Commitment to Reality

Long after you’re born, your mother’s body continues to carry your cells—and you carry hers. The science behind this phenomenon is called fetomaternal microchimerism, and by bringing attention to this reality Dr. Kristin Collier dismantles the modern myth that we are isolated, autonomous, self-made individuals. The significance of relational biology is that you are never alone.  

On its own, the science is fascinating. But it becomes something far more profound when you consider the theological implications—especially for the Theotokos, the God-bearer who carried the very cells of Christ within her body—and her cells within His.

In this conversation, the University of Michigan physician—whose 2022 white coat address famously provoked a walkout—explores how faith and reason work best together, why medicine has become an idol for many, and what it truly means to see human beings as embodied persons rather than machines. Dr. Collier makes a compelling case for a proper view of health as right relationship, the power of story in medicine, and the deep biological and spiritual reality that we are never truly alone.  

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:The white coat walkout and the myth of neutrality in the public square
Why faith and reason are like two wings 
The idol of medicine—and the deeper idol of health
Narrative medicine—why story is a doctor’s most important instrument
The placenta—the only organ two people create and share together
Gnosticism and our age of disenchantment
What it means to learn how to die well
(Timestamps below.)  
0:00 — The story of Kristin Collier
1:30 — From secular humanism to belief in Christ
8:15 — The white coat walkout at University of Michigan and the issue of viewpoint diversity 
11:50 — The two wings of faith and reason
18:45 — Have we made an idol out of science and medicine? 
23:50 — Health as an idol: A Christian perspective
31:50 — The importance of learning to die well
34:45 — What is health? Learning to see health as more than just the absence of disease
42:30 — We are not machines 
52:15 — Task completion is not care — Narrative medicine and the value of story in medical care 59:30 — Relational biology
1:08:45 — The placenta is the only organ in the human body created and shared by two people 1:10:50 — If we believe that life begins at fertilization, then our language and ethics should reflect that reality 
1:16:15 — Your mother still has your cells in her body (and you have hers)
1:19:45 — The theological implications of fetomaternal microchimerism for the Theotokos carrying the cells of Christ within her forever 
1:30:30 — Should scientific discovery and the theology of the body change the way Christians view Mary as the mother of God?
1:33:00 — Gnosticism and our age of disenchantment
1:36:30 — Where are we most eager to ignore reality?
1:46:35 — In a world that feels increasingly unreal, what feels most real?

We all have a pornography problem, whether we’ve ever watched pornography or not. The issue with pornography goes far beyond sex—it’s an issue of vision. How we view one another.

We have lost our ability to see properly, and when we lose our sense of spiritual vision, we reduce persons made in the image of God to objects for our consumption. Pornography is simply one of the most obvious ways that we objectify one another. The normalization and proliferation of pornography have disastrous consequences for the soul—consequences that extend far beyond pornography itself.

If pornography is demonic iconography, then an understanding of holy iconography can be used to reliably guide us back to reality. To regain our spiritual vision, we must learn to see every face we encounter as an icon of Christ. This includes our enemies. This involves learning to venerate rather than objectify.

Andrew Williams—mental health chaplain, psychotherapist, and author of From Object to Icon: The Struggle for Spiritual Vision in a Pornographic World—joins Dave Hanegraaff on Commitment to Reality to talk about how we lost our vision, and how we get it back.

For more information on From Object to Icon: The Struggle for Spiritual Vision in a Pornographic World please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-from-object-to-icon-the-struggle-for-spiritual-vision-in-a-pornographic-world/

Thank you for joining Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts.

(Timestamps below.)

0:00 — How does one define oneself?
3:00 — The biggest problem with pornography is a problem of vision
4:45 — What is pornography?
7:00 — We all have a pornography problem
11:20 — Training algorithms before they train us
14:00 — Practicing nepsis—the sober guarding of our soul
15:45 — The problem with thinking of sin as breaking a rule rather than deforming our soul
18:40 — Evil never exists in isolation, but is always the perversion of goodness
24:35 — Why is the act of confession so important?
28:00 — Why are icons important? (and not idolatrous)
36:45 — Why would we need iconography for prayer?
40:30 — What is veneration and why is it necessary in the life of a Christian?
44:45 — Embracing an icon and watching pornography are based on the same desire
49:30 — You can actually rightly venerate pornography
53:00 — The nous—the source of our spiritual vision
55:00 — Idolizing individualism is literally idiotic
57:30 — Imagination can be a dangerous thing
1:00:00 — It’s not enough to kill our desires, we must transform them
1:02:15 — We must accept that we are powerless—could anything be less American?
1:05:00 — How can we experience true freedom?
1:08:45 — What is true repentance?
1:12:00 — Why does the Church care so much about sex?
1:15:20 — Where are we most eager to ignore reality?
1:19:15 — In a world that feels increasingly unreal—what feels most real?
1:25:40 — The answer to the problem of pornography is real relationship and vulnerability
1:28:00 — Stand on the edge of the abyss. And when you feel it’s beyond your strength, break off and have a cup of tea

How we talk about miscarriage—or don’t talk about it—matters. Miscarriage is one of the most painful experiences a family can endure, yet we rarely speak of it. The silence is deafening, and it creates a culture of isolation for families bearing these lost gifts.

Dave and his wife recently experienced the pain of miscarriage, and he wanted to discuss it publicly with Brittany Lee Allen, author of Lost Gifts: Miscarriage, Grief, and the God of All Comfort.

At the same time, many Christians—and Churches—are not handling miscarriage in a way that reflects the reality of what we believe about life in the womb. If we truly believe that a pre-born child is a person with an eternal soul, then these children should be celebrated—and mourned—communally.

This is a hard conversation, but a necessary one. It is also a reminder of the hope to be found in the God of all comfort.

For more information on receiving   Lost Gifts: Miscarriage, Grief, and the God of All Comfort  please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-lost-gifts-miscarriage-grief-and-the-god-of-all-comfort/

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 the Church should break the 12-week rule
The Emotional Prosperity Gospel — and what it costs grieving Christians
What well-meaning Christians say that hurts the most
Praying the Psalms as a school of lament
Why our culture is so eager to look away from death
Suffering as gift — a paradox most of us would rather ignore
The parents who keep counting children no one else sees
“How many kids do you have?” — and the answer miscarriage makes us quietly weigh
(Timestamps below.)
0:00 — Why is it so hard for us to talk about miscarriage?
1:45 — My parents named and buried their miscarried child—and never stopped counting her
6:45 — My first experience with miscarriage
15:30 — The paradox of rainbow babies and our second experience with miscarriage
19:15 — Being happy in your situation, even if you’re not happy with your situation
20:30 — The Emotional Prosperity Gospel
23:00 — The importance of lament in the life of a Christian
26:00 — Why should we break the “12 week rule” for pregnancy announcements
30:40 — The Church needs to be the Church
32:30 — We are called to be the hands and feet of Christ
38:00 — Praying the Psalms
39:15 — Pregnancy after miscarriage is a battleground of fear and anxiety
46:30 — How should we talk about miscarriage? Also—what not to say?
53:00 — The Church needs to lead the way in changing how we discuss miscarriage
57:35 — Discussing infertility
1:00:00 — Becoming a parent is hard, but it is worth it
1:05:40 — Lost Gifts
1:07:30 — Theology of Suffering—Is suffering a gift?
1:11:00 — Why are we so eager to ignore the reality of death?
1:14:25 — How parenting connects us with reality
1:16:50 — How many kids do you have? (Are we answering honestly?)

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?

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 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?