All Matters of Life and Death articles – Page 4
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Q&A: Should we welcome the coming wave of anti-obesity drugs, and what’s at stake in the argument over the 14-day limit on embryo research?
Our year-end Q&A episode as we discuss hot topics: Wegovy, the controversial anti-obesity drug and the debate on extending the 14-day limit on human embryo research
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Redemption: Always Plan A, sharing in Christ’s sufferings, a Disney fairy story, and the offensive incarnation
Creation. Fall. Redemption. New Creation. Our series on the theological foundations of Christian ethics and the grand narrative of the Bible has reached the third chapter – redemption.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Palliative care, Dogs and Guinness on the wards, complicated grief, DNAR discussions, and resisting assisted dying
A couple of years ago we interviewed Sarah Foot, a Christian palliative care doctor. She spoke about how she treats the physical, mental, social and even spiritual needs of those who are dying, the Christian foundations of the discipline, and what impact her profession has on her.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Q&A: Why are we ignoring rising death rates among poorer ethnic minority children, and will the flesh-and-blood girlfriend become a thing of the past?
New official data in England reveals an alarming and much under-reported phenomenon – significant increases in mortality among children from the most deprived communities over the last two years.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Science and religion 1: The myth of conflict, Charles Darwin’s beetle research, epistemic humility, English country churchyard or Californian fridge?
This week’s guest is Nick Spencer, senior fellow at the faith thinktank Theos, and recent author of Magisteria: The entangled histories of science and religion.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Q&A: The ‘myths’ leading women to choose abortion, and is digital slavery underpinning breakthroughs in AI?
This week we dip back into the postbag to look at some more listener questions.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Friendship 3: Ruth and Naomi, ‘chesed’, trips to the theatre with John Stott, and an unorthodox rabbi
We last tackled the idea of friendship when we explored the so-called ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ – that cloud of concern that today hangs over any close relationship between two people.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: The Fall: Bad actor theory, a malevolent voice in the Garden, Total Depravity and Original Sin, and the ‘Christian heresy’ of liberal humanism
Creation. Fall. Redemption. New Creation. This is the grand narrative of scripture and the theological foundation we use to try to probe into the ethical challenges thrown up by advances in science and technology.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Baby loss 2: Rising abortion numbers, pills by post, ‘the pregnancy remains’, and Schrodinger’s fetus
We spoke last week about the hugely welcome shift in how society talks about miscarriage and cares for women (and men) who have experienced it. And yet at the same time in Britain, we desperately avoid using the same language and narrative established in baby loss services when we are in the abortion zone.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Baby loss 1: Elsie’s story, one in five pregnancies, names missing from the family tree, and the power of ultrasound
We have just finished Baby Loss Awareness Week here in the UK. While the event is not hugely well known, it is indicative of an enormous cultural shift in recent decades around how society talks about miscarriage and stillbirth.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Women and Christianity: Purity culture, beyond complementarianism, baggy t-shirts over swimming costumes, and recovering Tamar’s voice
Christianity is sometimes described as ‘bad news for women’. Clearly we would all disagree with this epithet, but why does it have cultural currency right now for a growing number of particularly younger women?
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Origins of covid: Gain of function research, zoonosis, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and truth over tribe
When the pandemic first spread beyond China there was a straightforward message from scientific elites: the virus came from a wild animal accidentally spilling over into humans, and any suggestion it might have instead been manipulated in a lab and then escaped was a quasi-racist conspiracy theory.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Q&A: Should Christians use homeopathic medicine and why are climate scientists self-censoring in academic journal articles?
A listener has emailed in to ask where we stand on alternative medicine, such as homeopathy or chiropractors. Is it fine for believers to partake in these kinds of complementary treatments and therapies, alongside traditional evidence-based scientific medicine? Why are they so stubbornly popular despite mountains of research suggesting they mostly don’t work?
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Creation: The Brethren’s suspicion of the ‘world’, an explosion of joy, Eric Liddell’s sprinting epiphany, and celebrating beauty
Today we start a new series unpacking the theological foundations of much of what we talk about on Matters of Life and Death.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Q&A: The science of the billions-of-years-old Earth, has God deceived us, and are philosophers so useless after all?
Our latest episode tackling questions from the listeners starts by considering whether we can harmonise a belief in modern science and a literalistic reading of the Genesis account of creation.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Lucy Letby: Murder on the neonatal ward, Munchausen’s by proxy, doctors versus nurses, and the banality of evil
Britain has been gripped by horror by the recent conviction of a neonatal nurse called Lucy Letby, who murdered seven premature babies and attempted to kill six others at the hospital where she worked. In this episode we discuss this horrifying and tragic story and whether Letby could or should have been stopped earlier.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Q&A: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, psychosomatic illness, AI acing exams, and the limitations of true creativity
Delve into another episode of listener questions! We’re addressing feedback on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and exploring the enigma of ‘psychosomatic’ illnesses. Plus, we’re discussing the impact of AI like ChatGPT on academic assessments.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Space: The James Webb Telescope, hobbits of the universe, astrobiology, and 16 billion billion Earth-like planets
This week we have another classic episode of Matters of Life and Death from the archive. We invited theologian Andrew Davison to join us to talk through the spiritual ramifications of cosmology and what light thinking about the wider universe sheds on vital doctrines such as creation and incarnation.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Evolution: The cosmic watchmaker, a 6,000-year-old Earth, the immorality of mutation, and intelligent uncertainty
Evolution versus creationism is the internal Christian argument which doesn’t go away. We recorded an episode last year exploring this knotty problem and how believers might go about trying to debate it respectfully even if they disagree. We look at the age of the Earth, common descent, natural selection, and the historicity of Adam, Eve and the Fall, to try and shed some light on this murky issue.
-
Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Abusive leadership: Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, Sigmund Freud’s chaise longue, and Paul-Timothy relationships
It’s been almost two years since we recorded an episode about abusive church leadership inspired by the downfall of Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill church. Today we re-examine that conversation in the light of the latest scandal rocking the British evangelical church – allegations against Mike Pilavachi from Soul Survivor.