time we've been invited to that Indian Only Community Church. They've not met anybody better. That's July 13th? Yeah. I don't even have that in my calendar. I feel like we're going to get upstaged by some other young, upstart, Christian rebel radio show in the Des Moines area. It hasn't happened yet, but I feel like it's got to come, right? Do you think so? Yeah. I mean, there's always those guys that trailblaze, that get it all started, and then the actual

successful people show up and do it. People say, you guys are idiots. Yeah. I know how to do this. We give them a benchmark, right? They can look at it and go, well, certainly not going to do it like that. That's what I wouldn't have done. Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm just praying for a good replacement, you know? Yeah. I think it's coming.

Somebody that does it right. Yeah. That's all we want. So, we'll be broadcasting from there. That'll be coming up. That's on the 13th. Broadcast starts at 7, and that should be a ton of fun. Obviously, we've had Saved on Sunday and recently, and Double J was in providing commentary last week from the Covington Show. So, we'll be out there and broadcasting Manifest. If you want to hear, check out a clip of Manifest. If you're not familiar, you go to Live From the Path YouTube channel.

That's youtube.com backslash livefromthepath, and just do a search for Manifest. And we have some live footage from last year's Spirit Midwest Music Festival with Manifest on it. So, you can go check them out there. It actually includes him stealing a candy bar from me, which I'll never forget. Sorry. So, 11 to 2 is the local day at Wellspring, and then 7 p.m. is the following Friday night for the Manifest Show. That's the timing. And we're going to broadcast Manifest, like that night. Yeah. So, I'm thinking about, all right, all right, what do you got, Mike?

Dear Live From the Path. My wife, Diane, and her youngest sister, Jenny, have grown closer in recent years. Jenny and her husband have been married as long as Diane and I have. Our children are close in age, and none of us is wealthy. We live in different states. In her attempt to stay connected to Diane, Jenny sends gifts on every conceivable occasion and non-occasion. She sends boxes of cheap items she picks up at her local dollar store. Household knickknacks, toys, kitchen gadgets, plastic trinkets, and costume jewelry. It's always things we neither need nor use, and the postage probably costs more than the items in the boxes. Uh, fellas, I don't like this.

Our home is already jammed with too much stuff. I have told my wife I wanted her sister to stop sending all that junk. Of course, she says she doesn't want to hurt her sister's feelings, so she says nothing. I have threatened to tell Jenny myself, but I know that that would be a mistake. I don't interact with her and her husband anyway, and we don't communicate well. What can I do? Um, what do you got, fellas? Yeah, just keep getting the knickknacks. It's not hurting anything. You don't have to keep it. Yeah. You can re-gift it.

You can throw it away. You can have a garage sale. Yeah. I think the last three lines of this thing are telling. Hold on a minute. It says, of course, she doesn't want to hurt her sister's feelings, so she says nothing. I have threatened to tell Jenny myself, but I know that would be a mistake. I don't interact with her and her husband anyway. And we don't communicate well. So, he sounds like the kind of the loose cog in this machine. You know what I'm saying? Like, everyone else seems to get along okay, and this guy's like, well, we don't talk anyway,

and so, whatever. I don't want your junk. Yeah. Here's the thing. Like, my wife deals in these junk parades. Like, you know, they give gifts for gifts, and, you know, people give them all kinds of things. They're always sending cards left and right. In fact, my wife's aunt sends my kids cards all the time, and they're the open cards that go, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh. I mean, these are the most annoying. Oh, man. I just hate them so much.

But, like, either she's doing it to irritate me, which is kind of funny, or my kids really like them, or she's sending them just to brighten up the kids' day, and I'm like, I'm staying out of this thing. Like, I hate them. I wish they would not come to this house. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, my kids enjoy them, and if she's trying to irritate me, job all done. You know, done and done. So what kind of cantankerous dude says, well, I'm going to tell them myself that I don't like those things, and you're going to send no trinkets to my house. But I don't communicate well. I don't understand why. Why is everybody always so mad at me, you know?

