Rights and Responsibilities
- Created by: Rebecca
- Created on: 27-04-13 09:27
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- Bible is word of God, so is God's guidance to humans about how to make moral decisions.
- Use only Bible
- Bible is word of God, so is God's guidance to humans about how to make moral decisions.
- Bible contains God's teachings on how Christians should behave. Decalogue, for example, gives very clear guidance on such things as stealing, murder, adultery, lying, treatment of parents, etc.
- The Bible contains the teachings of Jesus on how to live. As Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God, they should follow his teachings about moral decisions making.
- Bible contains letters from the leading disciples of Jesus on how Christians should behave. Christians believe that the disciples knew Jesus and were guided by the Holy Spirit so their guidance must be important for Christians today.
- R&R
- Use only Bible
- Bible contains God's teachings on how Christians should behave. Decalogue, for example, gives very clear guidance on such things as stealing, murder, adultery, lying, treatment of parents, etc.
- The Bible contains the teachings of Jesus on how to live. As Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God, they should follow his teachings about moral decisions making.
- Bible contains letters from the leading disciples of Jesus on how Christians should behave. Christians believe that the disciples knew Jesus and were guided by the Holy Spirit so their guidance must be important for Christians today.
- Bible not most important
- Some Christians believe that Bible was written by humans, inspired by God, so many of its atttitudes need to be changed for the modern world ( (St.Paul's attitude towards woman and slaves, for example).
- Some Christians believe that they need the Church to tell them what the Bible means for today.
- Other Christians would turn to their own conscience of reason to tell them whether of not to follow the Bible today.
- Use Church when making moral decisions
- Church is Body of Christ, Jesus working in today's world, so it must have the same authority of Christ.
- Most Christians believe that God speaks to the world today through the Church.
- The Church is guided by God on making decisions on today's moral issues.
- Following the guidance of the Church means Christians are not confused about what to do and can be sure they are doing the right thing.
- Catholic Christians believe that the Magisterium (the Pope and Bishops interpretingthe Bible and Catholic behaviour today) gives perfect guidance on moral behaviour.
- Some Christians would follow conscience
- Voice of conscienceseems to be the same as the voice of God, therefore Christians should follow it.
- Church says that Christians should follow their conscienceas if it were the vioce of God.
- St.Paul and ST.ThomasAquinas both siad that he conscienceshould be the final part in moral decision making, so modern Christians should follow their conscienceif it tells them the Church is wrong (e.g, artificial contraception).
- The Bible often need to be interpreted,the teachings of the Church come throch come through the Pope, bishops, conferences, ect, but the consciences God spesking to an individual so should be followed.
- Some Christians would not always follow conscience
- People have heard the voice of God telling them to do bad things. If people can be mistaken about the vioce of God, they could be mistaken about the vioce of conscience
- If Christians follow the teachings of the Bible they are doing what all Christians agree is the Christian thing to do.
- If Christians follow the Church they are doing what other Christians agree is right.
- If everyone followed their conscienceinstead of laws, there would be chaos as no dody would know what sort of behaviour to expect from each other.
- Some Christians use Situation Ethics when making moral decisions
- Jesus seemed to follow situation Ethics because he over-ruled what the Old Testament said when he thought it was unloving. For example, healing people on the Sabbath because he said it was more important to do good tha to follow the Sabbath laws.
- They think Christians should only do what will produce good results, such as stealing nuclear weapons and letting a 12 year old have an abortion.
- Jesus said that the greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbour, meaning Christians should always do what will produce the most loving results.
- They believe Christianityis a religion based on love and so Christians should make their moral decisions based on love not laws.
- Some Christians think Situation Ethics is wrong
- They believe the Bible is God's word to Christians on how to live, so should be the bases for moral decision making.
- They believe they should follow the 10 Commandments and the Serman on the Mount rather than relying on their worn ideas.
- They think the Church knows better what a Christian should do rather than an individual Christian.
- They claim you can nver besure of the consequences of a choice because you can never be sure you know all the facts of a situation. Therefore it is better to follow the rules of the Church and/or Bible.
- Human Rights
- Right to life - law must protect you from being kileed.
- Right to a fair trial
- Right to an education
- Right to marry or form a civil partnershipand start a family.
- Human rights importnt to Christians
- Right to life is a basic Christian belief because of the belief that life is holy and belongs to God (sanctity of life).
