Reclaiming Reality
Faith. Truth. Resistance. Rebuilding the Future.
In an age where artificial intelligence, digital manipulation, and technocratic control threaten to redefine reality, Reclaiming Reality is your frontline defense. Hosted by Andrew Torba, this podcast is a bold, no-holds-barred exploration of faith, meaning, and truth in the AI age.
Each episode will challenge the narratives of the global elite, expose the dangers of transhumanism, and equip you with strategies to build a Parallel Christian society that thrives outside the collapsing system. Expect deep conversations and real-world solutions for those who refuse to surrender to the machine.
Reclaiming Reality
Chapter 1: The Artificial
In this episode I read an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the book and explore how artificial intelligence shapes our reality, encouraging listeners to reclaim authenticity in a digital world. We discuss the spiritual implications of living in an artificial paradigm and emphasize the need for genuine community and moral authority in the face of increasing technological control.
Get the book here: https://ReclaimingReality.com
Hello folks, andrew Torba here, welcome back to Reclaiming Reality. The book is now live and we have a really nice website that I put together at reclaimingrealitycom. You'll be able to find the podcast there, links to buy the book, and what's really cool about this website is that I built it without writing a single line of code, so I built it using only AI and only my words, you know, telling the AI what I wanted, describing what I wanted the website to look like and what features I wanted it to have, and it turned out really, really good and I wanted to sort of demonstrate to you guys what is possible, right? So you know, you could be someone who knows absolutely nothing about programming and be as long as you can use words, as long as you know how to type, you can use AI to build websites like this or or different products or ideas that you have. So this is sort of democratizing the ability to, you know, build things on the internet for the first time, which is sort of game changing.
Speaker 1:And a big impetus for writing the book was to inspire more people to build. One of the things that I've talked about for many years now is, like GAB is an acronym, right, like G-A-B, go and build. You know I want to inspire other entrepreneurs to build things for the parallel society. You know we need more parallel infrastructure and GAB can't do everything right. You know we have the social network, we have the AI infrastructure. Now we have a lot of other things, too that we had to build internally just to keep those services afloat over the years in the face of deplatforming. So I want to inspire other people to build, and if you go check out that website, it's pretty cool that I built that whole thing only using AI. So go check that out. It's pretty cool, and it'll have all the links to buy the book, and you could either buy it on Amazon they have paperback and the Kindle version and then, if you don't want to support Amazon as I know a lot of you don't we also have the ebook available on the Gab shop as well.
Speaker 1:So I want to get into chapter one today. This chapter is called the Artificial. Everything around us is increasingly synthetic. The artificial has become the dominant force in modern life, replacing what is natural, organic and real. The food we eat is processed, the conversations we have are filtered through screens and the relationships we form are mediated by algorithms. Even our perception of reality is shaped by AI narratives designed to capture our attention and mold our beliefs.
Speaker 1:The rise of artificial intelligence and digital systems is not merely a technological shift. It is a spiritual and philosophical reordering of reality. Artificiality is not limited to material things. It extends to the way we think, the way we interact and the way we understand ourselves. Social media encourages people to present a curated version of their lives, manufacturing an illusion of perfection that breeds envy and insecurity. The entertainment industry fabricates stories that reinforce false narratives about human nature, history and morality. Human nature, history and morality AI-generated content, from news articles to deepfake videos, blur the lines between truth and fiction, making it increasingly difficult to discern reality from manipulation.
Speaker 1:This artificial world is not accidental. It has been constructed by those who believe that nature, tradition and faith are obstacles to progress. The modern technocratic elite does not see the world as something to be understood and preserved, but as something to be reconstructed according to their own vision. They believe that through AI, biotechnology and digital control, they can improve humanity by reshaping human nature itself. In this vision, man is no longer a being created in the image of God, but a malleable entity to be optimized, enhanced and eventually replaced. The problem with this artificial paradigm is that it leads people away from truth. With this artificial paradigm is that it leads people away from truth. A world mediated by AI is a world where people no longer experience reality directly. Instead, they consume simulations. They interact with chatbots instead of people, they engage with digital representations rather than physical communities and they trust algorithmically curated content rather than physical communities, and they trust algorithmically curated content rather than seeking knowledge through first-hand experience. This is not progress. It is a descent into an illusion, a counterfeit existence that numbs the soul and detaches man from his true nature.
