A listener has emailed in to ask where we stand on alternative medicine, such as homeopathy or chiropractors. Is it fine for believers to partake in these kinds of complementary treatments and therapies, alongside traditional evidence-based scientific medicine? Why are they so stubbornly popular despite mountains of research suggesting they mostly don’t work? Or should Christians shun anything without a double-blind randomised control trial behind it? Then we move on to discuss a fascinating and alarming article by a climate scientist, who revealed that in a recent paper published in the ultra-prestigious journal Nature he deliberately simplified his findings. The paper was subtly tweaked to suggest that climate change alone was to blame for recent increases in wildfire risk in California, rather than acknowledging other factors were also present. Why are some climate scientists feeling unable to present the complexity of their research but instead tell simple, moralistic tales about the climate crisis? And should we even care as Christians?
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.
A listener has emailed in to ask where we stand on alternative medicine, such as homeopathy or chiropractors. Is it fine for believers to partake in these kinds of complementary treatments and therapies, alongside traditional evidence-based scientific medicine? Why are they so stubbornly popular despite mountains of research suggesting they mostly don’t work? Or should Christians shun anything without a double-blind randomised control trial behind it? Then we move on to discuss a fascinating and alarming article by a climate scientist, who revealed that in a recent paper published in the ultra-prestigious journal Nature he deliberately simplified his findings. The paper was subtly tweaked to suggest that climate change alone was to blame for recent increases in wildfire risk in California, rather than acknowledging other factors were also present. Why are some climate scientists feeling unable to present the complexity of their research but instead tell simple, moralistic tales about the climate crisis? And should we even care as Christians?
– The climate scientist’s article in The Free Press: https://www.thefp.com/p/i-overhyped-climate-change-to-get-published
– 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
The climate scientist’s article in The Free Press.