All Matters of Life and Death articles – Page 6
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Medical Assistance in Dying 1: Judicial activism, a ‘reasonably foreseeable’ death, the unacceptability of suffering, and reasons to stay alive
This week we speak with a Christian psychiatrist from Canada who has been involved in both the campaigning against the spread of euthanasia, and also figuring out on the ground how to care well for patients in a system which offers them the chance to take their own lives instead of receiving treatment.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Martin Rees 3: Pre-emptive science fiction, the morality-reality gap, adventurers on Mars, and the mind of the Creator
In the third and final installment of John’s discussion with Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, they discuss Martin’s views on the future of space travel and astronauts, and whether some robotic future progeny of humankind will eventually replace us in exploring the universe.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Martin Rees 2: Blurred humanity, re-dignifying care work, algorithms reading lung X-rays and the risks of virtual life
Happy New Year! Today’s episode continues the Big Conversation between John and Martin Rees, the astronomer royal.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Martin Rees 1: Advances in artificial intelligence, the Eliza effect, passing the Turing Test, and the problem of other minds
Today’s episode is a little different from normal as we’re going to begin a short series sharing a recent conversation John had with Lord Martin Rees, the astronomer royal.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Social media and politics 2: A mucky business, the ultimate conspiracy theory, ‘showbiz for ugly people’, and and atomised individuals
In the second half of our conversation with Tim Farron, we discuss his conviction that Christians should get stuck into politics despite its compromises and challenges.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Social media and politics 1: The judgemental society, 3,000 offensive tweets a day, freedom from vs freedom to, and Elon Musk’s Twitter
This week we’re joined by the former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron to discuss social media and politics. Research suggests UK members of parliament like Tim get sent thousands of offensive tweets every single day.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Mental health 2: Emotional resilience, the bio-psycho-social model, the power of story and depression in the Psalms
In the second half of our discussion with Christian psychiatrist Daniel Maughan, we work through some ways in which the church might play in role in supporting those struggling with their mental health back to fullness of life.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Mental health 1: Power dynamics, the psychiatrist as brick wall, casualties of social media and over-pathologising distress
Since the covid pandemic there has been an alarming rise in people presenting with mental health problems.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Dependence 2: The Panopticon at home, evangelising to retirees, existential angst in the House of Lords, and rejecting self-sufficiency
In the second part of our conversation on ageing and dependence, we think about how secular society has tried to ameliorate the crisis of isolated older people with technological solutions.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Dependence 1: Isolated elderly people, altruistic suicide, a second childhood, and a crucified hero
We’ve discussed in previous episodes the looming ‘demographic timebomb’ – a growing mass of elderly and increasingly chronically ill people in many developed nations, expected to place huge strain on public resources.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Protestant Social Teaching 2: The ars moriendi, open casket funerals in Derry Girls, the end of Christendom and ethical quietism
Resuming our conversation with Rhys Laverty from the Davenant Institute, we look at John’s contribution to the Protestant Social Teaching book – a chapter exploring post-Reformation tradition around death and dying.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Protestant Social Teaching 1: Overlap with Catholicism, chronological snobbery, rejecting one-size-fits-all ethics, and ‘worldly’ versus ‘spiritual’ matters
Over 150 years the Catholic Church has built up a body of ethical doctrine commonly known as Catholic Social Teaching, which applies Catholic theology to wider social concerns, covering everything from labour relations to contraception.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: AI sentience 2: I-Thou relationships, talking to stuffed animals, thanking Alexa, and Turing red flag laws
Building on last week’s discussion of AI chatbots, we consider the theology and sociology of why interacting with other human beings is so central to our personhood.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: AI sentience 1: Blake Lemoine and LaMDA, trillions of words, mute idols, and the God who speaks
Earlier this year, a Google engineer went public with his concerns an artificial intelligence chatbot program he had been testing had become sentient.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: The book reconsidered, the Moscow State University reading list, audiobooks, and the decline of the reading Christian
Twenty-four years ago, John published the book which gave this podcast its name: Matters of Life and Death.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Embryology 2: Psalm 139, reconsidering ‘ensoulment’, the language of right and wrong, and co-operation with evil
Building on last week’s whistlestop tour through the latest ground-breaking embryo research, in this episode we consider what we should do as Christians about all this.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Embryology 1: A stem cell ‘Mini Me’, CRISPR, Brave New World, and extending the 14-day limit
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.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Evolution 2: Tracking coronavirus variants, the immorality of mutation, roughly one thousand hominids, and intelligent uncertainty
Our second episode on the evolution debate considers three more bones of contention: where do different species come from? Are we all commonly descended from a single source, or does God intervene?
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: The Queen: Monarchy as service, astonishing the President of Ireland, the changing Christmas Speech, and a testimonial faith
In this special one-off episode, Tim speaks with Mark Greene from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity about Queen Elizabeth II, her faith and decades of service.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Evolution 1: Finding common ground, the cosmic watchmaker, interpreting Genesis, and a 6,000-year-old Earth?
Evolution vs creationism. It’s been one of the most divisive and contentious debates within Christianity. But is there a way to tackle these questions without falling into rancour and accusation?