Speaker 1:Christians must recognize the threat of artificiality and resist the temptation to substitute convenience for authenticity. Ai tools can certainly be useful, but they must never replace the human intellect, the human spirit or human relationships. There is a profound difference between using technology as a tool and allowing it to reshape human nature. The more we allow artificial intelligence to mediate our thoughts, our emotions and our decisions, the more we surrender our ability to live as free and moral beings. One of the greatest dangers of artificial intelligence is not its potential to redefine morality itself. Ai does not possess a soul, it does not know right from wrong, and it operates based on programming. That programming is controlled by those who have already rejected Christian ethics in favor of a secular, materialist worldview. If AI systems are given authority over decision-making, governance, law enforcement and economics, then we are no longer living under moral authority, but under a mechanized system of control designed by people who reject God.
Speaker 1:Artificial intelligence is already being used to shape culture and control public opinion. Recommendation algorithms dictate what news people read, what videos they watch and what content they engage with. These systems are not neutral. They are designed to reinforce specific narratives while suppressing dissenting voices. Ai-driven censorship ensures that Christian perspectives are labeled as hate speech, while secular ideologies are promoted as objective truth. The result is a world where technology does not serve humanity, but governs it.
Speaker 1:To counter this trend, christians must consciously choose what is real over what is artificial. This means prioritizing in-person relationships over digital interactions, choosing books over algorithmically filtered content and engaging with the physical world rather than retreating into virtual spaces. It means valuing human creativity over AI-generated art, human wisdom over machine logic, and divine revelation over technological utopianism. The world of the artificial is seductive because it offers convenience, efficiency and endless entertainment, but in exchange, it demands that we surrender control over our own thoughts, choices and understandings of reality. Christians must reject this trade-off. We must remain rooted in what is real our faith, our families, our communities and our God. The artificial may offer temporary pleasures, but only the real offers eternal truth. The battle between the artificial and the real is ultimately a spiritual one. It is the same battle that has been waged since the Garden of Eden, where man was tempted to exchange divine wisdom for the illusion of self-determination. Today, the temptation is different in form but identical in essence.
Speaker 1:Ai promises to enhance our lives, but if we allow it to replace our God-given faculties, it will ultimately enslave us. The path forward is clear. We must use technology without being ruled by it. We must engage with AI without surrendering our humanity and, above all, we must ensure that our ultimate reality is not dictated by machines, but anchored in the eternal truth of God. Not dictated by machines, but anchored in the eternal truth of God. The choice before us is not between progress and primitivism, but between simulation and sacrality.
Speaker 1:Modernity's artificiality, its synthetic foods, synthetic relationships, synthetic values, is a cry for the substance found only in Christ. As AI unravels the old order's pretenses, the church must embody the scandalous particularity of the incarnation. God made flesh in a specific time and place. God made flesh in a specific time and place, not abstracted into an algorithm. Our task is to build local arcs, resilient, christ-centered communities that ride the rising flood of synthetic meaning. These arcs will not reject technology but baptize it, turning surveillance tools into guardians of privacy, social platforms into spaces for communion and AI into servants of real community. When the towers of Babel crumble, as they always do, the church must remain, not as a relic but as a living witness to the world remade.
Speaker 1:Liberalism's grand promise was freedom freedom from tradition, from constraint and from anything that tethered the individual to something greater than the self. It vowed to unlock human potential through reason and markets and boundless choice, but in its quest to liberate it has stripped the world of weight and meaning, replacing the sacred with the artificial. What once grounded us, things like family, faith and shared purpose, has been eroded, leaving a reality where community is simulated on screens and wisdom is reduced to data points, and identity is endlessly customizable yet utterly hollow. The modern world shaped by this ideology. Ideology offers the illusion of limitless possibility, but delivers only detachment. We are more connected than ever, yet lonelier than before, drowning in information, yet starved for truth. Empowered by technology, yet alienated from our own humanity. In flattening all distinctions and dissolving deeper commitments into the acid of consumer choice, liberalism has not lifted us toward transcendence. It has trapped us in a perpetual state of distraction, where nothing is permanent, nothing is sacred and nothing is real. Yet beneath the sleek machinery of progress, a deeper hunger remains, one that no algorithm can satisfy. People long for roots, for belonging, for something unchanging in a world designed to be fluid.
