WEBVTT 00:00:00.980 --> 00:00:07.720 At any rate, it is the 24th of April, 2026, and after that short delay, this is At Any Cost. 00:00:07.720 --> 00:00:08.660 I am Corey J. 00:00:08.660 --> 00:00:13.200 Moller, and this is episode 26, a Q&A episode. 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:16.720 I have a number of questions ready to go. 00:00:17.380 --> 00:00:19.700 I do not know if I will get through all of them. 00:00:20.900 --> 00:00:23.720 15 is probably a little ambitious, but we'll see how it goes. 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:29.880 And of course, I'll account for that wasted time there to start trying to get the audio stack to work. 00:00:30.400 --> 00:00:45.020 I did remember to reboot this time to try and not have a memory leak in OBS, but apparently it's going to have a novel problem instead, because software, as any IT guy will tell you. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:53.800 Anyway, question one, a nice, easy question to start, and also a nice thumbnail for the show art, which is why I picked it. 00:00:54.720 --> 00:00:57.100 Berlin-style curry ketchup, this sounds good. 00:00:57.140 --> 00:00:59.580 Would you mind sharing a favorite style of making this? 00:00:59.580 --> 00:01:03.040 A type of sausage, pork, of course, that is a good pairing. 00:01:03.440 --> 00:01:08.600 So this one's actually fairly easy, although any answer I give is probably going to make someone mad. 00:01:09.140 --> 00:01:26.800 But for the curry ketchup itself, if you've never had it, it's probably easiest to buy one that is in the right style, right style insofar as that's concerned, so that you develop a sense for the taste, right? 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:34.280 I re-created it when I had some sausage I wanted to use for Currywurst, but that's because I ate it however many times while living in Berlin. 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:36.940 So I knew the flavor, and I could re-create that from memory. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.420 Schaller und Weber, that's so hard to say. 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:45.700 It's, I'll spell it for everyone because I'm going to wind up saying it as in German. 00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:54.980 It's a New York based company, S-C-H-A-L-L-E-R, and Weber, or V-A-B-E-R, depending if you want to pronounce it, it's if it's German or not. 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:57.960 I would just order their curry ketchup. 00:01:57.960 --> 00:01:59.360 It's the Berlin style. 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:01.900 It's one of the best available ones in the US. 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:03.700 You can get it a lot of different places. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:05.060 I think Amazon carries it. 00:02:05.060 --> 00:02:06.760 They ship it from their own website. 00:02:07.140 --> 00:02:11.960 That's probably the go-to option for the curry ketchup itself. 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:13.940 And then of course you can make your own. 00:02:14.260 --> 00:02:18.780 There are a lot of recipes online for making your own, and you can develop it to your taste. 00:02:19.220 --> 00:02:29.560 As far as the sausage is concerned, that's going to vary a little bit by region, but it's pretty much going to be bratwurst, knockwurst, or this will make the Bavarians mad, weisswurst. 00:02:30.180 --> 00:02:37.600 They're going to say weisswurst should be served only with the spicy and sweet ketchup, or the spicy and sweet mustard rather, which is very good. 00:02:37.980 --> 00:02:39.500 Schaller and Weber had that as well. 00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:43.400 But any of those sausage kinds, and a few others will work as well. 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:45.820 So basically you just make that, prepare the sausage. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:47.640 It's usually grilled in Berlin. 00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:50.000 Sometimes it's prepared other ways. 00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:52.000 Cut it into pieces, serve with French fries. 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:53.780 Very simple, easy meal. 00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:58.180 Very common food stall item or quick lunch sort of thing. 00:02:59.700 --> 00:03:05.840 But for getting the sausages, again, it's going to be Schaller and Weber, probably the best option. 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:11.940 And then the second best option would be Stiegelmeier, which is in Chicago. 00:03:12.260 --> 00:03:14.900 Those are pretty much the only two that actually ship in the US. 00:03:15.380 --> 00:03:20.520 Unless you live in a part of the country where you have a German butcher, then by all means, buy them fresh. 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:23.320 But they're going to be fresh from these butchers as well. 00:03:23.320 --> 00:03:25.980 Just support the local business if it's an option. 00:03:26.220 --> 00:03:30.720 There's unfortunately no German butcher anywhere near me, so I have to get them shipped if I want them. 00:03:31.180 --> 00:03:34.520 Or, you know, acquire a sausage maker and make them yourself. 00:03:35.600 --> 00:03:39.200 And no, that's not a euphemism for a wife, but it can be if she knows what she's doing. 00:03:40.220 --> 00:03:41.080 Question 2. 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:45.440 Is violating copyright law ever morally permissible? 00:03:46.220 --> 00:03:48.620 For example, and he gives three examples. 