The Strange Beauty Science Can’t Explain | Douglas Axe

Family Unfriendly: Do Americans Hate Children? | Timothy P. Carney

Faith and family are civilizational cornerstones. Remove them and the structure loses its integrity. American culture—and much of the West—has done exactly that as we’ve become increasingly “family unfriendly.” Timothy P. Carney wrote Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be because he believes America is failing our families and that this failure is the biggest story of the next 30 years. I couldn’t agree more. A culture that idolizes individuality does so at the cost of community. We have abandoned our obligations to others—especially to children and parents. Parenting is already hard, and yet our culture seems determined to make it harder. Having kids has become just another lifestyle choice—a far cry from historical norms and biological realities. What changed? According to Carney, the answer is culture itself. Ours has become less friendly to parenting than it used to be—and should be. He joins Dave Hanegraaff on Commitment to Reality to talk about how we got here, what we’ve lost, and what it would take to build a culture that actually loves children. To learn more about receiving Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be for your partnering gift please click here.  [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-family-unfriendly-how-our-culture-made-raising-kids-much-harder-than-it-needs-to-be/]https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-family-unfriendly-how-our-culture-made-raising-kids-much-harder-than-it-needs-to-be/ Thank you for joining Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts. Also discussed on this episode: * Why parenthood is a cheat code for virtue * Helicopter parents vs. free-range parents * Why we owe our children freedom * The myth of “chosen families” * How to win culture wars by building culture  * The Israeli kids waiting at street corners — and what it says about our cultural failures * Why we should have lower expectations for our kids (and higher ambitions) * Where the government should never be neutral * Why “babies everywhere” would be a better world (Timestamps below.) 0:00 — Do Americans hate children? 6:00 — Why America becoming less family focused is the biggest story of the next 30 years 12:00 — When kids are around, people are better 14:50 — Reintroducing virtue to our society 21:00 — Why we need to depend more on others 25:30 — Helicopter parents vs free range parents 28:30 — The abandonment of social responsibility 33:00 — We owe our children freedom—otherwise we are harming them 35:30 — The problem with life hacks is they often avoid real life 39:25 — The myth of “chosen families” 46:00 — Have lower expectations for your kids (and high ambitions) 50:05 — Cultural institutions need to step 57:00 — You win culture wars by building culture—Friday Night on the Field 1:08:30 — The reality is that families need cultural support 1:12:10 — Where are we most eager to ignore reality? 1:13:10 — In a world that feels increasingly unreal—what feels most real?

The Strange Beauty Science Can’t Explain | Douglas Axe

The Story of Everything is one of the most important films to hit theaters in years. It's also one of the most beautiful films about science that you might ever see.   On this episode, Dave Hanegraaff is joined by biologist Doug Axe, one of the film's key figures, to unpack what it argues, why it matters, and what it means when scientists themselves are being confronted by evidence they can't explain away no matter how desperate they might be to disprove the reality of God.    It's a conversation for skeptics, seekers, and anyone who's ever wondered if the universe is really just blind accident or an intricately woven tapestry that science alone cannot explain—but can illuminate.    The path to truth leads through beauty.    The Story of Everything is a film about science that ends with a crescendo of beauty, beauty, beauty.    Please see related resources by authors featured in the film below:  Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-undeniable-how-biology-confirms-our-intuition-that-life-is-designed-atcr/] by Douglas Ax [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-undeniable-how-biology-confirms-our-intuition-that-life-is-designed-atcr/] https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-undeniable-how-biology-confirms-our-intuition-that-life-is-designed-atcr/ [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-undeniable-how-biology-confirms-our-intuition-that-life-is-designed-atcr/]   Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe by Stephen Meyer  [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-return-of-the-god-hypothesis-three-scientific-discoveries-that-reveal-the-mind-behind-the-universe-actr/] https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-return-of-the-god-hypothesis-three-scientific-discoveries-that-reveal-the-mind-behind-the-universe-actr/ [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-return-of-the-god-hypothesis-three-scientific-discoveries-that-reveal-the-mind-behind-the-universe-actr/]  The Privileged Planet (20th Anniversary Edition-2024): How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery by Jay Richards and Guillermo Gonzalez. [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-privileged-planet-20th-anniversary-edition-2024-how-our-place-in-the-cosmos-is-designed-for-discovery-atcr/] https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-privileged-planet-20th-anniversary-edition-2024-how-our-place-in-the-cosmos-is-designed-for-discovery-atcr/ [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-privileged-planet-20th-anniversary-edition-2024-how-our-place-in-the-cosmos-is-designed-for-discovery-atcr/]   Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality [https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality]   (Timestamps below.)   0:00 — Intro / How Douglas Axe got involved with The Story of Everything film 3:00 — Undeniable—how biology confirms our intuition that life is designed   7:00 — The two competing stories or narratives about reality 10:00 — The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe 15:00 — The price advocates of Intelligent Design have had to pay over the course of their scientific careers 16:30 — Surprising rebirth of the belief in God—is that happening in the sciences?  19:00 — The key concepts behind The Story of Everything  21:00— Why does it matter if the universe had a beginning or not?  22:30 — Why are so many scientists desperate to disprove the reality of God 25:00 — The multiverse theory is evidence of desperation  28:35 — Materialism and free-will cannot coexist 29:30 — Was there a first cell? 30:50 — What does Darwinian evolution explain well?  33:15 — Why is the discovery of information such as DNA such a big deal? 35:40— The power of visual representations in a film like The Story of Everything to help non-experts understand science 37:00 — Intellectual honesty and the search for truth 39:55 — What is specified complexity? 41:40 — Why specified complexity infers design 43:00 — The constraints of time for evolutionary theories 45:10 — The hard problem of consciousness 51:30 — The beauty principle—“it’s so beautiful it must be true” 54:50 — Would the discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe contradict Christianity?