Speaker 1:The project of modernity, once thought unstoppable, now shows its fractures. The future does not belong to those who worship efficiency and endless reinvention. It belongs to those who reclaim the enduring truths that no ideology can erase. The cracks in the old order are widening. For those with eyes to see, the post-war liberal project, an experiment in secular globalism, staggers under the weight of its own contradictions. Its decline is not just political or economic. It coincides with the rapid ascent of artificial intelligence, a technology that both hastens its downfall and exposes the spiritual emptiness at its core.
Speaker 1:For Christians, this convergence demands more than passive observation. It calls for discernment, as AI is not a mere tool, nor is it the amplify the chaos. The crumbling Bretton Woods system struggles against decentralized currencies, algorithmic trading reshapes markets faster than regulators can react, and global supply chains optimized for efficiency rather than resilience buckle under pressure. In this new reality, ai treats workers as disposable data points and nations as mere variables in a machine-run economy. Yet amid the upheaval, a choice remains AI can either entrench the dehumanizing logic of globalism or be reclaimed for something greater tools that strengthen local economies, empower communities and restore agency to individuals, rather than consolidating control in distant technocratic hands. Will we allow AI to deepen the fractures of a broken world, or will we wield it to rebuild? Root it in human dignity and solidarity? The answer lies not in the technology itself, but in those who shape its purpose.
Speaker 1:The global revolt against the technocratic rule is, at its core, a rebellion against governance by unaccountable algorithms. Populist and nationalist uprisings reject a system where unallactic bureaucrats and machine learning models dictate policy, reducing human lives to data points. Globalism's crisis is not merely about nationalism. It is about the deep distrust of a system that has replaced self-governance with algorithmic control. Nowhere is this clearer than in AI-driven surveillance states such as China with their social credit system, in surveillance states such as China with their social credit system, which is the ultimate expression of a godless order that replaces human dignity with digital profiles. Yet even as nation states reclaim sovereignty, a new empire arises, one not led by governments but by algorithms of Silicon Valley, where unelected tech executives shape culture, commerce and even the boundaries of acceptable thought. This shift presents a paradoxical opportunity for Christians. As centralized powers fracture, the church can model a different kind of order, one where AI serves human flourishing rather than subjugating it.
Speaker 1:The early church's communal vision, where resources were shared rather than hoarded, stands in a stark contrast to both the decaying globalist system and the emerging data-driven oligarchy. The greatest failure of the post-war order was not economic or political, but spiritual. It reduced people to economic units, nations to marketplaces and salvation to consumption. Nations to marketplaces and salvation to consumption. This is the final destination of liberal, secular humanism, where technology mediates all relationships, humanity drifts further from the divine and the dream of transcendence is sought in lines of code. Yet here too, the church finds its opening.
Speaker 1:Ai, for all its intelligence, cannot love, repent or worship. It cannot answer the ache of Ecclesiastes. He has put eternity into man's heart. The same enlightenment errors that shaped the modern world faith in human perfectibility, ethical relativism, cultural homogenization are now embedded in AI itself. These systems, trained on data, reflecting the biases of a godless age, promise utopian efficiency but deliver only algorithmic injustice and deepfake deception. In this they reveal an ancient truth the heart is deceitful above all things. Jeremiah 17.9. The world may look to machines for salvation, but the cracks in this new digital idol are already showing. And in that widening fracture, a greater truth is waiting to be proclaimed.
Speaker 1:The church stands at a crossroads, called to shape the future rather than merely critique the past as the globalist order crumbles. The response must be more than resistance. It must be renewal. The task is threefold. First, we must reject AI-driven centralization that erases human dignity, advocating instead for tools that serve local needs and strengthen real communities. Second, we must redeem technology's potential by ensuring it deepens rather than replaces human vocations, using AI to assist rather than supplant, to enhance rather than dehumanize. Third, we must build sacred local networks that prioritize presence over efficiency. No machine can incarnate Christ's love, which is made manifest not in data streams but in shared meals, patient listening and hands-on mercy.