00:03:48.740 --> 00:04:01.920 Cracking a piece of software one is paid for, but the company which published it is now defunct, and the license servers are shut down, rendering the software otherwise unusable, to distributing the aforementioned software. 00:04:02.180 --> 00:04:08.320 A common argument in favor of this is that it is the publisher or developer is no longer in business or is not selling that software. 00:04:08.820 --> 00:04:10.960 Then, they are not incurring losses from distribution. 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:25.120 Three, scanning a particular Bible translation that currently has no extant Bible app module and building one so that I can read it on my phone instead of having to carry a book and distribute it to friends. 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:30.820 So, I'll take the third one first, the third example there. 00:04:31.460 --> 00:04:38.300 I don't know what Bible version you're reading that doesn't have an electronic version available, because almost all of them do. 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:42.200 And so, if it's a really old one, it's in the public domain. 00:04:42.580 --> 00:04:47.660 If it is a really recent one, maybe just go with an older one that's in the public domain. 00:04:47.660 --> 00:04:54.200 If there's some really compelling reason that you want to read this one, I'm not going to say you can't do that for yourself. 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:59.980 Now, are you violating the law, at least if you distribute it to friends? 00:05:00.020 --> 00:05:04.000 The answer is probably yes, and so I guess there are really two answers to this sort of thing. 00:05:04.760 --> 00:05:06.760 There's the attorney answer I could give. 00:05:07.080 --> 00:05:08.480 None of this is legal advice, right? 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:16.620 Give the standard disclaimer, the caveat there, and then the moral answer, the real answer, as it were. 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:20.500 The attorney answer is that basically all of this is illegal. 00:05:20.880 --> 00:05:28.360 The exception here would basically be number one, there is sort of a carve out for some software. 00:05:28.440 --> 00:05:39.620 For video games in particular, if a server has been shut down and you have to do something in order to play it still, there's kind of a carve out for that, and so you can do that. 00:05:39.880 --> 00:05:49.400 For other software, it's more of a gray area, but the reality is, if the company is defunct, there's no successor company, who's going to sue you? 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:52.120 No one, right? 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:56.920 So, I don't have a moral objection to any of this. 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:07.980 Legally speaking, yes, some of it is going to be technically a violation of the law, whether or not you have any consequences from that is going to depend on a number of factors. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:20.980 And, by and large, if it's, again, defunct company, probably no one around to sue you unless they have a successor that acquired the IP and perhaps they're litigious, but that's fact-specific, you don't know the successor company. 00:06:20.980 --> 00:06:23.140 And if you do, then you can figure that out. 00:06:23.140 --> 00:06:26.260 But, morally speaking, no, I don't have an objection to any of these. 00:06:26.260 --> 00:06:30.120 I don't think that you should be able to copyright a Bible translation. 00:06:30.120 --> 00:06:33.640 They think that it should be available for free, period. 00:06:34.060 --> 00:06:39.120 So any of the translators should just make them available. 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:42.440 It's completely ridiculous that they copyright the Word of God. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:48.100 And no, it doesn't matter if you put in the work as a translator, it still belongs to God, it should still be in the public domain. 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:53.000 So at least have the kind of license where you just attribute, right? 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:59.220 I don't mind that if you say translated by, that's even probably better because then you know who did the work, which is important. 00:06:59.760 --> 00:07:08.560 But no, I don't have a moral objection to these, but legal caveats, because some companies are very litigious when it comes to IP. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:12.040 It's one of those areas where that is definitely a thing. 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:16.720 And IP was one of the areas I kind of specialized in, so. 00:07:19.180 --> 00:07:22.800 Question three, spiritual gifts and addiction. 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:37.740 If the presence of spiritual gifts makes one desire more spiritual gifts, reading scripture makes one want to read more scripture, does this indicate that addiction, which operates in the same way, is spiritual in essence and not spiritual by accident? 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:47.280 There is a spiritual, at least you could call it spiritual, aspect to things like addiction. 00:07:47.540 --> 00:07:59.760 And the reason I could say you could call it that is because the mind is involved, and good luck drawing a sort of firm or solid line between the mind and the spirit or soul, right? 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:01.260 And it depends which one you mean here. 00:08:01.260 --> 00:08:13.980 If you mean spirit and mind, because it's one of those terms where I usually use soul, because spirit is often used for both mind and soul, so you aren't really certain what the author means if he says spirit. 