Life & Faith

The CPX team freaks out about AI, explores stories of “efficiency” run amok, and probes our tech utopias.   ---The apocalypse will be ... boring. Or so says Charlie Warzel, tech journalist for The Atlantic. He means that AI won’t put you out of a job or take over the world, so much as overstuff your inbox and give you more mind-numbing tasks to complete. Other people in the know about AI are less optimistic. Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather” of AI who resigned from Google in May, Sam Altman, the CEO of the company behind ChatGPT, and others have sounded the alarm: AI is progressing too quickly, no one knows exactly how it works, and without careful regulation it will upend life as we know it.  There are a lot of unknowns where technology is concerned. One thing we do know, though, is it makes for great TV, and stories and books. In this edition of Seen & Heard, the CPX team debriefs on what they’ve been watching and reading.  Natasha takes us through the twists and turns of Amazon Prime’s Mrs Davis, a “bonkers” show about a nun facing off against Mrs Davis, the all-knowing algorithm against whom she has a grudge.  Simon looks at the way George Saunders’ short story “Escape from Spiderhead” (and the Spiderhead film based on it) explores how “the greater good” is used to justify all kinds of evils.  Justine looks closer at the digital utopia on offer in Grace Chan’s speculative novel Every Version of You, and finds that its promise of agelessness, no death, no suffering, and no body is basically heaven without God.   Explore: ABC article on Replika Every Version of You by Grace Chan Escape From Spiderhead by George Saunders (via The New Yorker) Mrs Davis trailer Her and a Disembodied Future by Mark Stephens Andy Crouch’s Richard Johnson Lecture on why technology keeps disappointing us and Q&A Charlie Warzel: Here’s how AI will come for your job 

Jo Swinney grew up in family committed to environmental care and community. Her parents’ efforts to revitalise a small piece of land in Portugal eventually spawned an international family of organisations committed to conservation of the natural environment.         ---In this wide-ranging discussion, Jo Swinney talks to Simon Smart about growing up in a commune-type existence in Portugal where her English parents were committed to conservation and fostering biodiversity. And also community. Jo left for boarding school in the UK when she was 13 and live a nomadic existence for many years before settling into marriage and family in England. The smells and sounds of her childhood in Portugal never left her and nor did her commitment to hospitality and creation care.  This is a conversation of touching honesty about family, friendship and the things that sustain us when tragedy strikes. ---Explore:A RochaBooks by Jo SwinneyA Place at The Table: Faith, hope and hospitalityHome: The quest to belong  

Can Australia’s “dreaming beauty” – our Indigenous languages – be reclaimed? Meet some people who say a joyful yes.  ---  250 years ago, hundreds of languages were spoken across this continent; today, only about 3 percent survive.  What happened in between is a familiar and harrowing story of dispossession – of land, lives, and culture – including a story of linguicide, or the deliberate killing of language.  Is it possible to revive a language that has been long dormant – that has “gone to sleep on country”, as Charmaine Councillor, a Wardandi-Balladong woman heavily involved in the revival of the Noongar language of southwestern WA, puts it?  In this bumper episode of Life & Faith, Charmaine and her Yamatji colleague Roslyn Khan describe what their language means to them, what the process of learning or relearning it has been like, and how they go about reviving Noongar – including by translating the Bible.  “It’s like when you’re riding a bike for the first time, and you’ve got your training wheels on – then all of a sudden you’re taking off down the road and then you forget about how you’re riding the bike, you’re just riding it and enjoying it. That’s where I am at the moment, I’m getting to the part where I’m really enjoying it and start speaking it more.” We also hear from Ghil’ad Zuckermann, Professor of Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide, an Israeli linguist who has been using the work of a 19th-century German missionary to help the Barngarla people of South Australia reclaim their language. “Aboriginal people who reconnect with their heritage tongue, they feel totally empowered … I would argue that language reclamation can improve the diabetes problem among Aboriginal people. We do need to change our understanding of Aboriginal culture; there are billions or if not trillions of dollars being wasted by the government on tangible things, and I think that there is a total overlook of the intangible. Language is intangible, you cannot touch it. But I think that this intangible element can have a huge benefit when it comes to tangible elements.”  --- Explore: The Story of Ruth in Noongar Gospel of Luke in Noongar/English Ghil’ad Zuckermann’s book Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond 