Here's the thing. There's something about having, like, direct honesty that's a good characteristic. There's something like being an obnoxious bore of a jerk, you know, that likes to call people and spout off at the mouth for no reason. And I think this guy falls into that category. He already doesn't like her. Yeah. And any time you don't like someone, there's a relationship issue, then it doesn't matter what she does. He's not going to like it. Yeah, she could have sent, like… She bought a red car.

Why didn't you get a blue one? I mean… They probably send $100. She's like, well, trying to make us feel poor? We don't need no $100. Exactly. There's no winning. No, that's true. He's probably just… He sizes on all sides. He's upset all the time. Yeah.

I feel that way about Val Pack. She's always sending me crap. Oh, Val. Yeah. Hell. Hell. Here's secular's advice. Obviously, we can't draw anything from the pulpit here, fellas. Hell. Secular's advice is you can't do anything because this is something your wife is going to have to deal with. This is not an issue.

What a jerk. Diane should tell Jenny that the two of you have reached a point in life where you are no longer able to accept things because you have nowhere to put them. That's a lie. And you are now in the process of clearing out items you no longer use. You have to make it like you have a life path of… We're trying to declutter. When really you're saying, I just don't want your stuff. I don't want the stuff that you send me. I'm trying to declutter things that came from you. I feel like secular's advice is always some kind of show. Some kind of dog and pony show.

If you were sending me crap and it was just junk upon junk upon junk, I'm fairly certain after week three, I'd say, wait, why do you keep sending me this junk? I don't want this stuff. If you keep sending it to my house, I'm going to drop it back off at your place. I'm just going to keep mailing it back to you. I don't want it. Well, I mean, there's a point in time when I told my mom to stop buying me clothes. You know what I'm saying? She picked out stuff that I wasn't going to wear, and I said, ma, just stop buying me clothes, man. I'm not going to wear it. And if you pick it out, if you insist on buying it, just know that I may not wear it.

She buys shirts for me now. Oh, Danny, I saw one. This looked like a picnic table. But, like, I mean, there's a point in time, and your mom probably still does it every once in a while. She still buys you something. It's something you're probably not going to wear. And you say, ma, I told you not to buy that. And maybe I'll wear it once. I show up to it just to surprise her. But, like, I mean, there's a point in time where you tell people stuff like that. But if you don't have the stones to do that, or, like, it's really not that bad.

Like, I won't wear it because it doesn't fit me, or it's ugly, right? But I feel like you either need to – I think it's okay to say something. Like, hey, let's just stop giving each other gifts. Like, if I'm 40 years old and we're exchanging trinkets, that's lame. I don't want to buy you stuff anymore. It's a waste of my life. Can't we grow our relationship beyond this? What if that's how she loves other people? You just say okay. Her lesser love language. That's what – like, if she – that's why, if she still does it, like, I still take it. I'll take it.

I'm not going to say, oh, I'm not taking that. You can forget it. I'm not putting that on. I'd make myself some kind of road bomb with it. You know what I'm saying? Like, put it all in a big thing, and then we just blow it up in the backyard and watch this guy. That'd be kind of fun. Anyway, it says, she should tell her sister that when she wants to reach out, please do so on the Internet or pick up the phone. However, if sissy refuses to take the hint, you and your wife should look for someplace to donate the unwanted items. A thrift shop, church sale, women's shelter, or children's hospital would be ideal. If Diane agrees, that is. Man.

I feel like that's totally unnecessary. Yeah, I think it's lame. Just take the stuff. Just take the stuff from people. I don't have a good vibe of what it is, though. Like, what did she say? She said it was trinkets, kitchen gadgets, like a cheese grater. Cheese grater, spatula. Yeah, things that the homeless could use. Like a bell. Yeah. Like a bell with one of them sad kids on it, you know.