00:08:14.280 --> 00:08:26.800 But if you're making that tripartite division of man, body, mind, and soul, then good luck dividing between the mind and the soul, right? 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:27.920 We can't really do that. 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:29.480 Maybe we can never do that. 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:31.900 Maybe that's something that only God is able to do. 00:08:32.220 --> 00:08:34.260 Or maybe we can do it in the next life. 00:08:34.260 --> 00:08:36.660 We'll understand the tripartite division a little bit better. 00:08:37.140 --> 00:08:43.840 But given the limitations of technology and things like that, the nature of the soul, I'm not sure we can draw that firm distinction. 00:08:44.520 --> 00:08:52.300 So insofar as that's concerned, the mind is certainly involved, and perhaps the soul as well, when it comes to things like addiction. 00:08:52.620 --> 00:08:58.780 And so is there some sort of analogy you can draw there? 00:08:58.780 --> 00:08:59.980 I think that's the case. 00:08:59.980 --> 00:09:06.280 But I don't think that it's necessary what you would call an addiction when it comes to something positive. 00:09:06.280 --> 00:09:07.780 Usually we call that a habit. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:11.040 And habits are good. 00:09:11.040 --> 00:09:12.320 They're self-reinforcing. 00:09:12.540 --> 00:09:15.700 If you have good habits, bad habits are obviously bad. 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:19.060 This is one of those things in psychology that's very important. 00:09:19.080 --> 00:09:21.600 It harkens back to a question in a previous episode. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:27.640 So, forming new habits is a good thing if the thing you're doing is good. 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:35.860 So, reading scripture, wanting these spiritual gifts, I don't think it's necessarily the same sort of thing. 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:37.760 The idiopathy is not the same, right? 00:09:37.900 --> 00:09:49.700 When it comes to addiction and involving yourself in good spiritual things, making you desire more of them, it's not an addiction to wanting good things. 00:09:49.700 --> 00:09:54.200 It's recognizing the goodness of the thing and pursuing the good instead of the evil. 00:09:54.560 --> 00:10:09.840 Addiction is sort of a fundamentally different thing in some ways, because addiction is latching on to some aspect in the human body or in the mind, and then exploiting it, which this is an exploitation. 00:10:10.220 --> 00:10:16.900 And, of course, that's also touching on the fact that there's very much a physical aspect to most addictions, right? 00:10:17.520 --> 00:10:20.300 Drinking caffeine is an addiction. 00:10:20.620 --> 00:10:22.220 It's a very mild addiction. 00:10:22.380 --> 00:10:23.300 No one really cares. 00:10:23.300 --> 00:10:23.920 It's not... 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:28.900 You're not going to ruin your life, in theory anyway, because you drink caffeine. 00:10:29.340 --> 00:10:32.700 So there are some addictions like that where they really don't matter. 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:34.200 They're so trivial, no one cares. 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:36.280 Using nicotine is an addiction. 00:10:36.420 --> 00:10:39.800 It doesn't mean that nicotine is necessarily bad. 00:10:40.260 --> 00:10:44.300 Now, smoking five packs of cigarettes a day, probably not a good idea. 00:10:45.760 --> 00:10:53.900 You have some of that here as well, where just because the thing makes you want more of the thing doesn't mean it's bad. 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:55.640 Doesn't mean it's an addiction even. 00:10:56.160 --> 00:10:59.260 And if it is an addiction, it also doesn't mean it's bad, right? 00:10:59.260 --> 00:11:00.400 Again, the caffeine example. 00:11:00.400 --> 00:11:02.700 I've got tea sitting here, and I'm going to take a sip of tea. 00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:09.460 It's not bad that I drink tea, just because caffeine is habit-forming, which I don't get caffeine headaches. 00:11:09.460 --> 00:11:14.680 Some people do, and for them, obviously, it's a little bit bigger concern, because you have to drink the caffeine. 00:11:17.680 --> 00:11:19.880 But no, I think you can definitely draw out that analogy there. 00:11:19.880 --> 00:11:26.700 It's a useful illustration, but I don't think that they are identical, just somewhat similar in certain aspects. 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:38.300 So the spiritual habits are good, sort of, again, habits, and then the addictions are bad, because addiction and to bad things is what's implied here. 00:11:40.060 --> 00:11:45.020 I'm going to take a second, copy some questions from the chat, just so I can get to them in the future. 00:11:45.020 --> 00:11:47.400 I probably will not get to them tonight. 00:11:47.540 --> 00:11:50.320 There are a number of questions. 00:11:51.680 --> 00:11:53.600 Question four. 00:11:55.680 --> 00:11:58.520 You previously derided Hawaiian shirts in the pulpits. 00:11:58.520 --> 00:12:00.280 That's completely fair. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:01.400 I've worn a Hawaiian shirt. 00:12:01.400 --> 00:12:02.640 I'm not saying they're always wrong. 00:12:02.900 --> 00:12:06.140 I was in Hawaii, but not in church. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:11.560 You are also a proponent of national churches reflecting their specific national character. 