All Matters of Life and Death articles – Page 5
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Q&A: Christian pacifism in times of war and the Tower of Babel reconsidered
In this episode we tackle two questions from listeners.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Digital persecution: Deadly rumours on WhatsApp, a ‘Panopticon’ of censorship, the corrosion of trust, and China’s spreading surveillance state
The persecuted church today lives as it always has under the threat of arrest, imprisonment, physical attack, verbal threats and harassment, and even death. But today these traditional methods are supplemented by the technological revolution.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Q&A: Helping unmarried couples have children and court-ordered blood transfusions
Today’s episode was recorded as part of the New Zealand Christian Medical Fellowship’s annual conference. Doctors there sent over two bioethical conundrums for us to chew over as part of a special episode of Matters of Life and Death.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Generative AI: Second Contact, avoiding the fate of Nokia, hacking the human operating system, and the resilience of Western democracy
New artificial intelligence software has swept through the internet over the last year. Many are thrilled by the potential and power of AI which can generate brand new text, images, sound and video. But others are sounding the alarm.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Q&A: Introverts versus extroverts, faith in the consultation room, and a moratorium on AI research
More quickfire initial thoughts in response to questions from listeners. This week we discuss whether introverts are marginalised in the church, or actually disproportionately likely in the pulpit?
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Contemporary spiritualities: Nominal atheism, New Age prayers for £25, moving on from Empty Tomb evangelism, and the church of social justice
The non-religious are an ever-increasing segment of the population, in the UK, the United States and across the Western world
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Effective altruism 2: Tithing, second-hand stuffed toys in Turkey, the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and one-hundredth of a guide dog
In this second part of our effective altruism conversation, we explore the Christian sub-community within EA and ask whether the movement’s fundamental ideas are compatible with Christian tradition on giving.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Effective altruism 1: QALYs, longtermism, Jeremy Bentham’s embalmed corpse, and ethical elitism
Explore effective altruism, a data-driven utilitarian approach to philanthropy. Discover its rapid growth, potential deviations from original intentions, and the challenges of turning ethics into an algorithm.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Webinar 2: Totalitarian regimes, the tobacco regulation lag, eternal life for materialists, and ‘Don’t be afraid’
In the second part of John’s webinar with Premier Unbelievable, he takes questions from listeners on everything from whether AI tech is inching us towards the end times to how families can stave off the destructive influence of smartphone addiction.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Webinar 1: Redefining human-ness, testing for consciousness, hoodwinked by ChatGPT, and a black box
Part one of John’s ‘How to live faithfully in a technologically confusing world’ webinar explores the staggering sophistication of the latest generation of AI chatbots and what ethical questions these might throw up for Christians.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Friendship 2: Walks in the Garden of Eden, David and Jonathan, covenantal clarity, and red flags
In this episode we take a lightning-quick tour through the Bible to consider what we can learn about friendship there – with God, between God’s people, and fundamentally lived out in the life of Jesus.
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ShowsMatters Of Life & Death Friendship 1: The hermeneutic of suspicion, Classical ideals, scandalising middle-class Vienna, and the ‘mysticism of materialism’
Somebody once said that in contemporary society we all want to ‘have sex with our friends, and be friends with our sexual partners’. There is a broad suspicion of intimate but non-sexual friendships, especially those which are intergenerational or cross the sexes.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Listener questions: Polarised culture wars, the challenge of elder care, and childlike sexbots
To mark one year since Matters of Life and Death joined the Premier Unbelievable network, we have a special one-off episode answering some questions emailed in by listeners.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Public sector strikes 2: Taking patients hostage, employment as service, slaves and masters, and Christian peacemaking
There are two strong Christian traditions when it comes to robust political or industrial action such as strikes.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Public sector strikes 1: The Winter of Discontent, austerity-era pay freezes, Christian socialist solidarity, and continuity of patient care
The UK is currently gripped by a wave of strikes from public sector employees – nurses, teachers, postal workers, train drivers, paramedics, and soon junior doctors too.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Surveillance capitalism 2: QR codes in China, privacy, the manipulation of desire, and a neo-Benedictine Rule of Life
In this episode we think through more of the implications of living in a non-private digital village in the 21st century, but is privacy even a Christian virtue in the first place?
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Surveillance capitalism 1: Trillions of data points, clickbait, an advertising arms race, and BF Skinner’s pigeons
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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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Cryptocurrency 2: Technicism, the Parable of the Talents, get-rich-quick schemes, and the wheat and the weeds
In the second part of our discussion with Chris Goswami, we dive into some of the ethical arguments for and against cryptocurrencies.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Cryptocurrency 1: Bitcoin, warehouses of computers solving maths puzzles, the dot.com bubble, and FOMO
Recent news headlines have been full of discussion of the current ‘crypto winter’, a season where the value of cryptocurrencies has plummeted causing financial devastation and destroying what looked like thriving crypto institutions.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Medical Assistance in Dying 2: Suicidal ideation, no crystal balls, conscientious objection, and Hippocrates’ successful medical practice
In our second conversation on Canada’s euthanasia regime, we chat with a Canadian doctor about the troubling expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying to those only suffering from mental illness.