Sin Isn’t Your Main Problem—Art of Unseen Warfare | Justin Marler

Sin is a problem. But, one of the great psychological tragedies of the West is a misunderstanding of sin. We turned it into a legal category — a list of infractions — and lost what the word actually means: missing the mark. The ancient Church didn't start with sin. It started with the passions — the disordered desires that pull us off target before we ever act. When we misunderstand the reality of sin, it makes it much harder to overcome the passions—which are the real problem.  But, make no mistake, we are at war. The Church Fathers knew this. They trained for it. They built entire traditions around it. As St. John Chrysostom put it, “Our warfare does not make the living dead, but rather makes the dead live.” Powerful.    And then we forgot. Or worse, we’re ignoring the battle we’re in.   Like any good father, Justin Marler—former punk guitarist turned Orthodox monk turned author—wants the best for his children. Leaning on the legacy left by the Church Fathers, Justin has provided his children—and us—with a survival guide for life with his book The Art of Unseen Warfare: Ancient Teachers for the Modern Fighter.    In this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Justin and Dave cover such issues as why monks are the real punks, why trying actually matters, why the virtues are skills you practice and not feelings you have, why God wants progress and not perfection, why suffering is a gift and not a problem to solve, and what happens when you stop asking "Am I saved?" and start asking "Where am I right now — heaven or hell?" For more information on receiving Justin's book The Art of Unseen Warfare: Ancient Teachers for the Modern Fighter [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-art-of-unseen-warfare-ancient-teachings-for-the-modern-fighter/]please click here. [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-art-of-unseen-warfare-ancient-teachings-for-the-modern-fighter/] https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-art-of-unseen-warfare-ancient-teachings-for-the-modern-fighter/ Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality [https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality] (Timestamps below.)   0:00 — Intro / Unseen Warfare: A Guidebook for Life 1:45 — From a punk to a monk  5:45 — Life in a monastery 7:55 — The education of everyday monasticism vs “traditional” modern education 10:35 — Practicing detachment while also embracing the beauty of life  17:00 — Having a healthy discomfort with the world 23:45 — The difference between the passions and sin and the baggage with the way so many people perceive sin 30:45 — The world is soul-sick and the Church is the hospital 33:45 — The purpose of life is to become a saint 36:45 — We need to try in life, to work out our salvation and become what we were created to be 41:20 — Why is it necessary for Christians to have the mindset of a fighter in battle? 45:55 — The modern book of virtue—we don’t talk enough about the virtues 51:30 — Trying to understand the will of God is all about developing a relationship with God 56:30 — The virtues are something we practice like anything else we want to get better at  1:00:45 — The problem with apologetics 1:08:35 — Should Christians spend time online? 1:10:15 — The reality of the unseen realm 1:12:45 — Suffering is a gift 1:17:40 — The reality of spiritual warfare 1:21:45 — We don’t talk enough about guardian angels 1:32:30 — You don’t earn your salvation, but you do work for it 1:34:45 — Salvation is a living process, you can experience heaven and hell on earth  1:38:55 — Where are we most eager to look away from reality? 1:40:15 — In a world that feels increasingly unreal, what feels most real?

