I started off this part of the interview by asking Daniel about his own journey through life and faith. His early love was history, despite having a father who was also a doctor and an academic. His interests only turned to medicine after a time in Peru and exposure to brutal poverty, and then like many of us, he drifted into an academic career. Later in life he has been able to return to that original motivation.
Daniel and his wife were brought up in the Seventh Day Adventist faith, and still greatly respects the grounding in charitable work and the Bible he received then. Eventually he and his wife got the Newman bug and had to go deep into history and join one of the apostolic churches; they joined an Eastern Orthodox church.
In that context, Daniel laments the drift of the modern hospice movement away from Christian spiritual roots and into a secular, palliative mindset, and the broader question of what is missing from the often uttered or thought statement, "if it's legal, it must be moral."
"We confuse technological prowess with being deeper and more thoughtful."
An interesting consequence of our medical progress is that we now face a future where, for the first time, across the world, most people will die of conditions derived from aging rather than contagious diseases, accidents, childbirth, etc.
We discuss a bit the golden mean to be found, steering clear of euthanasia on the one hand, and of resorting to excessive means to stay alive in the face of a fatal illness.
Episode 111 - A Catholic Teacher – Dear Old Golden Rule Days
Episode 110 - To Solve Big Problems: Let’s Get Small!
Episode 109 - Psychology & Spirituality of Crisis
Episode 108 - Masks, Science, Novelty, and Conservatism
Episode 107 - Dick Garrett on Kids, Schools, and Teachers
Episode 106 - Beyond Heisenberg, the Principal Uncertainty
Episode 105 – Dick Garrett: The Kids Are Smart Enough
Episode 104 - Scraping Facts Online: If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Datum
Episode 103 - Richard Doerflinger on Covid-19, Commercial Confidence, and Imperfect Science
Episode 102 - Diverse Isolation Stories Could Bring Us Together
Episode 101 - Pandemics as a Science Problem; Skepticism in a Diseased World
Episode 100 - Hemispheres Playing God
Episode 099 - Secular Franciscans on World’s New Views, Old Values
Episode 098 - Uncertainty Principles, Principled Uncertainty, and Science in Times of Catastrophe
Episode 097 - Social Distancing and Loners in the American Psyche
Episode 096 - How a Strong Nest Can Lift Society Higher, with Darcia Narvaez
Episode 095 - Bridges Built by Song, with musician Micki Miller
Episode 094 - Maureen Condic (rerun, full interview)
Episode 093 - The Great Divorce between Philosophy and Science
Episode 092 - Scientists and Religion with Dr. Tom Ryba
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