00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:28.460 Would you be opposed to regionally specific vestments for pastors that incorporate the local flora and fauna, as an example, using the white hibiscus to decorate the pastor's stole for Easter and All Saints Day, but only in Hawaii, or an evergreen tree motif for the season of Pentecost and Appalachia? 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:30.340 I have no problem with that. 00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:31.800 I think that would be perfectly fine. 00:12:32.280 --> 00:12:36.800 Having different aesthetics for your church is completely fine. 00:12:37.280 --> 00:12:45.040 You're going to see different themes, to some degree, and different designs, certainly, in stained glass across different nations. 00:12:45.040 --> 00:12:50.160 You're going to see different materials, to some degree, and different designs in the vestments. 00:12:50.160 --> 00:12:51.520 I think that's completely fine. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:57.700 The sort of larger question is one of, is it right decorum? 00:12:57.700 --> 00:13:03.260 Are you showing proper respect for God in how you are undertaking things in the church? 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:06.060 How you're dressing, how you're behaving, all these things. 00:13:06.420 --> 00:13:17.900 As long as what you're doing is the right mindset and the right level of decorum, and it's not just mindset exclusively, it doesn't mean that you can show up to church in a speedo, as long as you think you're doing a good thing. 00:13:18.280 --> 00:13:19.640 You're not, don't do that. 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:26.320 But I think it's completely fine to incorporate these local flourishes, as it were. 00:13:26.560 --> 00:13:29.240 Think about how the temple was designed. 00:13:29.420 --> 00:13:34.500 It incorporated a lot of local flourishes, a lot of things that people would have seen in their life. 00:13:34.500 --> 00:13:37.100 So I think that's perfectly fine. 00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:38.380 That would be a good thing. 00:13:39.920 --> 00:13:46.400 A similar note would be that not everyone has to dress the same across the whole world. 00:13:46.400 --> 00:13:51.700 In fact, not everyone should, because you have traditional dress in various places, right? 00:13:51.960 --> 00:14:00.800 You have the sort of stereotypical one of which people think when they think of traditional dress for whites, right? 00:14:00.800 --> 00:14:03.060 It's usually Bavarians, Trachtun. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:06.280 It's the Lederhosen and the Dürndl. 00:14:06.580 --> 00:14:07.680 It's all of that stuff. 00:14:08.700 --> 00:14:31.860 If you want to wear that to church, because that's formal wear, culturally, historically, for the Bavarians, if you want to wear that to church and you're in Bavaria or a German area, I think that's completely fine, because that is seen as the formal wear of that culture, and it's not unduly revealing, it's appropriate, it is a right level of decorum and respect for God. 00:14:31.860 --> 00:14:33.660 It's also, incidentally, what they would wear to their wedding. 00:14:33.660 --> 00:14:37.380 So this is not something where it's just for show. 00:14:37.380 --> 00:14:45.340 This is an important part of the culture, and every culture has traditional dress, and there are different registers of that traditional dress, right? 00:14:45.560 --> 00:14:54.680 There's the everyday, there's the slightly more formal, there's the truly formal, and then different levels of formal, usually based on wealth or rank in society. 00:14:55.140 --> 00:15:15.540 As long as you're dressing appropriate and, you know, dressing appropriately and not engaging in the sort of showiness that is condemned in scripture, right, the look-at-me sort of thing, I have no problem with local dress in church and local designs. 00:15:15.540 --> 00:15:16.340 I think that's a good thing. 00:15:16.340 --> 00:15:24.100 It's an expression of Christianity for that people, for that race, and God clearly likes that kind of diversity. 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:35.500 There's nothing wrong with diversity when it remains diversity, which it can't remain if it's all brought to one place, one of the great ironies, as it were, between the right and the left. 00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:39.680 Question 5. 00:15:41.540 --> 00:15:48.720 I'm currently attending this young adults group at this non-denominational church in the hopes of meeting a girl who is actually at About Christian. 00:15:49.060 --> 00:16:05.800 Unfortunately, this particular church used to be a United Methodist church, so they permit women to teach men and practice open communion, even going so far as to serve communion, fluffy bread and grape juice, at these young adult gatherings, which I, of course, not partake of. 00:16:06.380 --> 00:16:07.060 Good idea. 00:16:07.260 --> 00:16:11.600 Do you think it is possible for a girl attending such a venue to make a good wife? 00:16:13.280 --> 00:16:22.080 There's a lot in there on which I could comment, but the question itself, yes, of course, there are women in those churches who would make good wives. 00:16:22.980 --> 00:16:25.540 They are going to have to unlearn some things, probably. 00:16:26.260 --> 00:16:32.140 And in many cases, they're probably just going to have to learn them for the first time, because these churches don't teach people anything. 00:16:32.600 --> 00:16:41.360 So at most, they're going to have this very superstitious sort of feminist-infused set of talking points with nothing underlying them. 00:16:41.740 --> 00:16:45.180 So will you have some work set out for you? 00:16:45.560 --> 00:16:47.100 Yes, probably. 