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A Commitment to Reality

A Commitment to Reality

By: Christian Research Institute
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Hosted by Dave Hanegraaff

A 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
  • Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine with Joshua Pauling

    Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine with Joshua Pauling
    Mar 24 2026
    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 Machine (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/

    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 / 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
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    1 hr and 20 mins
  • What Part of You Has Come Here to Die? Recovering a Wild Christianity with Martin Shaw

    What Part of You Has Come Here to Die? Recovering a Wild Christianity with Martin Shaw
    Mar 10 2026
    “What part of you has come here to die?”

    It’s a question that Martin Shaw—one of our great living storytellers—is famous for asking.

    Shaw offers these kinds of provocations to a Western world where Christianity has largely been domesticated and desperately needs to recover its wildness.

    Prayer doesn’t feel real to you?

    Rip up a twenty-dollar bill every time you pray.

    On your phone too much?

    Smash it with a hammer.

    Have something you need to confess but are afraid to tell another living soul?

    Dig a “confessional hole” in the ground with your bare hands and shout it into the earth.

    In this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Shaw joins Dave Hanegraaff to explore how to recover a wild Christianity in a world where faith for many has become cold, abstract, and domesticated.

    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 / Friends in Common Recovering Wild Christianity
    2:20 — Belief is cool again—Atheism is for old people
    3:45 — Aesthetic Arrest
    6:45 — You don’t want persona, you want presence
    8:00 — Make a covenant with limit in a culture of excess
    13:55 — Growing up the son of a preacher man
    17:15 — The cost of becoming religious
    23:05 — What is myth? (And why is it not what we think?)
    27:30 — On Sectarian Christianity
    30:00 — Theology without practice is the theology of demons
    31:35 — Night vigils and reclaiming initiation rites
    35:50 — What part of you has come to die?
    42:15 — His home burned down—Discussion of losing everything.
    45:00 — What is a saint?
    46:35 — Death — how can we breathe new life into death?
    50:40 — The value of a good cry
    53:45 — How to tell our stories differently
    56:00 — On your phone too much? Smash it
    57:10 — Struggling with prayer? Rip up money when you pray
    59:20 — Confessional holes—dig a hole with your hands and confess into the earth
    1:00:40 — In a world that feels unreal, what feels real?
    1:02:30 — Johnny Cash had a Boy Named Sue. Glen Hansard has a Boy Named Grace: Dave tells the story of naming his son Grace.
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • When Ideas Meet Reality — Economics, AI, and Fasting with Jay Richards

    When Ideas Meet Reality — Economics, AI, and Fasting with Jay Richards
    Feb 24 2026
    Jay Richards and Dave Hanegraaff explore why reality requires commitment, embodiment, and disciplined practices that keep us grounded when our digital lives lead us into abstraction.

    This is a wide-ranging conversation, beginning with the reality of economics before diving deep into the accelerating presence and authority of AI and why the tech debate is ultimately about anthropology—what a human person is, and what we’re becoming.

    Jay makes the case for why the forgotten discipline of fasting is a forgotten fountain of fortitude—for body, mind and soul—especially in a culture of excess increasingly out of touch with reality.

    Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you listen.

    TIMESTAMPS

    00:00 – Intro
    00:30 – I used to hate you—the value of conversation and actually listening
    03:00 – How to change your mind
    05:15 – How social media bubbles create reality distortion
    07:35 – Go outside—embracing embodiment in a digitized world
    11:15 – Intentionality and going analog in an increasingly digital world
    15:10 – Beneficial uses of AI
    18:40 – We can’t stop AI: fear, inevitability, and panic
    20:20 – Metaphysics/anthropology: the real battleground beneath AI debates
    22:14 – Is AI demonic? What’s actually happening “under the hood” with AI tech?
    26:45 – “AI” is a marketing term—how that language shapes fear of AI
    28:30 – How AI could create a massive class divide
    32:25 – Mamdani and socialism—the power of images vs reality
    36:45 – The benefit of being able to say “I used to think that”
    41:25 – How to be productive
    45:00 – Why did most Christians stop fasting?
    50:00 – The appeal of ascetic practices in a culture of excess
    55:15 – Combatting spiritual warfare with fasting
    58:00 – Physical benefits of fasting explained—and how to begin
    1:08:30 – Why flipping the old food pyramid is a great idea
    1:13:00 – I hate talking about fasting—but we need to talk about fasting
    1:16:20 – How Eastern Christianity can lead a revival in fasting for all Christians
    1:18:10 – The forgotten gift of fasting seasons like Advent and Lent
    1:19:00 – “A feast without a fast is a strange, half-finished thing”
    1:23:30 – Fasting is a skill—how to start
    1:26:00 – Best practices for grounding us in reality
    1:27:40 – Where are we most eager to look away from reality?
    1:31:55 – Understanding what A Commitment to Reality means
    1:32:35 – In a world that feels increasingly unreal, what feels real to you?
    1:34:00 – New Atheism is dead
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    1 hr and 36 mins
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