Matters of Life and Death

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. As scientists better understand genes and how they work, genetics is becoming a more and more important field of modern medicine, particularly in diagnosing conditions. But this comes with a brand new set of ethical challenges to think through. In this episode, we interview Melody Redman, a clinical geneticist working in the NHS, about her work, and her perspective on it as a Christian doctor. For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com Subscribe to the Matters Of Life And Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173  

Resuming our conversation about suffering, we think through some faithful Christian responses to evil and loss. How can the church reintegrate the deeply Biblical tradition of lament into its corporate and individual life, picking up on the psalms and ultimately Jesus on the cross? And what might a resilient and hope-filled fellowship of believers look like in the light of this?   For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com  Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 

The problem of suffering has been one of the most intractable and painful theological debates for centuries. But is it perhaps not a problem to be solved, but a deeper mystery to be journeyed through? Is suffering solely a consequence of human sin since the Fall, or were we made to be fragile, dependent and broken? And how does knowing Jesus's death and resurrection are not simply a response to pain but God's Plan A from the start change things?  For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com  Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 

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. Whether it is single-celled organisms or fully-fledged intelligent sentient life, would its discovery change how we think about God as creator? Are aliens also made in the image of God? And if so, do they have their own Jesus and incarnation and redemption story, just as we do? For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

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. Andrew is a theologian of the sciences and especially interested in the deep questions about life thrown up by new developments in space exploration. We consider what the telescope might discover, how Christians can reconcile themselves to our smallness in the universe, and if there is spiritual value in spending billions on this kind of far-sighted scientific endeavour in the first place. For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

Hello, and welcome to Matters of Life and Death. Today we’re going back to our conversation about simulation for part two of this re-broadcast. Last week’s episode discussed the growth of deep fakes and other digital technologies which allow us to simulate human faces and speech with increasing accuracy. We thought about how these developments had been presaged for decades by sci fi, such as Philip K Dick’s iconic novels, but also by the influential yet eccentric French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard sketched out four phases of simulated reality, beginning with a first phase of accurate, faithful representation where an image acted as a sacrament. We’re going to pick up the discussion as John explains the next phase in Baudrillard’s analysis. If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

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. We live in an era when digital technology is making it increasingly easy and cheap to create fake but compelling images or videos of people, or even entirely artificial human-like personalities. Machine learning tools and progress in artificial intelligence software means we are closer than ever to things previously only imaginable in sci fi: computer programs which can speak to us like a human or, androids which are indistinguishable from real people. In this episode we discuss examples of this kind of tech already in the world, what impact it may have in the future, and how we as Christians should think about these forms of simulated images, relationships and personalities. If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

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? In this episode we dig further into the complex ethics of prenatal screening and explore what the Christian tradition makes of seeking to understand the future, and the different arguments for and against aborting children we know will be disabled. If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

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. But is the onward march of technology in this sphere always an unmitigated good thing? With abortion for a disability legal in the UK up to term, women are being given terrible choices previous generations never faced: give birth to a child who probably has a life-limiting or even fatal condition, or end the pregnancy early. What ethical challenges does this knowledge, whether gained via the official NHS programmes or a growing number of DIY tests available online, pose? If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

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? Has the modern church, terrified of decline, alienated its faithful, older congregants in a desperate attempt to lure back the young? And what wisdom and service do older Christians have to offer their churches? If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com Matters of Life and Death is part of Premier Unbelievable. Find out more at www.premierunbelievable.com