00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:49.160 Very probably. 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:54.060 But it doesn't mean that there are no women there who are wife material. 00:16:54.260 --> 00:16:55.140 There very well could be. 00:16:55.140 --> 00:16:56.600 In fact, there probably are. 00:16:56.600 --> 00:17:12.160 So if that is, for whatever reason, logistically, it's close to you, it's a decent-sized group, the right women are there, whatever it is, if it makes sense to go there for that reason, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:25.280 You know, hopefully attend a better church for actual church services, but if you're just going to a place like this to try to meet women, there are a lot worse options, even than the United Methodist Church. 00:17:25.280 --> 00:17:30.120 So there are probably some good women there, and best of luck with that. 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:36.740 The only other thing on which I would comment is, you don't have to use unleavened bread in the Lord's Supper. 00:17:36.740 --> 00:17:40.200 You can use regular bread, but not grape juice. 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:41.100 It has to be wine. 00:17:42.540 --> 00:17:46.660 So fluffy bread is fine, but grape juice is not. 00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:53.560 Grape juice also did not exist in Christ time, unless you went out and squeezed it yourself and drank it. 00:17:54.600 --> 00:18:01.800 Room temperature right away, which I've never done, but I can't imagine, is a pleasant experience with grape juice. 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.320 Question six, IQ scaling question. 00:18:07.340 --> 00:18:14.460 Obviously, a given delta isn't transitive, because the higher you are, the fewer tasks are impossible. 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:20.860 So, how would the 180 view of a 150 differ from the 150 view of a 120? 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:39.120 This is one of those I could comment on at great length, or just sort of provide an overview, and I think I'll go with the overview instead, in the interest of not spending too much time on the one question, since I want to get to most of the questions on the list tonight, at least. 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:47.220 The real difference is pretty much exactly what you observed in the introductory part of the question there. 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:59.360 The higher you go with regard to intelligence, which again, IQ is just a measure of intelligence, that's all it is, the greater the level of insight you generally have. 00:18:59.360 --> 00:19:04.960 You see more, and you recognize more things, and you recognize them more accurately. 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:24.120 Now granted, there are some very highly intelligent men who are wildly deluded, but they've done that to themselves, which is kind of a danger for some intelligent men, because one thing being intelligent gives you the ability to do is lie to yourself a lot better than you would be able to do if you were not particularly right. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:27.220 You can convince yourself of some dumb stuff. 00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:31.720 It's why not all atheists are idiots, but they are idiots, right? 00:19:31.780 --> 00:19:35.300 They've chosen to be idiots, then convinced themselves to remain in that camp. 00:19:36.300 --> 00:19:46.520 But I don't think that necessarily you have this fundamentally alien view of everyone else if you get high enough up the scale, as it were. 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:56.120 You do understand a little bit more of the scope of humanity because you get to see more of the scale, right? 00:19:56.940 --> 00:20:04.440 If you're higher up the scale, you can look at the rest of the scale and to some degree, at least, maybe you don't have any idea what it's like to be 65 IQ, right? 00:20:04.900 --> 00:20:05.940 That's kind of alien. 00:20:06.700 --> 00:20:14.840 But you see more of the scale, you see more of the possibility for humanity than someone a few standard deviations down the scale would see. 00:20:15.320 --> 00:20:17.940 So it does give you a different perspective. 00:20:18.560 --> 00:20:23.840 But like I've said before, when the issue of IQ comes up, it's not like a fundamentally alien thing, right? 00:20:23.840 --> 00:20:29.540 There are still ways in which, regardless of IQ, we all share some commonalities, right? 00:20:29.540 --> 00:20:30.620 I was just drinking tea. 00:20:31.220 --> 00:20:34.240 I share that with a huge chunk of the people who watch this. 00:20:34.260 --> 00:20:38.420 And if I had a British audience, I would share it with basically 100% of the people watching this. 00:20:39.420 --> 00:20:43.220 Granted, the more Southerners I have, the more tea drinkers I'll have, but they put sugar in theirs. 00:20:44.800 --> 00:20:46.100 You won't get me on that yet. 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:57.400 But it does give you sort of a 30,000-foot view of humanity, as it were, once you get to particularly the 160-plus range. 00:20:58.420 --> 00:21:01.440 That does give you a perspective that other men don't have. 00:21:02.040 --> 00:21:06.700 But I don't think that it makes you look down on other people, right? 00:21:06.700 --> 00:21:09.680 You're not looking at them and going, well, that person's only 110. 00:21:10.180 --> 00:21:11.300 It's not so much that. 00:21:11.300 --> 00:21:13.380 You recognize there's a difference there. 00:21:13.380 --> 00:21:14.560 There's a distinction. 