Keep it for a year, and if you don't use it, get rid of it. Throw away. Every time you get something, throw away something else they'd brought so that you're not taking up any more space. Keep it a rotation going. Or send it back to her as a gift. Yeah. Hey, got your spatula. Cheese grater. All right. Dear Life on the Path, What is considered good manners when you enter the home of a 20-something northerner? Uh-oh.

I'm a graduate student who recently moved from the south to the east coast. When I visit the homes of my northern friends, I feel they are being rude for not inviting me to come in and sit down. When visitors come to my place, I ask if I can take their coats, ask them to please sit and make themselves comfortable, and offer something to drink. It feels strange to enter someone's living space and not hear these pleasantries. It also makes me feel as if I'm imposing. If others arrive around the same time, I try to follow their cues, but I still find it uncomfortable to just plop down and make myself at home. Should I just get over it? Yeah. Yeah, I think you should. The person's doing a good thing by watching others. You get acclimated to your culture. Because they are different.

We live in different areas. That's how you end up being the creepy guy at the party. You know what I'm saying? Hanging out by the door, spying on people. Taking notes. You know. Did you just hug that guy? I'm going to hug him. Is it cool to put the coats on the bed, or is that cool? I'll just leave mine in my car. I don't want trouble. Do I just go to the fridge myself, or do I ask first?

Yeah, seriously. Here's the thing. Here's what I love about my life, right? Like, I've never been in these socially awkward situations, because they just don't apply to me at all. I care less. You know, I just put my coat on the floor and tell someone, says, hey, is this your coat? Ah, I'll move it. No problem. I mean, or you could say, hey, what do we do with the coats? Yeah. Yeah. Not like, hey, do you take my coat from me, or do I bust my own table?

I'm not sure. Do you want me to just slide it on my shoulders a little bit, so it's easier to get off? You know how to, help me. Help me decide what the best way to do this is. And that's not even a northern or south. That's just different personalities have different, different, every family has their own thing. I'll go, if it's winter, I'll go into a place, and I'll take my coat off, and I'll just kind of hold it for a second. And either they're going to offer to take it, or I'll just kind of throw it on the floor by the door. I mean, I don't care. I don't have anything that's that special that, you know, oh, it can't be on the floor. I don't think I would ever, it would not occur to me to ask to take somebody's coat. Like, I might say, hey, you can put your coats over there.

But I don't think I would ever, like, I don't think I would take one of their coats. I think it would be weird. Actually, I think it feels awkward. Someone's like, I'll take your coat. Well, where? Why would you take it? Where are you going to take it? I need this. What if I keep stuff in my pockets I don't want you milling around with? I also don't want people holding me hostage with my coat. Like, if I want to leave and I'm kind of slowly shifting out, I've got to wait for them to go retrieve my coat wherever they've stuck it in their place. Yeah, plus, you know, the next guy that comes in, you know, he puts his coat on top of your coat, and he smells like barilla pasta and cigars.

You know, no one wants to hang around that guy. Now you smell like barilla pasta and cigars. That's just really awkward when, like, they'll take them, but then you've got to go get your own. Yeah, and you're on the bottom of the pile. There's, like, 30 coats on top of you. You're, like, going, well, this one's kind of nice. Well, I don't know if I've ever done that. What if this one fits? Dan's involved with some kind of coat envy in the back of the party. Ooh, they have a quarter in their pocket? Cheryl, you should have seen the coats back there. They were amazing.

I tried two of them on. The third one happened to be a lady's coat. I repped it. I looked good. Secular's advice was, if you've been invited to someone's home, then you are welcome. That your visit doesn't begin with the customary rituals you're used to does not mean that your host is rude. Yes, you should get over it. Just go with the flow. In time, you will adjust. Yeah. Don't worry about it. Don't get so hung up.

No. No, I mean, here's the type of people that get offended by you not knowing the protocol of what's normally done in their particular area of family. Like, are the type of people that get, you're going to do something that angers them at some point or another. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't win with folks like that. No. Right. No. In fact, I was at a memorial service over the weekend, and I was standing with my fingers interlaced like this, kind of just waiting for the service to start. Okay. Something like this. And some guy was there like, uh-uh, uh-uh.

