The Modern Leap of Faith [Christianity]
7 min read
Modern digital infrastructure, specifically algorithms and gamification, are an anxiety management technology disguised as convenience. By automating away friction and quantifying subjective experience, humans are reduced to passive editors of a pre-filtered reality. Flattening the existential abyss where true meaning lives. To reclaim our status as ‘single individuals’ we must practice absolute existential non-compliance by intentionally manufacturing friction to force a modern leap of faith.
Prelude
I am told that when the modern lover goes out into the evening to meet a companion, he no longer suffers the agonizing uncertainty of the heart. He does not sit in fear and trembling, wondering ‘Do I love this person’. No, how terribly old-fashioned! Instead he glances down at a shining screen strapped to his wrist. The screen measures the sweat on his skin, and pulses of his veins. It delivers a verdict. The machine says his stress is low and his engagement is high. He looks up at his date and sighs with relief. ‘Ah it is true. I am in love’.
The Trap
We live in a hyper-optimized, materialist world built on the promises of scientism…promises that have ultimately failed us. In our flight from existential anxiety, we have built elaborate digital machinery to drown out the ‘dizziness of freedom’. Our constant scrolling and notification checking are frantic efforts to drown out the terrifying realization that we are completely responsible for our own lives.
Søren Kierkegaard famously contrasted the age of passion with the age of reflection. Gen AI is the final engine of reflection, trapping us in a paralyzed loop of noise. It produces derivative existence, a copy of copy, entirely divorced from the acting, bleeding mistakes of passion. As people read more AI-generated text, their own writing and speech conform to the same leveled, predictable cadence. The great cultural norming is coming. We are trading our distinct, jagged edges for a milquetoast conformity, when an accountant from Palm Beach and a pipe fitter from Alaska consume the same feed, talk in the same vocabulary and ultimately converge in thinking. Social media serves as the ultimate machinery of the aesthetic life.
The Symptom
The general idea of trying to not be captured by the algorithm is somewhat trite now, and to some extend complete removal is largely impractical. However being aware of the radiation is important, not just being a passive participant. In his day Kierkegaard feared the present age because it turned people into passive speculators. However, the gamification and algorithmic-driven world we live in today go beyond and make you more hyper-active than ever before. The existential search for meaning is turned into a high-scoring optimization game. No doubt if Kierkegaard was alive today he would be horrified that algorithmic matchmaking is now the primary way two people meet, reducing love to compatibility percentages and predictive engagement loops.
Kierkegaard’s philosophy revolves around the idea that the most important things in life are subjective (and therefore resist measurement). This is very similar to what philosopher C. Thi Nguyen calls ‘value capture’ in his The Score. Love, faith, grief, guilt cannot be proven from the outside, but felt within. I’m personally aware of individuals who check their smartwatch during a date to check their heart rate to see if they actually like the person. Just as they check their watch in the morning to figure out if they’ve had a good sleep. Essentially outsourcing their consciousness. The quantified life is not primarily about knowledge but anxiety management. People submit to measurement because certainty is what they want. Kierkegaard argued that looking for objective certainty kills the spirit. By trying to turn love into a compatibility percentage, we strip love of its risk, its vulnerability and tis passion. We are trying to buy insurance against the terrifying gamble that is human connection.
When your turn a deceased parent into a chatbot, like one Silicon Valley startup is attempting, you are flattening the abyss. You are gamifying the mourning process. The illusion of control of metrics and ‘experiential avoidance’ are the causes of this. By flattening the abyss, we do not actually CURE the anxiety, we simply numb it. The tragedy of turning mourning into management is that the abyss is also where meaning lives. Kierkegaard believed that grief and and despair are sacred, violent disruptions. They tear apart your fake, comfortable life and force you to confront your mortality and your relationship with the eternal. This gamification is a flattening of the abyss and any counterargument that his can help with the grieving process is pure technological propaganda.