00:21:14.980 --> 00:21:25.700 And that should feed into the way that hierarchy is built into our society, because there are men who can do things at the top of the pyramid that men at the bottom don't have to do, right? 00:21:26.040 --> 00:21:28.060 You probably want the king to be pretty bright. 00:21:28.780 --> 00:21:32.460 You don't want the king to be 85 IQ. 00:21:33.020 --> 00:21:35.800 He won't run anything except into the ground. 00:21:36.360 --> 00:21:42.380 So you recognize that more firmly when you get higher up the scale. 00:21:43.180 --> 00:21:49.620 You recognize where men should be in that hierarchy in society, and the consequences of them not being there. 00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:53.220 But it doesn't, again, it doesn't mean that you look down on other men. 00:21:53.220 --> 00:21:55.500 It just, you recognize those differences. 00:21:56.500 --> 00:21:59.220 Similarly, right, as men, we recognize women aren't the same. 00:21:59.220 --> 00:22:00.580 It doesn't mean we denigrate women. 00:22:00.580 --> 00:22:01.640 It doesn't mean we hate women. 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:06.500 We think that they're, you know, all these things that you see online, so about women, it's just they're different. 00:22:06.900 --> 00:22:07.820 They shouldn't be in charge. 00:22:07.820 --> 00:22:08.720 They shouldn't vote. 00:22:09.520 --> 00:22:13.080 But God made them for us, and they're a great gift. 00:22:13.080 --> 00:22:14.980 So we don't hate them because of what they are. 00:22:14.980 --> 00:22:25.180 We just recognize those differences exist and should function as a way of determining hierarchy and structure and organization in society. 00:22:27.800 --> 00:22:29.120 Question seven. 00:22:29.880 --> 00:22:37.220 Are our loved ones who were Christians, which is to say saved, who have died in paradise with Jesus, or are they sleeping? 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:41.380 What does it mean to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord? 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:47.480 This one has really two answers. 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:56.940 So first off, we can just dismiss the whole soul sleep stuff that gets brought up in some denominations and is not warranted in scripture. 00:22:57.360 --> 00:23:01.940 When sleep is used, figuratively, it just means death, right? 00:23:02.140 --> 00:23:04.720 The body is sleeping in the ground to be born again. 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:15.000 That's why you get all of these illustrations from Christ and others about gardens and plants, and because unless the seed falls into the ground, the plant cannot be born, right? 00:23:15.220 --> 00:23:17.540 That's symbolic death, resurrection. 00:23:18.380 --> 00:23:22.820 But with regard to what happens when we die, right? 00:23:23.500 --> 00:23:26.300 Scripture does not give us an exact answer. 00:23:26.580 --> 00:23:37.240 Scripture does not, in fact, say in any particular place, when you die, that exact instant, or that exact next instant, you appear before the Lord in paradise. 00:23:37.740 --> 00:23:41.920 And the thing it doesn't tell us is how time works. 00:23:42.980 --> 00:23:47.660 This gets a little complicated, but it can also be explained pretty simply, right? 00:23:48.460 --> 00:23:52.380 Time is an attribute of the universe. 00:23:52.860 --> 00:23:55.940 God isn't bound by time, and so that's part of the equation. 00:23:56.420 --> 00:24:01.380 But also, when this body dies, right? 00:24:01.380 --> 00:24:03.400 My soul continues on. 00:24:03.400 --> 00:24:09.560 It's not good to be separated from your body as your soul, because you are a gestalt, you are greater than the sum of the parts. 00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:15.440 It's not a good thing to be separated, if that does in fact happen, and I'll get to that in a second. 00:24:16.120 --> 00:24:18.160 But the issue is that we don't know how that time works. 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:24.640 And so the two possibilities are that God has a clock running in paradise, right? 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:27.020 In the next world, in the renewed creation. 00:24:27.020 --> 00:24:30.020 You want to call it new or renewed, whichever one you want to call it, both are true. 00:24:30.800 --> 00:24:36.220 If he has a clock running, and then you die and you enter into that one at the same time, right? 00:24:36.340 --> 00:24:37.900 So the clocks are running in parallel. 00:24:38.320 --> 00:24:47.020 The alternative to that is that everyone who dies arrives simultaneously at the judgment, and then time in paradise starts. 00:24:48.380 --> 00:24:51.300 We don't know which one it is, because God doesn't tell us. 00:24:51.700 --> 00:25:00.780 I'm inclined toward the second one, because I don't think that the time being bound together makes any real sense, but I fully admit it could be either one. 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:17.100 So, in either case, it's good news for those who die as Christian, for those who were saved, because they are either in paradise now, or they arrive at the same time we arrive, and we all enter paradise together. 00:25:17.460 --> 00:25:25.180 So, it doesn't really matter which one it is, and certainly for those of us still alive, it doesn't matter, it doesn't influence us one way or the other. 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:32.200 The only thing it would mean is those in paradise, if they died 500 years ago, would have sort of a head start, as it were, right? 00:25:32.460 --> 00:25:36.140 Luther's had 500 years of brewing beer, and I have to catch up. 00:25:36.460 --> 00:25:38.360 However that works, we don't really know. 00:25:38.980 --> 00:25:40.860 It's not something at which we have to worry. 