Speaker 1:The collapse of the post-war order is not merely a geopolitical event. It is an existential crisis that leaves a vacuum. What fills that void will determine the course of the future. Will it be a new digital tyranny governed by AI-driven surveillance and technocratic rule, or will it be the rise of a renewed Christian civilization, built on eternal truths while confidently wielding the technology tools of our age? The answer depends on what we do now, in this narrow window before the old order's architects reassert control, likely through more authoritarian means. Understanding not only that this system is failing but why it failed is essential if we are to avoid replicating its errors in whatever comes next.
Speaker 1:The globalist experiment failed because it placed power in centralized institutions detached from the realities of human life. It sought control through bureaucratic and technological consolidation, ignoring the fundamental truth that resilience comes through decentralization. By stripping communities of agency and concentrating decision-making in top-heavy structures, it created a fragile system where failure at the top is cascading into catastrophe. The lesson is clear True stability and human flourishing require governance that is both local and rooted in unchanging spiritual and moral foundations. But the failure of globalism was not only structural, it was spiritual. It reduced humanity to economic units, societies to markets and meaning to consumption. It preached that material abundance could satisfy the soul, yet left people emptier than ever. Man shall not live by bread alone, jesus reminds us in Matthew 4.4. Yet the globalist order fed people only bread, neglecting their deepest hunger. A civilization that ignores the spiritual dimension, leaves people adrift, vulnerable to despair, addiction and cultural collapse.
Speaker 1:The unraveling of globalism also reveals the bankruptcy of a society built on moral relativism and secular humanism. Without shared truth, without an objective moral framework, society's fracture, trust erodes and chaos takes hold. A culture that rejects divine order cannot sustain itself, takes hold. A culture that rejects divine order cannot sustain itself. The alternative is clear a return to a moral and spiritual foundation grounded in eternal truth. The future must be built on principles that transcend ideology, principles rooted in the created order, in justice, in virtue and, ultimately, in the recognition of Christ as King. What must rise from the ruins is not simply an alternative political or economic structure, but a renewed way of life, one that harmonizes technological progress with moral clarity, economic strength with spiritual depth and cultural diversity with a shared commitment to truth. This means fostering self-governing yet interconnected communities, economies that are both resilient and just, societies that recognize the dignity of the human person rather than reducing life to data points and profit margins.
Speaker 1:The rejection of globalism is only the beginning. Mere resistance is insufficient. We must build. The old world is dying, but something new is being born. The question is whether that new world will reflect the same errors that led us here, or whether it will be guided by wisdom. The time for passive criticism has passed. Now is the moment for action, for construction, for the renewal of a civilization that does not bow to machines, markets or ideologies, but to the one in whom all things hold together.
Speaker 1:The globalist regime wielded technology as a mechanism of control, using it to centralize power, enforce ideological conformity and homogenize culture. Yet the same technological revolution now presents an opportunity for decentralization, autonomy and the rebuilding of Christian civilization. Artificial intelligence, properly stewarded, can be a tool for human flourishing rather than a means of coercion. Blockchain technology enables financial systems that are independent of centralized banking authorities. Digital communication platforms create parallel information networks that bypass mainstream censorship and ideological gatekeeping. As the globalist order weakens, a space is opening not merely for resistance but for renewal, for the construction of institutions and communities grounded in Christian truth rather than secular materialism.
Speaker 1:But opportunity and danger walk hand in hand. The collapse of globalist hegemony does not guarantee the rise of something better. In its place could emerge an even more aggressive form of technological tyranny, one where AI-driven surveillance, algorithmic governance and digital totalitarianism become the new norm. This is why Christians cannot afford to be passive observers. The question is not whether the world will change, but who will shape that change. The work of rebuilding must begin now, before the old system fully collapses, so that, when it does, a well-formed alternative already stands. A civilization does not emerge from reaction alone. It must be built with vision and conviction. The end of globalism is not the end of history. It is the opening of a new chapter and for Christians, we are not called to be bystanders in this story, but it's authors, writing the future with wisdom, courage and eternal truth as our guide. So this chapter is a little bit longer, but I read enough for tonight and the next part is actually really good.
