RE Rights and Responsbilities

• The Bible records Jesus' life = shows how Christians should behave.
• Contains God's teachings - the Decalogue = clear moral guidance.
• Bible is the word of God = God's ultimate guidance and absolute authority.
• The Bible was authenticated by God = eensures they meet God's approval on their actions.

• Church is the body of Christ = the Church works in the same way Jesus did in society.
• God speaks to the world through the Church.
• By following the Church, Christians can be confident that they are doing the right thing.
• Church is the community of Christian believers which is guided by God.

• Chruch says to follow your conscience as if it is the voice of God.
• God speaks to Christians, so the conscience is like the voice of God speaking to individuals.
• St Paul taught that Christians should use their conscience.
• Teachings of Church and Bible are not directly from God but their conscience is God speaking directly to individuals.

However:

• If everyone followed their conscience instead of laws then life would be chaotic.
• People have been mistaken about the voice of God, so you can be mistaken about your conscience.

• Jesus appeared to follow situation ethics
• Christianity is the religion of love and forgiveness
• Believe that Jesus' statement that the only laws are to love God and love your neighbour as yourself
• It is wrong to ignore the cppnsequences of your actions - you should only do what will produce good results

Human Rights:

• Right to life, Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion, Freedom of Expression, Right to an Education, Right to vote.

Human Rights are important:

• Without HR's, you could be living in a dictatorship as opposition to leaders have been unfairly imprisoned.
• Without the right to freedom of thought and expression, minority religions and political parties could be banned.
• Without the right to take part on free elections, there would be no democracy.

Human Rights are not important:

• People abuse HR laws.
• In a democracy you do not need HR as people can vote for what they want.
•  You are ought to be able to torture terrorists to find out where they have planted bombs as this will save innocent lives.

Human Rights are important to Christians:

• Right to life - sancity of life
• All people are made in the image of God and are on human family
• Equality of human family is shown in Jesus' teachings
• HR's are important as C's believe in justice and HR's are a fundamental part of justice

Why Human Rights can cause problems:

• Many against the right to form civil partnerships and believe they have the right to descriminate.
• Some are against the right to marry someone from a different faith = believe they have the right to discriminate
• Some are agianst the right for homosexuals to raise a family.
• Possible problmes for catholic church if women use HR laws to become a priest

Why voting is important

• UK is a democracy = over 18 measn they have the right to vote.
• New laws can affect our lives - we have a say
• How can you complain if you do not vote
• Women fought for our vote

Why voting isnt important

• Things often end up the same
• Only the majoritys voice gets heard
• One among millions of voters
• Not trained to organise a country so we dont know whats best

• Christian views
• Jesus was a healer
• Improving life is something God wants us to do as his stewards
• Creating cures/preventing disease is working with God
• Embryos cannot be human until they are 14 days old
• God created the genetic make up, we have no right to interfere with God
• GE is playing God
• Wrong to try and mkae the earth perfect
• Killing an embryo is killing a human life - life begins at conception
• Non religious
• Offers cures for incurable diseases
• Cloning using animal eggs does not involve a loss of human life
• GE is closely monitered by the law
• Through cloning, healthy cells have been produced to cure diseases
• Too little information aout long term consequences
• Effects would be irreversible if anything went wrong
• Places too much power in the hands of scientists - master race
• Treats the human body as a commodity