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:44.020 Because again, either case is good news. 00:25:44.020 --> 00:25:47.300 It's just that scripture doesn't tell us specifically which one it is. 00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:55.360 And like I said, I'm inclined toward one, but you can believe whichever one you want, because scripture does not mandate you believe one or the other. 00:25:58.700 --> 00:26:03.500 But to be absent from the body is to be present from the Lord, regardless of either one, right? 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:07.620 In either case, you die and you appear in paradise. 00:26:07.820 --> 00:26:10.900 The only question is, does everyone appear at the same time? 00:26:15.240 --> 00:26:18.000 Copy a couple of questions here from the chat. 00:26:28.303 --> 00:26:30.263 I see someone has a sort of follow-up question. 00:26:30.263 --> 00:26:36.103 I'll get to that before I get to the next question here, just pasting these for myself. 00:26:40.023 --> 00:26:41.263 So a follow-up question to that one. 00:26:41.263 --> 00:26:48.403 For the instances where God returned people to earth temporarily to appear to men, would you feel that implies more of a concurrent clock? 00:26:48.623 --> 00:27:05.083 I think that you could interpret it that way if you want, but I think you could also interpret it as time being so disjointed that there's no actual causal connection or relationship whatsoever between the clock in this universe and the clock in the next. 00:27:05.383 --> 00:27:18.423 Because if they're not related, then it doesn't actually matter what time, as it were, God takes someone from that one and has them appear back in this one, because the time isn't related in any way. 00:27:19.963 --> 00:27:20.923 Time gets weird. 00:27:21.283 --> 00:27:22.603 It's just how it is. 00:27:23.003 --> 00:27:26.583 We still don't really, fundamentally, understand exactly how time works. 00:27:27.503 --> 00:27:35.363 It's mostly conjecture, and relativity starts to make it very weird, of course. 00:27:36.103 --> 00:27:42.763 You start having different clocks for different people, including different clocks for different satellites, depending on a number of factors. 00:27:43.343 --> 00:27:46.123 And we know that's real, because we have to account for it in GPS. 00:27:46.123 --> 00:27:48.803 So time is a very weird thing. 00:27:55.601 --> 00:27:56.541 Question eight. 00:27:57.241 --> 00:28:08.061 Listening through your End Times episode, I understand the 144,000 are not the literal tribes, but can you give your understanding of the purpose of Revelation 7, 5 through 8? 00:28:09.561 --> 00:28:16.141 And so, of course, Revelation 7, 5 through 8 is the listing of the 144,000 in... 00:28:19.881 --> 00:28:31.641 Actually, I will just pull this one up because it's good to look at the text of this one, because I want to point out a couple things, a few things about the text itself. 00:28:32.641 --> 00:28:37.101 So, let me just pull that up, and... 00:28:44.717 --> 00:28:47.757 And we will see if Logos cooperates. 00:28:49.017 --> 00:28:52.277 I opened Logos to start recording, and it decided to show me an ad. 00:28:53.497 --> 00:29:01.817 For Logos, granted, which made me a little annoyed, since it was an ad for, have your whole congregation sign up for Logos, and pay us some amount of money. 00:29:03.157 --> 00:29:06.637 But we went into that in one of the episodes of Stone Choir, of course. 00:29:06.897 --> 00:29:07.837 Pay wall and god. 00:29:08.077 --> 00:29:10.897 But anyway, this list of the tribes, right? 00:29:10.897 --> 00:29:13.877 12,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel. 00:29:14.277 --> 00:29:14.677 Okay. 00:29:15.577 --> 00:29:24.357 So, if it were, in fact, a literal listing of 12,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel, meaning Jacob Israel, right? 00:29:25.097 --> 00:29:26.957 Because that's part of the equation here. 00:29:27.297 --> 00:29:30.937 Then we have a very real problem for the men who try to interpret it that way, right? 00:29:32.397 --> 00:29:35.237 Well, we have Joseph, right? 00:29:36.917 --> 00:29:38.177 Where's Ephraim? 00:29:38.717 --> 00:29:39.517 He's not there. 00:29:40.077 --> 00:29:40.517 Okay. 00:29:40.697 --> 00:29:41.577 Levi is here. 00:29:41.717 --> 00:29:42.037 Okay. 00:29:42.037 --> 00:29:44.457 He's one of the tribe, but he didn't inherit. 00:29:44.457 --> 00:29:47.757 And so, usually, the listings of the tribes don't necessarily include him. 00:29:48.837 --> 00:29:49.817 We do have Manasseh. 00:29:50.017 --> 00:29:52.537 So, we have the brother of Ephraim, but we don't have Ephraim. 00:29:53.057 --> 00:29:56.337 And Dan's not here. 00:29:56.857 --> 00:29:58.157 He's disappeared. 00:29:58.797 --> 00:30:09.417 Judah's listed first, which gives you your first hint, really, that this is symbolic, because he's not the first born, but he is the one from whom Christ is descended. 00:30:09.417 --> 00:30:10.057 So, it makes sense for him. 00:30:10.057 --> 00:30:10.717 Then you've got Reuben. 00:30:10.717 --> 00:30:11.497 That makes sense. 00:30:11.977 --> 00:30:19.037 But there are a number of things in this list that just don't make any sense if you take it as a literal list. 00:30:19.337 --> 00:30:26.277 And that's true even for the dispensationalists who try to deal with this, because you can tell them, well, why is this different from every list in the Old Testament? 00:30:26.277 --> 00:30:29.197 And they hem and haw, and they never give you an answer, and then they probably scurry away. 00:30:30.017 --> 00:30:32.877 But this is symbolic. 00:30:32.957 --> 00:30:34.077 This is Revelation. 