You put them behind your back. In your pocket or something. Didn't like it. Didn't like the fingers interlaced. It was me. Yeah. That's awesome. He was supposed to be preaching the thing, you know, and he's standing over there like in the general preacher man stance with his hands cupped right by his belt. And I'm like, stop it. People trust a guy that stands like that. He means business. No, no.

The guy with his hands behind his back, he's ready for anything. No. No, he looks like he's about to pass the plate. He looks like James Bond. That's how a guy that's going to pass the plate stands. You pass it off, and then you wait behind the aisle. You wait until the plate comes. It's to give the impression that you're not going to take money out of it. That's why people stand like that. Yeah, that's true. That's true. I'm sorry.

I don't know what I was thinking. We done there? Yeah. You want one more or not one more? I mean, yeah, real quick. One more. Okay. Dear Life in the Path, I don't have a car. I can't afford one at this time. For the last two years, a friend has been doing me a favor by taking me to grocery shopping every week. I can and do take the bus to the local grocery store, but it makes it easier to buy things in bulk with a car. We have dinner, go to an occasional movie, and generally have a good time hanging out.

I buy her dinner sometimes as a thank you for her great help. Recently, I got to meet a group of her friends. She introduced me to every single person by going over the whole history of my not having a car and how she has taken me grocery shopping every week. All her friends began praising her for her kindness. I was upset and embarrassed that rather than introduce me as a friend, she instead portrayed me as an object of her charity. I always thought she enjoyed our get-togethers. She used to rebuff any attempts on my part to make our shopping trips less frequent. Do I suck it up for the sake of our friendship, or do I discontinue or curtail our meetings? Yeah, I would. I would call it a one-time incident and move on. I'd wait until it happens again and then call it a period. Like, that is kind of rude, though.

Hey, here's this bum. Remember that bum I've been telling you I've been carting around all week? That's the guy. Oh, you're that guy, you know? You smell like barilla and cigars. And if it's really bothering you, ask the question, hey, you know what? That was kind of awkward for me. Am I kind of overstaying my welcome with this car thing? Yeah, it's a good time to ask that. Maybe I'm being kind of a pest. Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry that I can't get around and can't have a car and everything. I mean, my sincere apologies that your life is so much better than me.

I would have a hard time asking that question without sounding like a defensive, you know, like, am I that big of a burden to you? You have to portray me as a third mole on your knee that just happens to travel with you? Eh. I don't know. Pizza Man was supposed to be here. I would let, okay, so if I'm this guy, like, in all this, I just let it go. You know, it's just, it's a conversation. It doesn't paint your entire life. If it keeps coming up, then maybe I would mention it because if it's hurting your feelings, there's no reason not to say anything about it. She's probably not doing it on purpose, right?

But, like, that's your primary activity. It's what you do every time you go somewhere. It's probably an accurate portrayal of what goes on, but it's not intended to portray you as the burden on her life. It's just that's the experience that they would recognize, right? They don't, you don't tell your friends, well, we had this great conversation about his aunt who's a nun. Why don't you just say, hey, it's my friend Steve. Well, that's what I'm saying. It's like, I don't, it's probably not intentional, so I would let it go and see if it comes back up. Hey, we're going to send you out.

This is Wayne Stewart who we had on the show. He's got a new CD recorded and coming out soon, so we're going to send you out with that. Thanks for listening to Live from the Path. We will catch you next Monday night from 10 to 11 p.m. Also, if you can come out to Wellspring for the local day, you can come visit us live. We're going to be out there from 11 to 2 and then from the Saved on Sunday Double J Manifest show from Indiana Community Church the following Friday the 13th. We can come pick you up for either one, but I'm going to tell everybody I know just for a heads up. Yeah, no doubt. Thanks for listening to Live from the Path. Have a good week.

Have a good week.