All Matters of Life and Death articles
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ShowsAn anxious generation: Are social media and smartphones ruining children’s mental health?
Since 2010 mental health problems among young people have exploded. At precisely the same time, smartphones and social media have become deeply embedded in the lives of children and teenagers. A growing body of evidence suggests these two things are connected. In this episode we consider the argument that a turn away from physical outdoor play towards spending endless hours scrolling and messaging via screens is hugely detrimental to the wellbeing of young people.
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ShowsGiving, data and compassion: Should Christians all be ‘effective altruists’?
A movement founded at the University of Oxford in 2009 has now captured the imagination – and the wallets – of some of the brightest and most successful across elite Western academic and business circles.
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ShowsSurveillance capitalism: Is privacy dead and should we care?
Every tap, swipe and click we make on our phones, tablets and laptops is being recorded by big tech firms. This is often called surveillance capitalism – a network of products and services we use every day which sucks up large quantities of data about us and then sells it on to advertisers at huge profits.
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ShowsThe ethics of embryology: ‘Ensoulment’, the 14-day limit and co-operation with evil
There has been a flood of highly significant if poorly reported developments in embryo research in recent years, all of which raise new and confusing questions for Christians and non-Christians alike. Is it acceptable to use stem cells to create embryo-like structures to research on?
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ShowsThe powers of the age: Spiritual warfare, evil and technology in the 21st century
Many evangelical Christians remain uncomfortable about engaging with the Biblical narrative, in both Old and New Testaments, around evil, Satan, spiritual forces and demonic power. And even more so in trying to identify their malign hand behind modern trends. But in this episode we reconsider what scripture says – and doesn’t say – about the nature of evil and ungodly spiritual forces, the powers and principalities of our world.
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ShowsThe future of gender medicine and transgender children, with Dr Julie Maxwell
This week’s episode picks up on our last conversation with paediatrician Julie Maxwell from 2023, and in particular the sweeping changes made to how gender-questioning children are treated in Britain in the last year.
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ShowsThe assisted suicide bill has been passed by parliament. What comes next?
In this episode we discuss what the bill proposes, the campaign that built up to the debate, how MPs discussed and voted on the bill, and what happens now.
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ShowsShould Christians abandon contraception?
While most Protestant Christians have been at ease with using contraception for generations, there is a growing movement to re-examine the ethics of this, with more and more evangelicals asking if perhaps their Catholic brothers and sisters may have a point.
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ShowsEarthquakes and cancer: Why is God’s good world so full of suffering? with Sharon Dirckx
Christians normally explain away human-caused suffering by pointing to God giving us free will, and our sinful natures using that to harm ourselves and each other. But what about all the things entirely out of our control which cause so much sadness, from natural disasters to genetic diseases?
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ShowsVaccine conspiracies, mistrust and catastrophism: How the church lost its way, with Dr Francis Collins
Francis Collins is one of the leading scientists of his generation, a world-renowned geneticist who led the international project to map the human genome. In this episode we talk through his experiences in public office as a Christian scientist and discuss how the US evangelical church became so polarised, divided and sceptical of good science, even when presented by faithful believers like him.
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ShowsDNA, parenthood and selecting for IQ: The surprising return of eugenics
Can someone else own your DNA, and what are the risks if genomes are passed around the economy as any other product? Next, a US start-up has apparently used UK volunteers’ genomic data to pursue its plans to offer couples the chance to screen their embryos for intelligence, beauty, and maybe more, all for a chunky sum of course.
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ShowsNear death experiences
Once dismissed as quackery or New Age woo, near death experiences are seeing something of a modern revival. A slew of serious scientists and doctors have begun studying the phenomenon, even constructing clinical trials to try and see what, if anything, goes on when someone is on the brink of death but is resuscitated successfully. And there is now an entire Christian industry of books and films about believers who claim to have ‘gone to heaven and come back’ after nearly dying.
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ShowsPrenatal screening: Is all knowledge a good thing?
Pregnant women today are offered a battery of tests and screening for their unborn child, looking for an ever-increasing range of conditions and risks. But is the onward march of technology in this sphere always an unmitigated good thing? With abortion for a disability legal in the UK up to term, women are being given terrible choices previous generations never faced: give birth to a child who probably has a life-limiting or even fatal condition, or end the pregnancy early.
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ShowsSame-sex attraction and friendship in church, with Ed Shaw
This week we speak with church pastor and author Ed Shaw about John’s book on friendship, and in particular how it intersects with those who are same-sex attracted like him.
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ShowsYoga, mindfulness and truly Christian meditation
Yoga and mindfulness are everywhere in popular Western culture: in school PE lessons, in company retreats, prescribed by doctors, and even sometimes endorsed by churches. Are these harmless or even quasi-Christian practices we can all enjoy, or pagan-derived movements which believers should steer clear of? And is there such a thing as ‘Christian meditation’ we should all be leaning into instead?
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ShowsRemembrance and forgetting: Why is nobody talking about covid any more?
Harrowing testimony from healthcare staff at the UK’s national covid inquiry has reminded us of the horrendous sacrifices made by doctors and nurses during the pandemic, just a few years ago. And yet the inquiry has drawn hardly any media attention, with most of us happy to move on with our lives and never think about those long months in lockdown again. But is this a wise, or even a Christian, way of dealing with trauma in the past?
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ShowsWill anti-obesity wonder drugs save our broken NHS?
The new British government has been crystal clear that in their view, the National Health Service – a state-run socialised system which is quasi-worshipped by most Britons – is in long-term crisis. Services from family doctors to cancer treatment to A&E in hospitals are struggling and failing to hit targets, and constantly underfunded.
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ShowsStigma, anti-depressants and emotional resilience: Rethinking mental health and the church
Tim is away this week so we’re sharing a classic episode from the MOLAD vault. Since the covid pandemic there has been an alarming rise in people presenting with mental health problems.
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ShowsAssisted suicide: Euthanasia tourism takes off in the US amid fresh push to change law in Britain
Today we pick up a number of stories and updates in the conversation around assisted suicide. Long since legal in a growing number of states in the US, a new report has detailed how things are liberalising further. Some states now permit non-residents to cross state lines solely to die, creating a new market in euthanasia tourism for those living in less liberal parts of America.
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ShowsShould robots be given human rights?
A classic episode from the MOLAD vault today: If and when autonomous and intelligent robots come into existence, should they be granted rights, or even personhood? A growing number of technologists argue governments must lay out what status conscious and rational machines would have before they actually have been invented.