- Christians believe that all people are created in the image of God and so are one human family. Therefore it is important to Christians that everyone is treated fairly and equally and so people need human rights laws to protect minorities.
- Freedom of thought, conscienceand religion, freedom of expression,freedom of assebly and associationare an essential part of being Christian. Christias must have the legal right to share their beliefs with others, to meet together for worship and to have processions to celebrate Easter and Pentecost.
- It is also an essential human right for Christians not to be disadvantaged compared to others, since it means employers cannot discriminate against Christians over jobs and pay. For instance, employers cannot refure to employ Christians because they don't want religious people in the workplace.
- Some human rights can cause problems for Christians
- Many Christians are against the right to form civil partnerships because they believe homosexuality is against God's will as shown in the Bible.
- Some Christians are against the right to marry a person from a different faith. they belive Christians shoud only marry Christians so the child ren are brought up as Christians.
- Some Christians are against the right for homsexuals to raise a family. They believe that children sahould be brought up by a mother and a father.
- There might also be problems for the Catholic Church if human rights laws were used to argue for the right for women to become priests, or the right for priests to marry.
- Impotance of taking part in elctoral and democratic processes
- You pat income tax on your wages and VAT on what you buy, and voting gives you some control on how much this is.
- Natinal government is responsiblefor important things like the armed forces, thr NHS, benefits, pensions and schools. Voting gives you a say in how these are run.
- Ancestors fought to have these electoral and emocratic rights so you should use them.
- Taking part in electortal and democraticprocesses gives you a chance to affect new laws which may be passed.
- Christian teachings
- Golden Rule
- Follow Golden rule when voting, if a party wanted to send asylum seekers nack to home contry, Christian would have to think 'If I were a member of an ethnic group being slaughteredby the army, would I want to be sent back to be slaughtered?'
- Parable of Sheep and Goats
- Duty of Christians to help the poor by taking part in politics. Example: If a party wanted to cut off benefits to the jobless who refused jobs, a Christian may accept this aqs they would not refuse jobs if they were jobless, but then they would have to think about the effects of the policy on the children of the jobless.
- Am I My Brother's Keeper?
- Christian teachings on being our brother's keeper show Christians have a duty to look after everyone in need.
- Golden Rule
- Stem Cell Research
- Grow healthy cells to replace diseased ones. Involves creating stem cells from embryos produced for invitrofertilisation but not used, or from adult bone marrow or blood.
- Non- religipous arguments for genetic engineering
- Offers prspect for cures for currently incurable diseases.
- It is being done in other countires and so is available to those rich enough to travel and pay fro treatments.
- Cloning uses animal eggs, as in cybrids (a hman nucleous in an empty animal egg) does not invove any loss of human life.
- Genetic reseaqrch is closely monitored by the law, but has vast potential benefits.
- Non reigious arguments against genetic engineering
- There is too little informationabout the long term consequences.
- It has effects which can't be changed, so if anything went wrong it couldd be permanent.
- It places too much power in the hands of scientists who could produce scientifically created human beings.
- It treats the human body as no different from plants.
- Liberal Protestants upport gentic engineering:
- Jesus showed that Christuiansshould do all they can to cure disease.
- Finding genetic cures is no different from finding drug cures.
- There is a difference between creating cells and creating people.
- Emb\ryos are not foetuses until they are 14 days old.
- They accept the nonn- religious arguments in favour of genetic engineering.
- Roman Catholics and some others agree as long as no embbryos are invo;lved:
- Life begins at the momnent of conception whether in a womb or in a tst tube and killing life is wrong.
- Killing an embryo is killing human life.
- Embryos have been produced by non-Christian means.
- Soke Christians against all genetic engineering becuase:
- They belive that God created genetic make up of each person at cxoncerption and people have no right to interfere with this.
- It is trying to play God which is a great sin.
- It is wrong to try to make Earch perfect; only heaven is perfect.
- Use only Bible
- Bible not most important
- Some Christians believe that Bible was written by humans, inspired by God, so many of its atttitudes need to be changed for the modern world ( (St.Paul's attitude towards woman and slaves, for example).
- Some Christians believe that they need the Church to tell them what the Bible means for today.
- Other Christians would turn to their own conscience of reason to tell them whether of not to follow the Bible today.
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