Speaker 1:So I talk about Spangler, oswald Spangler and his Decline of the West, and in my study of this it became very interesting. So Spangler is basically autopsying the corpse of the West in one of his best books, decline of the West, his most infamous book, the Decline of the West, and he talks about how you know the people that kind of led society for a very long time. You know people like you know the people of faith, monks, etc. You know people in the church, faith leaders. They were like the priesthood, like literally, and you know figuratively, and during the steam age they were replaced and the new leaders were soldiers and engineers and bureaucrats, like that was the new priesthood. They enshrined efficiency as God and they reduced you know humanity to, to cogs in their you know secular eschatology, post enlightenment.
Speaker 1:And what's what's interesting about AI is it sort of turns that, uh, that transition on its head, because the engineer, the bureaucrat, um, and the soldier are now all being replaced with the very machines that they have built, which is quite ironic, and it's going to basically cause this new rise of importance for people that are more spiritual. So you know, the theologian, the philosopher, the artist, those people are going to become way more important going forward in the age of AI, because the soldier is going to be replaced with a humanoid robot or a drone, basically a machine or an AI. Some combination of all three of those Engineers are being replaced with AI. Obviously, there's still going to be human soldiers that are manning these systems and there's still going to be some human engineers that are sort of overseeing AI agents or a massive conglomerate of AIs that are doing most of the work for them, but by and large, there's actually going to be more of a demand for, you know spiritually minded thinkers to sort of help humanity navigate through what is essentially the industrial revolution on steroids.
Speaker 1:And you know other sort of advances in technology throughout history, like the agricultural revolution, you know these things sort of upend most parts of society and people don't have any clue what is coming over the next decade, five, 10, 15 years. Things are just going to get radically different. I mean, even if you look at the past 20 years, even within my lifetime I'm 34 years old when I was a kid there was, you know, vhs tapes still right, cassette tapes. You look at the advances in technology just in the time that I've been on this earth, in you know 30 some years, and it's really remarkable. It's like things we take for granted. You know the fact that we have this little piece of glass in the palm of our hands and we can, you know, reach and have a conversation with millions of people all over the world instantly is sort of mind boggling, is only going to accelerate, you know this, the speed of technological progress and advancement, and a lot of people just aren't ready for this, and so this is going to create, you know, a need for people that are philosophically minded, spiritually minded and artists. You know, to help people sort of navigate this new age. And you know that's part of what I'm doing with this book is trying to help people prepare mentally and spiritually and physically for what is coming, Because I think a lot of people are just sort of sleepwalking through history right now and don't understand just how quickly this technology is progressing and sort of where things are going, and so I wanted to sort of get this all on paper.
Speaker 1:So that is a portion of chapter one. I didn't read the whole thing and maybe that's what I'll do, because some of these chapters are pretty long and it's tough just sitting here and reading for like an hour straight. I have a lot of respect for people that do audio books. Speaking of and that's the other thing too is that we do have somebody working on the audio version of the book, so that will be coming shortly. So I don't want to do the whole thing on the podcast, so I'll probably just read segments, like I just did, and then, if you want to read the rest, you can go buy the book or wait for the full audio book itself.
Speaker 1:But I hope that you're finding value in this. If you are, would appreciate it if you would go to reclaimingrealitycom, grab a copy of the book and tell a friend about it. Maybe buy one for your pastor or priest um, because I think they probably need it, uh, more so than anybody. Right now, I think the church is is sort of not um, providing, um, you know, uh, the body of Christ with guidance on these issues, and, um, that's, that's a failure of leadership, and that's a failure of leadership so many pastors really have no clue.
Speaker 1:You know anything about this stuff, ai, or you know transhumanism, and not all, of course, there are many that do, but I think these are really important topics that more pastors need to be discussing and need to be preparing God's people for what is coming, and it's coming very quickly, and I just feel that most of the church is woefully unprepared, and so that's another part of what this book aims to do. So hope you guys all enjoyed this episode. We'll have more coming. Stay tuned for that and be sure to go check out reclaimingrealitycom to check out the book. And, tella, friend, christ is King. Remember to speak freely. God bless.