Christian Atheism: God as an Idea Is No God at All | Fr. Stephen Freeman

Re-Enchantment—Everyone is talking about it these days.  But, you can’t re-enchant something that always was. We are simply realizing the reality of Enchantment. In this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Fr. Stephen Freeman joins Dave Hanegraaff to remind us that the world has always been Enchanted—we have just been ignoring that reality. Secularism has caused many modern people—even Christians—to misunderstand the reality of the world we live in. Modern life has flattened our conception of reality into something purely material, neutral, and abstract. Many Christians have even made God an abstraction—something Fr. Stephen Freeman calls Christian Atheism. But, God as an abstraction is no God at all. God is everywhere, present and filling all things.  This leads to a myriad of misunderstandings—including something as important as our salvation. Salvation is about being restored to reality itself: to God, to others, and to the world as it truly is. Glory to God, in all things. For more information on Fr. Freeman's book Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe please click here.  [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-everywhere-present-christianity-in-a-one-storey-universe/] https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-everywhere-present-christianity-in-a-one-storey-universe/  Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality [https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality] (Timestamps below.) 0:00 — Intro / The Story of Fr. Stephen Freeman 6:45 — Enchantment 9:45 — Understanding the “one-storey universe” 16:45 — Reality is a gift. Be thankful for it, in all things 18:45 — The true meaning of secularism 21:30 — There is no neutrality in the public square 24:15 — How Marxist rhetoric is used 26:25 — Secularism is heresy 30:00 — God as an idea is no God at all — Christian atheism 35:40 — The reality of salvation 40:30 — Salvation is not a legal problem, but a problem of communion 49:30 — Total depravity, the imago dei, and the goodness of creation 56:00 — Modernity, materialism, and money 1:00:00 — We have so much to learn from the poor 1:07:25 — Did history end with the Resurrection? 1:10:45 — Become a fool for Chris t1:13:00 — Technology and progress are not always what they seem 1:18:15 — Literalism is the enemy of reality 1:20:10 — We don’t weep enough 1:23:15 — Who do you hate? Your work starts there 1:31:45 — What happens to a culture that can no longer name what it sees? 1:33:25 — Where are we most eager to look away from reality? 1:34:30 — In a world that feels increasingly unreal, what feels most real to you? 1:38:25 — Glory to God in ALL things

Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine | Joshua Pauling

Are we all cyborgs now? We’re not just building machines that act like humans. We’re becoming humans that act like machines. In a world obsessed with whether AI can become human, far less attention is given to the way we are sacrificing our humanity at the altar of data, efficiency, and optimization. This is not inevitable. We can reclaim our humanity from the machine by making a commitment to reality—embracing our embodiment and the physical world around us. Making a commitment to reality means being intentional and communal in our assessment of every new technological breakthrough—and how we incorporate it, or don’t, into our lives. We must ask hard questions—and make even harder decisions. Where do we draw the line? On this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Joshua Pauling joins Dave Hanegraaff to discuss Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machinehttps://amzn.to/4snLJhH (co-authored with Robin Phillips), and what it means to remain human in an age increasingly defined by abstraction, efficiency, and disembodiment. Because we weren’t made for “datafication”—but for deification—communion with creation and the Creator. For more information on the book Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine  please click here. [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-are-we-all-cyborgs-now-reclaiming-our-humanity-from-the-machine/] https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-are-we-all-cyborgs-now-reclaiming-our-humanity-from-the-machine/ Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality [https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality] (Timestamps below.) 0:00 — Intro / Have we made a technological deal with the devil? 3:30 — Forget the Turing test, what about humans choosing to live as machines? 5:50— The rapid pace of technological change 7:45 — How is digital technology different from past technologies? 10:45 — Why start a book on technology by writing about woodworking? 13:45 — Gnosticism—how did our body become the enemy of our lives? 18:15 — Personal Practices that help us live an embodied life 20:55 — Intentionality 23:25 — Will the Amish have the last laugh? (What we can learn from the Amish) 28:15 — The distinction between access and ownership 29:45 — Who were the Luddites and what can we learn from them? 31:45 — Monastic wisdom for our world today 35:45 — Should we be missionaries online? 38:30 — Can you go to church online? 40:30 — The problem with viewing church as education 45:30 — Does a memorial view of the sacraments make light of our embodiment? 46:45— We were made for deification not data processing and accumulation 50:45 — Where do we draw the line with technology? 54:30 —Human enhancement vs restoration—serious bioethical questions on the horizon 58:30—Tech realism, pessimism or optimism? 1:00:00 —The need for intentional, communal reaction and resistance to the machine 1:04:00 — What is the joy of thingness? 1:07:00—What is true leisure and how can it save us? 1:09:50—the importance of No Agenda togetherness 1:13:10 —Can hospitality save the world? 1:17:00—Lightning round questions about reality