Faith can wire the brain to accept important claims without adequate evidence. That may feel harmless when the subject is an unfalsifiable God. It becomes dangerous when the same habit leaks into decisions about money, debt, medicine, politics, or who deserves your trust.
Life Surge is an almost perfect example. Customers entered an intensely Christian environment, surrounded by worship, religious language, and trusted Christian celebrities, and some ended up being pitched financial education costing tens of thousands of dollars. Some say financing, credit cards, and even home equity entered the conversation.
And then there is Tim Tebow, who somehow says he was “caught off guard” by all of this after repeatedly lending Life Surge his Christian reputation.
The customers had faith in Tim Tebow. Tebow apparently had faith in Life Surge. Joe Johnson had a business model.
Guess which one was doing the critical thinking.
Faith Wires the Brain to Believe Without Evidence
I am an atheist, and one of my biggest problems with faith has never been simply that I don’t believe in God.
It is that faith is a terrible method for figuring out what is true.
Faith teaches people that believing without sufficient evidence can be virtuous. Sometimes the lack of evidence is almost the point. Doubt becomes something to overcome. Trust becomes admirable. Conviction becomes evidence of character.
That is a horrible mental habit to carry into parts of life where being wrong can destroy you.
Believe in an invisible deity without evidence and perhaps nothing material happens.
Believe that a salesman surrounded by Christian celebrities deserves your trust without evidence and suddenly you might be putting $30,000 on credit cards.
The habit does not necessarily stay inside the church.
That is the problem.
Life Surge Shows Exactly How This Can Go Wrong
Life Surge hosts large Christian events featuring worship, motivational messages, celebrities, athletes, and talk about building wealth for “Kingdom impact.”
Tickets can be inexpensive. The company says people can often attend for around $20.
Then comes the financial education.
At the arena event, attendees can be encouraged to purchase a $97 three-day class. From there, customers have described being offered advanced programs costing roughly $10,000 to $40,000. Reporting has also described customers being connected with financing and, in some cases, discussions involving credit cards or home-equity borrowing. Life Surge says it does not train employees to pressure people into unaffordable debt or use religious faith to force purchases.
Stop there for a second.
You are considering borrowing against your house to buy an investment course.
At that moment, faith should be thrown out of the room.
Not reduced.
Not balanced against evidence.
Removed entirely.
The correct response is ruthless skepticism.
Show me the results.
Show me the median customer outcome.
Show me how many students make back the tuition.
Show me how many lose money.
Show me refund rates.
Show me independent verification.
Show me why this information is worth $30,000.
Show me why I shouldn’t spend $30 on three respected investing books instead.
And explain why a company supposedly teaching me how to become financially successful thinks my first smart financial move should be borrowing against my home to pay them.
If somebody has to teach you how to become wealthy by first persuading you to go into debt to make them wealthier, perhaps the first lesson has already arrived.
Religion Can Turn Skepticism Into a Character Defect
This is the especially poisonous part.
A normal financial objection sounds like this:
“This is too expensive. I don’t have enough evidence that it is worth the money.”
Good.
That is your brain working.
A manipulative sales environment wants that voice silenced.
Religion can provide an incredibly useful vocabulary for doing exactly that.
Don’t operate from fear.
Trust.
Have faith.
God brought you here.
Take the leap.
Don’t let doubt hold you back.
Don’t let “the enemy” interfere.
Now rational hesitation has been transformed into a spiritual problem.
That is epistemological poison.
The correct reaction when someone wants tens of thousands of dollars from you is doubt. Your discomfort may be the healthiest thought you’ve had all day.
If someone responds to your financial skepticism by invoking God, destiny, faith, obedience, spiritual purpose, or Satan, put your wallet away.
Immediately.
The Christian Branding Is Not Evidence of Anything
This seems obvious until apparently it isn’t.
A person being Christian tells you essentially nothing about whether his investment course is worth $30,000.
Tim Tebow being onstage tells you nothing about expected trading returns.
Worship music tells you nothing about real-estate risk.
A Bible verse tells you nothing about whether taking out a home-equity loan is intelligent.
“Kingdom impact” tells you nothing about the value of a financial curriculum.
Yet put all those things together and the organization can feel safer.
That’s the trick.
“These people share my faith” quietly becomes:
“These people are trustworthy.”
But those statements have no logical connection.
You have substituted tribal familiarity for evidence.
And people who understand human psychology can make a tremendous amount of money in that gap.
Then Tim Tebow Makes the Whole Thing Darkly Funny
The Life Surge story becomes almost too perfect when Tim Tebow enters it.
Customers trusted Life Surge partly because people such as Tebow were associated with it.
Tebow’s entire public image is constructed around faith, charity, character, and Christian integrity. That credibility is immensely valuable.
Then the investigation lands, and Tebow says he was “caught off guard.”
Apparently he didn’t know enough about what was happening.
That is extraordinary.
The public was supposed to look at Tim Tebow and think:
“If Tebow associates with these people, they must be trustworthy.”