Nicholas Spencer insists the history of the relationship between science and religion is infinitely more interesting than the myths would have us believe.  ---Most things you ‘know’ about science and religion are myths or half–truths that grew up in the last years of the nineteenth century. Nick Spencer takes these myths on in his comprehensive book, Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion. The history of science and religion is complex. It’s a story of religion at times inspiring scientific discovery and endeavour, and at other times stifling it.  And it’s a deeply human story that remains potent today as we continue to face the profoundly important question: “What is the human being?” And “Who gets to say?”  ---Explore Nicholas Spencer, Magisteria: The entangled histories of science and faith Nick Spencer Darwin and God Nick Spencer Atheists: the origin of the species Nick Spencer CPX’s Richard Johnson Lecture, “Where did I come from?: Christianity, secularism and the individual.” 

A tender conversation about the start of life, the end of life, and quality of life. ---1 in 10 babies in Australia are born premature, and 15% of all babies will need some form of extra care at birth.  Today on Life & Faith, we venture into a place that will be unfamiliar to many – but all too familiar to some: the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. Dr Annie Janvier is a neonatologist (she takes care of sick babies); she’s also a researcher and ethicist, thinking about difficult decisions doctors have to make, and trying to understand the perspective and experience of parents in the NICU.  And 17 years ago, she also became the mother of an extremely premature daughter. Violette was born at 24 weeks – and her mother discovered that knowing how a respirator works did not help her to be the mum of a baby on a respirator.  Annie shares some of the emotions that arise from being a parent in NICU; and some of the questions that arise – about life, death, disability, and meaning – for people in this situation. And we have a bonus story for you here too: Andy Crouch describes the short, vulnerable, but deeply significant life of his niece Angela.  --- Explore:  Annie’s book Breathe, Baby, Breathe! Neonatal Intensive Care, Prematurity, and Complicated Pregnancies Andy’s book Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing 

“The Pill is a bad metaphysic”: Mary Harrington on says the pill has changed everything – and not really for the better.----“Is there something to be said for all of these things which I’ve been busy trying to dismantle? Because I’d taken it at face value that they were all just bad by definition.” As Mary Harrington writes in her book Feminism Against Progress, she’s someone who has “liberalled about as hard as it’s possible to liberal”. In her 20s, she pursued maximum sexual freedom, non-hierarchical relationships, and communal forms of living. By the end of that decade, she experienced a “personal crash” that coincided with the global financial crisis. And she found she no longer believed in “progress”. These days, Mary calls herself a reactionary feminist, one who is against “progress”. She disbelieves that we are steadily moving into a better and brighter future of freedom and human perfection. Neither does she believe that self-determination and liberation from every constraint is the path to that utopian goal. This doesn’t mean that Mary wants to wind back the clock to a time when women were permanently pregnant and lacked rights as well as the vote. But she argues that “progress” has meant a series of trade-offs in the name of freedom, and she’s sceptical that these have delivered unmitigated gains, overall, for women. In this interview with Life & Faith, Mary Harrington explores how the technological shocks of industrialisation and the contraceptive pill have deeply shaped feminism and male-female relationships, and changed everyone’s lives – not really for the better. -- Explore: Mary’s book Feminism Against Progress An article in First Things where Mary explains “reactionary feminism” and tells a bit about her own story An essay in The UK Spectator – and edited extract from Feminism Against Progress – where Mary makes the pro-sex case against the pill. A column in UnHerd on the place of faith in the “newly-ascendant post-Christian moral regime” Mary Harrington on Twitter 