The Practical Rebellion
On adding intentional friction, I’d highlight that at present (mostly) you are not actually deciding what you consume; an LLM is pre-selecting and filtering it, and you are merely reacting to its choices. This extends beyond the obvious automated pre-selection loop that is social media/streaming, to job board (LinkedIn and Indeed that use predictive engagement algos to curate), banking apps and credit card dashboards where you are simply reacting to offers, promotions. Even in Google Docs or Word, predictive auto-complete pre-selects vocabulary and tone based on statistical averages. The tough reality is when an LLM pre-selects your text options, your job opportunities, your financial nudges, et al. it removes the necessity of willing. The machine does the cognitive heavy lifting and you are left with the lowest-grade human work possible: nodding or shaking your head, merely approving or rejecting prompts. A quality-assurance editor for your own existence. Nguyen also warns us that metrics don’t just measure us, but reshape our desires. I think some of the Gen Z meaning crisis is a result of what I would call the loss of ‘author’ identity. If you let Google Docs pre-select your vocabulary and LinkedIn pre-select your career path, are you even conscious to your decision making?
Only by installing manual checkpoints do your force your conscious mind to seize control of the software. Only this way you can remain “the single individual”. A deliberate barrier between the human body and the digital infrastructure is required to give you the breathing room to reject what the machine selects. As technology evolves and there is more and more talk of transhumanism vis—à—vis brain chips or AI goggles, this will only increase in importance. Kierkegaard argued that the crowd is untruth because it absorbs the individual into an anonymous mass. Nguyen argues that the score is a trap because it forces us to internalize external, corporate goals. The modern LLM is the ultimate fusion of both: it is an automated crowd that captures your values before you even have a chance to feel them. Recognizing that you are merely reacting to its pre-selection is the first, mandatory step toward absolute existential non-compliance
Historically discipline came from having no choice—scarcity forced people to behave out of sheer necessity. Today, we live in an abundant, frictionless world where an algorithm pre-selects infinite choices to keep us reactive and weak. Therefore, to find discipline today, you must INVERT the system. Intentionally manufacturing friction to antically remove choices. I think Kierkegaard would approve of this notion—viewing friction as the fundamental requirement for becoming a true human being, one that it is really easy to opt out of today by hiding in crowds. The genius of his age were all finding ways to make life easier. Kierkegaard did the opposite, quite ahead of his time one could say. As today’s silicon valley engineers are merely griffin on the same flawed premise, automating away every inconvenience until human agency disappears.
Returning to practical solutions to counter the optimization and gamified discharge we are encumbered with means starving the external feedback loop, meaning turning more internal when viewing something’s success or failure. Just as Kierkegaard went about his life intentionally adding complication and friction to his life, pollute your data by click on things you hate, confusing your predictive models and turning off as much tracking as possible. Practice unproductive loitering or flâneuring.
The Modern Leap of Faith
An overarching theme is how the abyss of uncertainty is replaced with a false sense of certainty stemming from metrics, algos et al. We must reject predictive certainty and trust our own unquantifiable conscious experience. The great danger of his age was the start church made being Christian too easy, removing the need for a leap. Today, the tech monopoly has made existing too easy, removing the need for human willpower. The modern leap of faith is an act of absolute existential non-compliance.
Kierkegaard argued that genuine faith isn’t faith in the absence of doubt—it’s a conscious commitment made in the presence of uncertainty. The moment something is provable, belief becomes arithmetic. Faith requires the gap. To justify faith by making reference to what is common—sensually considered ‘ethical’ is to succumb to temptation. Why worry when God is in control? It’s a waste of time. This reality is leading to a complex spiritual dilemma being I’ve hinted at being felt among Gen Z. In this vacuum you have people coming to Christianity for cultural nostalgia reasons. While Kierkegaard might conclude this individual has come across a new hobby rather than finding Christ, I’d argue they’re directionally correct, stepping onto a path that could lead from the aesthetic to the greater religious. With this vacuum of seekers has come a rise in false deities such as the agnostic, aseptic system of Buddhism or the attempt to retrofit the repeated failed pagan system, which attempts to take a regressive step backward.
When everything measurable moves toward zero, we must return to the single individual. Most people tend to choose unhappiness over uncertainty and then call it prudence. But the true individual refuses the spreadsheet, accepts the existential anxiety, and leaps.
JC
[ The Modern Trap: Infinite, Frictionless Choice ]
│
▼
[ The Illusion: Endless Options Eradicate Discipline ]
│
▼
[ The Radical Act: Intentionally Create Friction ]
│
▼
[ The Breakthrough: Friction Eliminates Choice ]
│
▼
[ The Result: True Discipline is Born ]