All Matters of Life and Death articles – Page 7
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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?
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Archie Battersbee 2: Doubts over the brain scans, the end of ‘doctor knows best’, sucked into the culture wars and protective power of attorney
Archie’s case underlines the growing crisis over the lack of trust many ordinary people have in medical professionals.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Archie Battersbee 1: The invention of ‘brain death’, a breakdown in trust, the child’s best interests, and how to turn off life support
Twelve-year-old Archie Battersbee died on 7 August, after months of legal wrangling between doctors who believed he was brain dead and wished to end life support, and his family who resisted this.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Genetics 2: Whole genome sequencing, Gattaca, de-identification versus anonymity, and Big Data Towers of Babel
In this episode we pick up our conversation with clinical geneticist Melody Redman to talk about a new NHS programme in England which is piloting whole genome sequencing of newborn babies.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Genetics 1: Rare diseases, libraries of recipe books, BRCA1, and precision medicine
Each of us carries around in our cells about 20,000 different genes – a unique set of biological code which shapes how our bodies develop.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Suffering 2: Rediscovering lament, reciting psalms in bomb shelters, the Gethsemane prayer, and the realism of Christian hope
Resuming our conversation about suffering, we think through some faithful Christian responses to evil and loss.
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ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Suffering 1: ’Adamah’, mystery and presence, the ever-smiling Buddha, and the lamb slain from the creation of the world
The problem of suffering has been one of the most intractable and painful theological debates for centuries.