You have probably mucked things up once or twice in your life. Congratulations, you’re human. There’s hope for all of us in the Easter story.--- This week, Simon Smart and Justine Toh tiptoe through the minefield of ‘guilt’, ‘sin’, and ‘morality’: three words and ideas that are offensive to the modern ear – no doubt partly due to the perception that Christians and the church have been all too judgmental of others. The weighty, Christian baggage of these words aside – is there not something good about acknowledging the times we’ve hurt people and gotten things wrong? Simon and Justine discuss how The Picture of Dorian Gray, directed by Kip Williams for the Sydney Theatre Company, confronts viewers with the darkness of the human heart. And in discussing parenting fails and climate inaction, they explore the mismatch between the people we want to be and the people we actually are. This episode of Life & Faith grapples with our human tendency to ‘muck things up’ – a sanitised version of author Francis Spufford’s working definition of ‘sin’ – and how even this seemingly fatal flaw is not the whole human story. The hope of the Easter narrative is not just one of sin confronted, but conquered.  Also appearing in this episode: contributions from The Sacred podcast host Elizabeth Oldfield, New York Times columnist David Brooks, theologian Alister McGrath, author Marilynne Robinson, and author Francis Spufford.  --- Explore: Conal Hanna’s article in The Guardian on the “teal paradox” Elizabeth Oldfield’s full interview – with transcript – with David Brooks for The Sacred.  Alister McGrath on why sin is such a useful idea Marilynne Robinson on original sin Life & Faith interview with Francis Spufford about Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense. Francis Spufford on your ruined life IFrancis Spufford on your ruined life II 

On March 25, it’s Tolkien Reading Day: a day to enjoy all things Tolkien – including what makes The Lord of the Rings so beloved. ---“… above all shadows rides the Sun”.  That’s a line from a song that the hobbit Samwise Gamgee sings to give him hope at a critical moment in J R R Tolkien’s epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings. Sam is stranded in the dark land of Mordor and Frodo, his master, has been captured. Their quest to destroy the one ring of power looks hopeless. But hope is not lost.  Kaitlyn Facista, who runs the online fan community Tea with Tolkien, says that this belief is what draws people to The Lord of the Rings: the hope that helps people persist through dark times. On Tolkien Reading Day, observed on March 25 every year, Kaitlyn enjoys reading Tolkien’s writings along with other similarly devoted fans. The poem quoted above – “In Western Lands Beneath the Sun” – is a particular favourite. In this interview with Life & Faith, Kaitlyn explains the significance of March 25 within the world of Lord of the Rings: it’s the day the one ring is finally destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. The date is also significant within Tolkien’s own Christian tradition. It’s when the Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated – when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would bear Jesus, God’s son. March 25 is also regarded as the day of Jesus’ crucifixion.   Tolkien once described The Lord of the Rings as “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work”. Kaitlyn explores these religious resonances and tells us about being invited to meet the showrunners of The Rings of Power, the Amazon Prime TV show and prequel (of sorts) to Lord of the Rings. ---Explore: www.teawithtolkien.com To Middle-Earth and Back Again: Kaitlyn’s companion journal to The Lord of the Rings Tolkien’s poem: In Western Lands beneath the Sun 

Bruce Robinson knows more than most about the impact of suffering on human beings. But he also knows about resilience and joy in the face of life’s biggest challenges.   ---As a doctor, Professor Bruce Robinson has been on the front line of Tsunami-ravaged or earthquake-devastated poor regions of Indonesia. And as a lung specialist and expert in asbestos-induced cancer, he has had decades of experience breaking bad news to patients.  His book, Behind the tears – understanding, surviving and growing from suffering, is a practical guide to dealing with suffering – either our own, or that of someone we care about – in a positive, life-affirming way.  Here he shares hard won wisdom about what helps and what doesn’t and ways we can all prepare for the inevitability of grief and pain.   --- Explore: https://www.brucerobinson.com.au/suffering/ 

Cynthia Banham barely survived a brutal plane crash. She speaks about trauma, suffering, and hope. ---It was supposed to be a routine assignment. Back in 2007, journalist Cynthia Banham was sent to Indonesia by the Sydney Morning Herald to cover a visit by then Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. But tragedy struck. The Garuda flight she was on crashed on landing at Yogyakarta International Airport. 21 people were killed. Cynthia survived but with terrible injuries, including a broken back and life-threatening burns. She wound up losing both her legs.It’s been a very long and painful road to recovery, one Cynthia has written about in A Certain Light: A memoir of family, loss and hope.  In the years since, Cynthia has become an academic, pursuing doctoral studies and a Masters in International Affairs. She also became a mum.  In this raw interview with Life & Faith, Cynthia talks about rebuilding her life after trauma, her hard questions about God and suffering, and what has given her hope along the way.