Episodes

  • Earthquakes and cancer: Why is God’s good world so full of suffering? with Sharon Dirckx

    Earthquakes and cancer: Why is God’s good world so full of suffering? with Sharon Dirckx
    Nov 20 2024
    Christians normally explain away human-caused suffering by pointing to God giving us free will, and our sinful natures using that to harm ourselves and each other. But what about all the things entirely out of our control which cause so much sadness, from natural disasters to genetic diseases? In this episode we interview apologist and neuroscientist Sharon Dirckx about the origins of evil and how Christians can sensitively respond to objections to faith based in suffering. And, we consider the role of apologetics in general – should we still be doing traditional proclamational evangelism centred on knocking down intellectual objections to faith at all, or is that a 20th-century approach which no longer cuts through? You can find more about Sharon, including her latest book Broken Planet, at her website: dirckx.org. • 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 and 5 mins
  • 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
  • Prenatal screening: Is all knowledge a good thing?

    Prenatal screening: Is all knowledge a good thing?
    Oct 23 2024
    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. 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. • 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 and 9 mins
  • Same-sex attraction and friendship in church, with Ed Shaw

    Same-sex attraction and friendship in church, with Ed Shaw
    Oct 16 2024
    This week we speak with church pastor and author Ed Shaw about John’s book on friendship, and in particular how it intersects with those who are same-sex attracted like him. How has the church unintentionally colluded with the sexual revolution in prioritising and idealising marriage, relegating friendship in the process? Why is it so important for celibate, single leaders like Ed to cultivate and sustain an array of deep friendships in church? And how can we ensure this is being done sensibly and accountably, avoiding the potential for abuse and harm that we’ve seen in so many recent evangelical scandals? Ed is also ministry director of Living Out - https://www.livingout.org/ • 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 and 4 mins
  • Yoga, mindfulness and truly Christian meditation

    Yoga, mindfulness and truly Christian meditation
    Oct 9 2024
    Yoga and mindfulness are everywhere in popular Western culture: in school PE lessons, in company retreats, prescribed by doctors, and even sometimes endorsed by churches. Are these harmless or even quasi-Christian practices we can all enjoy, or pagan-derived movements which believers should steer clear of? And is there such a thing as ‘Christian meditation’ we should all be leaning into instead? Richard Foster – Celebration of Discipline https://www.eden.co.uk/christian-books/spiritual-growth/the-spiritual-disciplines/celebration-of-discipline/ John Mark Comer – Practising the Way https://www.practicingtheway.org/ • 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 mins
  • Remembrance and forgetting: Why is nobody talking about covid any more?

    Remembrance and forgetting: Why is nobody talking about covid any more?
    Oct 2 2024
    Harrowing testimony from healthcare staff at the UK’s national covid inquiry has reminded us of the horrendous sacrifices made by doctors and nurses during the pandemic, just a few years ago. And yet the inquiry has drawn hardly any media attention, with most of us happy to move on with our lives and never think about those long months in lockdown again. But is this a wise, or even a Christian, way of dealing with trauma in the past? And is covid even something in the past anyway, with new variants spiking and some public health experts baffled at our society’s ‘capitulation’ in the face of a resurgent virus? What damage may be being done to us as we wilfully ignore covid, and should Christians be among those trying to draw more people’s attention? Some of our previous episodes on covid: • Covid reconsidered 1:Pandemic amnesia, ‘Stay at home, Protect the NHS, Save lives’, lingering Long Covid, and 13.47 billion vaccine doses https://www.johnwyatt.com/covid-reconsidered-1/ • Covid reconsidered 2: Empty Nightingale hospitals, difficult triage decisions, a failure of Christian leadership, and reconsidering lockdown https://www.johnwyatt.com/covid-reconsidered-2/ • The origins of covid: Gain of function research, zoonosis, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and truth over tribe https://www.johnwyatt.com/origins-of-covid/ • 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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    53 mins