Episodios

  • The infected blood scandal

    The infected blood scandal
    Aug 14 2024
    Thanks to a long overdue public inquiry here in the UK, shocking stories of how NHS doctors recklessly gave patients blood contaminated with viruses including HIV and hepatitis have been emerging in recent years. One of the most painful cases was at a special school for children with haemophilia, where well-meaning but catastrophically misguided doctors wilfully experimented on children without consent using these contaminated blood products, leading to most of the young people’s deaths. In this episode we consider this as the latest in a long history of murky scandals in medical trials, and the profoundly Christian underpinnings of truly ethical medical research. Has healthcare changed today so that such astonishingly reckless and paternalistic care could not happen again? And how as believers can we handle the enormous power given to professionals such as doctors with an appropriate Christlike and cross-shaped humility, knowing as flawed humans we can always be wrong? • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    51 m
  • Autonomous killer drones and the future of warfare

    Autonomous killer drones and the future of warfare
    Aug 7 2024
    This week we look at developments prompted by the war in Ukraine, which has seen the humble drone take a leading role on the frontline. Both sides, and global powers watching on with interest, are now investing in building battle drones which can fly and attack themselves, leading to the chilling possibility that future wars will see autonomous AI drones deciding who is an enemy to attack or a civilian to defend. Should Christians be joining the chorus of alarmed scientists and activists arguing a machine should never be given the power of taking another life without a human in the loop somewhere? But first, we look at fresh research which reveals the staggering growth of frozen surplus embryos – created during IVF procedures – being stored in the UK. Each year tens of thousands more embryos are created and frozen indefinitely than are actually thawed out and implanted. Nobody seems to know what their moral status is and what should happen when, eventually, we cannot keep on freezing and storing them. Is embryo adoption the answer? • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    56 m
  • Should Christians break the law? Civil disobedience, climate protest and heavy-handed policing

    Should Christians break the law? Civil disobedience, climate protest and heavy-handed policing
    Jul 31 2024
    A landmark court case in the UK recently saw five radical climate activists jailed for up to five years for their role in organising the blocking of a major motorway to protest against fossil fuels. The sentences have been criticised by many, including the UN, as excessive given the peaceful nature of the protest and the cause behind it, but are the result of years of escalation by climate activists which has led the government to pass tougher, harsher laws criminalising disruptive but peaceful protest. But how should Christians approach law-breaking for what is supposedly a good cause? What does Jesus’s famous words about ‘render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’ mean in our 21st century context? Is it ever right for believers to deliberately break the law? And, should we in the church be concerned about ever more draconian and vaguely-worded laws which allow the police to clamp down more harshly on civil disobedience? • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    48 m
  • The unintended consequences of sperm donation

    The unintended consequences of sperm donation
    Jul 24 2024
    A recent Netflix documentary, The Man With A 1000 Kids, has shone a light on the often under-discussed topic of sperm donation. It exposes a Dutch man as a prolific and deceptive sperm donor who compulsively fathers children around the world via donated sperm. While an extreme case, it raises important questions about the ethics of bringing children into the world via sperm (or indeed egg) donation. Do we pay enough heed to the feelings and challenges faced by donor-conceived children in our understandable urge to help infertile couples have their miracle baby? Is donating sperm really any different to any other kind of organ donation, or should Christians oppose this kind of reproductive technology? We also consider new research on the enormous numbers of frozen embryos generated via IVF treatment which we in the UK are stockpiling without any clear idea of who or what we think they are, let alone what we will do with them. • Who Am I, the book about donor-conceived children https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=article&id=2159 • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    50 m
  • Neo-Luddism and the ‘myth’ of progress: Should Christians be pro or anti technology?

    Neo-Luddism and the ‘myth’ of progress: Should Christians be pro or anti technology?
    Jul 17 2024
    In recent weeks we have discussed how to keep modern technology at arms-length (smartphones in the home) and our excitement at how humans may be about to untap God’s blessing in creation through technology (the solar energy revolution). Today we ask the question: can we really hold these positions simultaneously? Can we be neo-Luddites when it comes to smartphones and yet boosters when it comes to solar panels? What should an authentically Christian posture to technology be? Generally positive, cautiously hostile, or is it all just a neutral tool to be used for good or ill depending on who is using it? Is humanity accelerating – thanks to our modern mastery of creation – towards God’s ultimate plan to reconcile all things, or is ‘progress’ little more than a pseudo-Christian comforting myth we tell ourselves?
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    34 m
  • Energy abundance: Is the coming solar power revolution a blessing from God?

    Energy abundance: Is the coming solar power revolution a blessing from God?
    Jul 10 2024
    Even sober-minded experts are getting excited about solar power. Respectable estimates suggest the price of energy derived from sunlight will continue to drop spectacularly as the number of panels installed worldwide continues to explode exponentially. In the relatively near future we may move into an era of energy abundance, where we have not just decarbonised our existing energy sources but are also able to cheaply generate ten or even a hundred times more energy. How should Christians feel about a future society with green, clean energy ‘too cheap to meter’? Can we see in this potential bounty God’s extravagant blessing, as we bring forth from his creation huge amounts of resources to tackle poverty, water shortages, climate change and more? Or is this a secular example of an ‘over-realised eschatology’, and foolishness in believing that once again sinful humans can bring about heaven on earth? • The Economist: 'The exponential growth of solar power will change the world' https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/06/20/the-exponential-growth-of-solar-power-will-change-the-world • Matt Yglesias: 'The case for more energy' https://www.slowboring.com/p/energy-abundance • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    56 m
  • Julian Assange, whistleblowers, and the Christian case for journalism

    Julian Assange, whistleblowers, and the Christian case for journalism
    Jul 3 2024
    The controversial hacker and activist (and maybe journalist?) Julian Assange was suddenly freed for five years in a British jail last month, after he reached a surprise deal with the US authorities over classified military files he published online more than ten years ago. Some see this as a victory for free speech and crusading journalism, but others would decry Assange as an irresponsible blowhard and Russian stooge. Is Assange a journalist, and if not how should we define and understand that profession? Is there a specifically Christian case for publishing leaked secret documents? Should we be alarmed at democratic governments using the courts to pursue those who pry into their darker corners? • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    48 m
  • Physics and the gospel: Richard Cheetham on how churches can embrace science once more

    Physics and the gospel: Richard Cheetham on how churches can embrace science once more
    Jun 26 2024
    Despite reams of research debunking the myth and countless examples of pioneering Christian researchers, many people still believe intuitively that somehow science and religion are in constant conflict. There are even those within the church who, perhaps subconsciously, buy into a narrative that what happens in labs around the world has no relevance for believers. This week we interview Richard Cheetham, a recently retired Church of England bishop, about his lifelong love of science, how it intersected with his own faith, and his passion to inspire more Christian leaders to engage with science in all its truth-seeking, God-curious, theologically challenging glory. • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    57 m