All Matters of Life and Death articles – Page 5
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Shows
Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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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Matters 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.
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Matters of Life & Death: Space 2: Astrobiology, 16 billion billion Earth-like planets, LUCA and the non-competitive Imago Dei
In the second half of our conversation with theologian Andrew Davison, we ask what the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe would mean for Christian faith and teaching.
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Matters of Life & Death: Space 1: The James Webb telescope, extra-terrestrial life, hobbits of the universe and the doctrine of creation
In the week the first images from the new James Webb Space Telescope were beamed back to Earth, we are joined by theologian Andrew Davison to consider the spiritual value of cosmology and astrophysics.
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Matters of Life & Death: Simulation 2: Zoom’s face-smoothing, chatbot therapists, Trinitarianism, and evil as counterfeit
Today we’re going back to our conversation about simulation for part two of this re-broadcast.
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Matters of Life & Death: Simulation 1: Deep fakes, David Beckham speaking Mandarin, Jean Baudrillard’s four phases, and image as sacrament
For the next two weeks we’re dipping back into the Matters of Life and Death archive to bring you an episode we first broadcast last year. It’s all about simulation.
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Matters of Life & Death: Prenatal screening 2: The prohibition on soothsaying, transcending genetic determinism, a client-technician relationship and Heidi Crowter’s joyful self-advocacy
Could it be that some knowledge – including whether your unborn child has a serious genetic condition – is actually not helpful, and even harmful to us?
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Matters of Life & Death: Prenatal screening 1: Peering into the unknown, less than 1/150, blood tests over the internet, and disability doublethink
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.
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Matters of Life & Death: Old people 2: Aging congregations, transcendence at the Arsenal, understanding life backwards, and honouring prayer warriors
Demographic trends reveal clearly the next century will be one increasingly dominated by older people. If God is giving us a lot more folk in their later years, what are they for in church life?
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Shows
Matters of Life & Death: Old people 1: The demographic transition, Reverend Thomas Malthus, Hasidic Jewish outliers, and the grey vote
The world’s population is rapidly becoming older and older, with many developed nations seeing unprecedented proportions of their citizens in retirement age.