{"id":44133,"date":"2011-05-02T03:08:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T03:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/"},"modified":"2011-05-02T03:08:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T03:08:00","slug":"research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Shows We Can&#8217;t Walk in a Straight Line"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For some reason, human beings can&#39;t walk in a straight line. There&#39;s just something about our inner orientation that causes us to walk in a crooked or warped way. That&#39;s the conclusion of Robert Krulwich, science correspondent for NPR. In an interview on <em class=\"citation\">Morning Edition<\/em>, Krulwich cites a study from Jan Souman, a scientist from Germany, who blindfolded his subjects and then asked them to walk for an hour in a straight line. Without exception, people couldn&#39;t do it. Of course everybody <em>thinks<\/em> they&#39;re walking in a straight line, until they remove the blindfolds and sees their crooked path.<\/p>\n\n<p>Krulwich observed,<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>This tendency has been studied now for at least a century. We animated field tests from the 1920s, so you can literally see what happens to men who are blindfolded and told to walk across a field in a straight line, or swim across a lake in a straight line &hellip;, and they couldn&#39;t. In the animation, you see them going in these strange loop-de-loops in either direction. Apparently, there&#39;s a profound inability in humans to [walk] straight.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>According to this research, there&#39;s only one way we can walk in a straight line: by focusing on something ahead of us&mdash;like a building, a landmark, or a mountain. If we can fix our eyes on something ahead of us, we can make ourselves avoid our normal crooked course. Kurlwich concludes, &quot;Without external cues, there&#39;s apparently something in us that makes us turn [from a straight path].&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3695,3761,3802,3945,3996,4180,4181,4248,4394,4524,4560,4575,4675,4772,4909,4977,4978,5038],"tax_ctp_topics":[397],"class_list":["post-44133","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-corruption","tax_ctp_tags-dependence-on-god","tax_ctp_tags-disobedience","tax_ctp_tags-fall-of-humanity","tax_ctp_tags-flesh","tax_ctp_tags-human-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-human-nature","tax_ctp_tags-iniquity","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-natural-man","tax_ctp_tags-old-man","tax_ctp_tags-original-sin","tax_ctp_tags-powerlessness","tax_ctp_tags-rebellion","tax_ctp_tags-self-centeredness","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-sin-nature","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-bondage"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Research Shows We Can&#039;t Walk in a Straight Line - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research Shows We Can&#039;t Walk in a Straight Line - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For some reason, human beings can&#039;t walk in a straight line. There&#039;s just something about our inner orientation that causes us to walk in a crooked or warped way. That&#039;s the conclusion of Robert Krulwich, science correspondent for NPR. In an interview on Morning Edition, Krulwich cites a study from Jan Souman, a scientist from Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/\",\"name\":\"Research Shows We Can't Walk in a Straight Line - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-02T03:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-02T03:08:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Research Shows We Can&#8217;t Walk in a Straight Line\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Research Shows We Can't Walk in a Straight Line - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-we-cant-walk-in-straight-line\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Research Shows We Can't Walk in a Straight Line - CT Pastors","og_description":"For some reason, human beings can&#39;t walk in a straight line. 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