Matters of Life and Death

By: Premier Unbelievable?
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  • Summary

  • In each episode of Matters of Life and Death, brought to you by Premier Unbelievable?, John Wyatt and his son Tim discuss issues in healthcare, ethics, technology, science, faith and more. John is a doctor, professor of ethics, and writer and speaker on many of these topics, while Tim is a religion and social affairs journalist. We talk about how Christians can better engage with a particular question of life, death or something else in between.
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Episodes
  • Vaccine conspiracies, mistrust and catastrophism: How the church lost its way, with Dr Francis Collins

    Vaccine conspiracies, mistrust and catastrophism: How the church lost its way, with Dr Francis Collins
    Nov 13 2024
    Francis Collins is one of the leading scientists of his generation, a world-renowned geneticist who led the international project to map the human genome. Later he served under three presidents as the director of the National Institute of Health, which led him to play a pivotal role in America’s battle against the covid pandemic. He’s also an evangelical Christian who has often shared his convictions that science and Biblical faith are never in conflict. His experience trying, and often failing, to persuade sceptical American Christians to get vaccinated, while culture wars tore apart churches and communities alike, prompted him to write a book calling for a return to traditional sources of wisdom: science, truth, and faith. In this episode we talk through his experiences in public office as a Christian scientist and discuss how the US evangelical church became so polarised, divided and sceptical of good science, even when presented by faithful believers like him. Francis’s book is The Road to Wisdom https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/francis-s-collins/the-road-to-wisdom/9781399822312/ • 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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    46 mins
  • DNA, parenthood and selecting for IQ: The surprising return of eugenics

    DNA, parenthood and selecting for IQ: The surprising return of eugenics
    Nov 6 2024
    A couple of inter-connected news stories set us off this week. First, the prominent DNA ancestry company 23andMe is teetering on the brink of collapse and considering selling off its database of 15m people’s genomes. Can someone else own your DNA, and what are the risks if genomes are passed around the economy as any other product? Next, a US start-up has apparently used UK volunteers’ genomic data to pursue its plans to offer couples the chance to screen their embryos for intelligence, beauty, and maybe more, all for a chunky sum of course. So-called ‘liberal eugenics’ is popular in some corners of philosophy and is leaking out into the real world too. Is there really anything wrong with trying to ensure the embryo you end up carrying to term has the best genes possible? What kind of laws or regulations should there be around parents selecting for intelligence, beauty, height or even sex in their own children? And what does a Christian vision for parenthood and the raising of children look like, if it’s not this hyper-controlled and commodified version sold to us by the liberal eugenicists? Remember That DNA You Gave 23andMe? - https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/09/23andme-dna-data-privacy-sale/680057/ US startup charging couples to ‘screen embryos for IQ’ – https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/18/us-startup-charging-couples-to-screen-embryos-for-iq Our previous episode on pre-natal screening - https://www.johnwyatt.com/prenatal-screening-1/ Our previous episode on genetics, featuring an interview with geneticist Melody Redman - https://www.johnwyatt.com/genetics/ • 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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    1 hr
  • Near death experiences

    Near death experiences
    Oct 30 2024
    Once dismissed as quackery or New Age woo, near death experiences are seeing something of a modern revival. A slew of serious scientists and doctors have begun studying the phenomenon, even constructing clinical trials to try and see what, if anything, goes on when someone is on the brink of death but is resuscitated successfully. And there is now an entire Christian industry of books and films about believers who claim to have ‘gone to heaven and come back’ after nearly dying. What are the scientific claims behind these experiences, and what do we know and not know about what happens to the brain as it begins to die? Should believers embrace near death experiences as concrete proof of the afterlife? And how does Jesus and the New Testament encourage the Christian to approach questions and fears about death? • 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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    49 mins

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