Meanwhile Tebow seemingly looked at Life Surge and thought something close to:
“They’re Christian. Seems fine.”
It’s a perfect circle of misplaced trust.
Customers trusted Tebow.
Tebow trusted Life Surge.
And Life Surge collected the money.
Tebow now says his team is investigating.
A little late.
Tebow Apparently Forgot How to Use Google
The excuse becomes even more pathetic when you look at Life Surge founder Joe Johnson.
Johnson’s history was not hidden.
The Philadelphia Inquirer had already documented his lengthy business history before the current scandal. Johnson previously worked with Get Motivated Seminars and owned WealthRock, which sold investment education. Get Motivated itself used celebrity-filled arena events followed by opportunities to purchase expensive financial courses.
Johnson later became involved in a spectacular multimillion-dollar dispute surrounding his purchase of Get Motivated. He then founded Welfont, whose bargain-sale real-estate transactions generated lawsuits and eventually federal scrutiny.
You don’t need to decide that every allegation against Johnson was true to reach the obvious conclusion:
Maybe investigate this guy before repeatedly lending him Tim Tebow’s reputation.
Then look at current Life Surge CEO Jeremy Nosek.
Nosek spent years at Online Trading Academy, including as chief marketing officer. The FTC later sued OTA over claims used to sell investment-training programs costing as much as $50,000. The FTC described a funnel beginning with introductory seminars, followed by a $299 orientation, followed by expensive programs sold by commissioned “Education Counselors” trained to lead prospects through something literally called the “Pain Funnel.” Financing at 18% interest was also part of the system described by the FTC. OTA ultimately settled and provided substantial consumer debt relief. Nosek himself was not one of the named defendants.
Again:
Maybe ask a question.
For a man whose public persona revolves around moral conviction, Tebow appears to have displayed astonishingly little curiosity.
He apparently had faith.
What he needed was Google.
This Is Why Faith Is Such a Bad Epistemology
I’m not arguing that every religious person is stupid.
Plenty of religious people are brilliant.
The problem is the method.
A brilliant person can still compartmentalize. They can demand extraordinary evidence in a laboratory, a courtroom, or a boardroom, then enter a religious environment and suddenly treat trust without evidence as admirable.
That mental switch is dangerous.
Reality does not care how sincere you are.
Interest compounds whether you prayed first.
A home-equity lender does not forgive your balance because the man who persuaded you to borrow quoted scripture.
The stock market does not care that a seminar felt spiritually meaningful.
Your mortgage does not care about “Kingdom impact.”
Reality eventually collects its payment.
Grifters Need Trust More Than They Need Stupid People
This is another important distinction.
A good grifter does not need stupid victims.
They need people who suspend skepticism in one particular context.
Doctors get scammed.
Lawyers get scammed.
Engineers join cults.
Successful businesspeople fall for ridiculous investments.
Human beings are exceptionally good at reasoning when they are emotionally detached and surprisingly bad at it once identity, fear, hope, authority, or belonging enters the equation.
Religion can combine nearly all of those forces.
You get authority.
Community.
Shared identity.
Moral certainty.
Hope.
Fear.
Social proof.
And then someone adds a famous Christian athlete.
That’s a remarkably powerful environment in which to ask someone for money.
The Lesson Is Brutally Simple
If somebody asks you to believe in God, make whatever decision you want.
If somebody asks you for $30,000, stop having faith.
Demand evidence.
If somebody wants you to open new credit cards, demand more evidence.
If somebody wants you to borrow against your home, demand extraordinary evidence and then go get an independent financial adviser who has absolutely nothing to gain from your purchase.
And if the person asking for your money starts talking about God instead of answering your questions, leave.
Faith may be comforting.
It may create community.
It may give people meaning.
But it is a pathetic substitute for critical thinking when reality has measurable consequences.
Life Surge demonstrates why.
Some customers appear to have allowed Christian credibility to substitute for financial scrutiny.
Tim Tebow, by his own “caught off guard” explanation, appears to have allowed trust to substitute for basic due diligence himself.
And sitting in the middle were experienced businessmen who understood something much more concrete:
Trust can be monetized.
The customers had faith in Tim Tebow.
Tim Tebow apparently had faith in Life Surge.
Joe Johnson had a business model.
That should tell you everything you need to know about which mindset is safest when someone asks for your money.
References
The Associated Press reported on September 25, 2026 that Tebow paused his Life Surge relationship, called the allegations serious, and said he had been “caught off guard.”
Pablo Torre Finds Out published Life Surge’s full response to its investigation, including the company’s denial that it uses religious pressure or encourages customers to take on unaffordable debt.
The Philadelphia Inquirer documented Life Surge’s sales funnel and Joe Johnson’s history with Get Motivated, WealthRock, Welfont, and related financial disputes.
The Federal Trade Commission’s Online Trading Academy materials describe its high-priced financial training, commissioned sales system, “Pain Funnel,” financing arrangements, subsequent settlement, and consumer debt relief.