A Generation Unfit for God: Why Millions Can No Longer Pray

Photo by Drew Beamer (source)

We are living through the most successful assault on the human soul in history, and most people don’t even know it’s happening.

The attack isn’t coming through persecution. It’s not bombs or bullets. It’s far more insidious—a systematic rewiring of human consciousness itself. We’ve been neurologically hijacked, and the consequences reach straight into our capacity to encounter God.

The average adult now maintains focus for barely forty seconds before the mind fractures and darts elsewhere. We’ve shattered the fundamental human ability for sustained attention. And with it, we’re destroying the conditions required for a spiritual life.

Dr. Kwasniewski has spoken compellingly about our societal addiction to smartphones, and he’s right to identify the spiritual stakes involved. Sadly, the problem runs deeper than device dependency. We’re not just attached to our screens; we are, in fact, addicted to them. We’re being trained by them. We’re witnessing a corruption of human consciousness that hinders our ability for lingering, for deep thought, for wonder and contemplation—the natural prerequisites of attentiveness and conversion. The constant drip of notifications and dopamine loops of digital life prevents pause and reflection. And now, with artificial intelligence accelerating this transformation, the danger multiplies.

Algorithms don’t merely reflect human desire; they shape it, pulling attention away from depth toward distraction, from meaning toward trivia. What once required discipline—study, meditation, introspective intention—is now displaced by endless scrolling and endless noise. This is no minor cultural shift but an unprecedented threat to our ability to think, to wonder, to be present, to be truly human.

Christian faith requires abilities that modern life steadily erodes. Let us consider what those abilities are, and how they are threatened like never before.