00:30:34.077 --> 00:30:35.977 This is a symbolic book. 00:30:35.977 --> 00:30:36.957 It's a prophetic book. 00:30:37.477 --> 00:30:40.777 144,000 is 12 times 12 times 1,000. 00:30:41.577 --> 00:30:42.437 What are those numbers? 00:30:42.877 --> 00:30:43.897 Why those numbers? 00:30:44.217 --> 00:30:46.237 1,000 is a number of God's perfection. 00:30:46.697 --> 00:30:52.457 Because 10 is a number of completion or perfection, and then cubed, which is to say the Trinity, 1,000. 00:30:53.217 --> 00:30:56.217 I know this starts to sound a little weird, but it's Revelation. 00:30:56.217 --> 00:30:58.317 This is what happens when you're dealing with prophetic books. 00:30:58.977 --> 00:31:01.057 12 times 12 is 144. 00:31:01.697 --> 00:31:03.937 This is all of those who will be saved. 00:31:03.997 --> 00:31:09.757 And of course, 12 representing the Old Testament, 12 tribes, 12 representing the New Testament, 12 apostles. 00:31:10.177 --> 00:31:12.637 God likes to use numbers as symbols. 00:31:13.857 --> 00:31:14.757 So do we. 00:31:14.757 --> 00:31:17.337 So we can't really object to God liking to do it. 00:31:17.597 --> 00:31:18.557 We like to do it, too. 00:31:18.557 --> 00:31:24.417 Granted, we like to do it because he likes to do it, but that's just part of creation. 00:31:24.417 --> 00:31:26.017 It's part of how God operates. 00:31:26.017 --> 00:31:28.817 So these are symbolic. 00:31:28.997 --> 00:31:34.077 Again, this is all believers through all time, Old Testament and New. 00:31:34.077 --> 00:31:39.417 And now, at least, my mouse is finally showing up in Logos, although still not the interstitial menu. 00:31:39.817 --> 00:31:44.217 But at any rate, you know where the interpretation is for this because it's the very next paragraph. 00:31:45.097 --> 00:31:52.377 After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every tribe, nation, people, language, etc. 00:31:53.137 --> 00:31:54.497 That's what that is. 00:31:55.057 --> 00:31:55.957 Those are the same. 00:31:56.377 --> 00:31:59.017 This header should probably not be here. 00:31:59.017 --> 00:32:05.437 This header is inserted to confuse people by those who want you to turn to Judaizing. 00:32:06.517 --> 00:32:12.097 So usually, you know, you just go to formatting if you're in something like this, and turn off the non-Bible text right there. 00:32:12.277 --> 00:32:16.097 The distraction that isn't part of God's Word is now gone, because it doesn't belong there. 00:32:16.597 --> 00:32:18.477 And it's put there for a pernicious reason. 00:32:19.237 --> 00:32:21.437 In this case, not always, but in this case, yes. 00:32:22.017 --> 00:32:25.557 But the 144,000 and the great multitude are the same. 00:32:26.037 --> 00:32:32.757 And those are all of those who are saved, because they're the ones who are clothed in white robes and have washed themselves in the blood of the Lamb. 00:32:32.917 --> 00:32:33.897 Those are believers. 00:32:34.317 --> 00:32:35.517 That's all this means. 00:32:35.517 --> 00:32:48.897 And so, when someone tries to make some big deal about 144,000, usually it's a dispensationalist trying to say it's 144,000 literal Jews, literal Jewish men, they'll try to say, literal Jewish men who have never known a woman. 00:32:50.217 --> 00:32:51.117 It's just absurd. 00:32:51.117 --> 00:32:52.697 It's not supported by the text. 00:32:52.697 --> 00:33:00.377 It is reading their eschatology into the text instead of reading the text and letting the text interpret itself in light of the rest of scripture. 00:33:09.702 --> 00:33:14.582 The next question, actually, I have a sort of tangentially related one. 00:33:15.222 --> 00:33:43.202 This is not an official question, as it were, but I know someone said that he was currently torrenting the archive of Stone Choir, and I just wanted to comment that if you have a torrent client that supports URLs, not all of them do, some of them do, then you will get it much more quickly because the Stone Choir server also acts as a node, but only if your client supports URLs. 00:33:43.942 --> 00:33:46.322 So I don't know what the health is of that torrent. 00:33:46.322 --> 00:33:50.702 I have not looked at it recently, so I don't know if there are a lot of cedars or not. 00:33:54.202 --> 00:33:57.422 Just copying a question from chat so that I will have it for later. 00:34:07.994 --> 00:34:09.254 Next question. 00:34:11.154 --> 00:34:13.394 Question nine, do you enjoy singing? 00:34:13.554 --> 00:34:15.234 Ever sing in the choir? 00:34:15.714 --> 00:34:20.094 I am new to Lutheranism, and have quite enjoyed the hymns, and trying to find my singing voice. 00:34:20.974 --> 00:34:27.634 My voice fluctuates between bass and an octave higher, and not sure how to find where my comfortable range is. 00:34:29.634 --> 00:34:35.974 So as far as finding your comfortable range, part of it's just going to be literally what's comfortable. 00:34:35.974 --> 00:34:39.874 I can probably get rid of Logos now, but I don't need that. 00:34:40.494 --> 00:34:45.054 If you find that when you are singing, your voice gets scratchy, right? 00:34:45.054 --> 00:34:46.454 You're doing something wrong. 00:34:46.674 --> 00:34:52.114 That's a really good place to start for figuring out what your range is. 00:34:53.054 --> 00:34:58.934 There's also just your natural singing range is going to be relatively close to your natural speaking voice? 00:34:59.454 --> 00:35:00.214 Probably. 00:35:00.434 --> 00:35:01.194 There are exceptions. 00:35:01.194 --> 00:35:02.914 There are some extreme exceptions. 00:35:02.914 --> 00:35:08.494 I can think of some opera singers where night and day, you hear them talking versus singing. 00:35:08.954 --> 00:35:13.774 But generally speaking, you're going to be in the same rough area with your speaking voice and your singing voice. 00:35:14.114 --> 00:35:16.134