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Commitment to Reality

Commitment to Reality

Written by: Christian Research Institute
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Hosted by Dave Hanegraaff

Commitment to Reality is a podcast for a post-truth—and increasingly post-reality—age. We are living through one of the most disorienting periods in human history—leaving many to wonder: What is reality? As artificial intelligence accelerates and institutional trust erodes, our shared sense of what is real continues to crumble. Reality is the way the world truly is—independent of our beliefs, opinions, or illusions. If truth is the map by which we navigate our lives, then it is no surprise that we feel disoriented when we live by lies. The post-truth, post-reality crisis is not merely an intellectual problem; it is an existential one. A commitment to reality is a dedication to discerning what is true and developing the discipline to live in alignment with that truth—with reality. This podcast is an apologetic for reality—each episode serving as an intentional act of grounding our existence together as we commit to what is beautiful, good, and true.Copyright Christian Research Institute Spirituality
Episodes
  • Family Unfriendly: Do Americans Hate Children? | Timothy P. Carney

    Family Unfriendly: Do Americans Hate Children? | Timothy P. Carney
    May 19 2026
    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/


    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?
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 15 mins
  • The Strange Beauty Science Can’t Explain | Douglas Axe

    The Strange Beauty Science Can’t Explain | Douglas Axe
    May 5 2026
    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 by Douglas Ax 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/ 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/ 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 (Timestamps below.) 0:00 — Intro / How Douglas Axe got involved with The Story of Everything film3:00 — Undeniable—how biology confirms our intuition that life is designed 7:00 — The two competing stories or narratives about reality10:00 — 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 careers16:30 — 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 God25:00 — The multiverse theory is evidence of desperation 28:35 — Materialism and free-will cannot coexist29:30 — 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 science37:00 — Intellectual honesty and the search for truth39:55 — What is specified complexity?41:40 — Why specified complexity infers design43:00 — The constraints of time for evolutionary theories45:10 — The hard problem of consciousness51:30 — 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?
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Sin Isn’t Your Main Problem—Art of Unseen Warfare | Justin Marler

    Sin Isn’t Your Main Problem—Art of Unseen Warfare | Justin Marler
    Apr 21 2026
    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 please click here. 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

    (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?
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 41 mins
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