RE - Rights and Responsibilities

Rights and Responsibilities 

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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

Why do some Christians only use the Bible when making moral decisions?

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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

  • They believe that the Bible is the word of God and so is God's guidance to humans about how to make decisions 
  • The Bible contains God's teachings on how Christians should behave. The Decalogue for example gives very clear guidance of issues such as stealing, murder, adultery, lying 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 on moral decision making.
  • The Bible contains letters from the leading disciples of Jesus about how Christians should behave. Christians believe the writers of the letters knew Jesus and were guided by the Holy Spirit, their guidance must be important.
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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

Why do some Christians use only the authority of the Church when making moral decisions?

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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

  • They believe the Church is the Body of Christ - Jesus working in today's world - so it must have the same authority as Christ.
  • Most Christians believe that God speaks to the world today through the Church.
  • Catholic Christians believe the Magisterium gives perfect guidance on moral behaviour.
  • Following the guidance of the Church stops Christians from being confused about what to do, and means Christians can be sure they are doing the right thing.
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RE - Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians

Why do some Christians use only their conscience when making moral decisions?

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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

  • They believe that the voice of conscience seems to be the same as the voice of God, therefore Christians should follow it.
  • The Church says that Christians should follow their conscience as if it were the voice of God.
  • St Paul and St Thomas Aquinas taught that Christians should use their conscience as the final part of moral decision making, so modern Christians should follow their conscience if it tells them the Church is wrong. (e.g. on artificial contraception).
  • The bible often needs to be interpreted, the teachings of the Church come through the Pope, but conscience is God speaking Directly to individuals and so should be followed.
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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

Why do some Christians think they should not always follow their conscience?

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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

  • People have heard the Voice of God telling them to do bad things. If people can be mistaken about the voice of God, they could be mistaken about the voice of conscience.
  • If Christians follow the teachings of the Bible they are doing what all Christians agree is the Christian thing to do.
  • If all Christians follow the teachings of the Church, they are all doing what other Christians think is right.
  • If everyone followed their conscience rather than laws there would  be chaos as no one would know what sort of behaviour to expect from each other.
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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

Why do some Christians use only Situations Ethics when making moral decisions?

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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

  • Jesus seemed to follow Situation Ethics because he over-ruled the Old Testament when he thought it was unloving. He healed a man on the Sabbath day. 
  • They think Christians should only do what will produce good results, such as stealing nuclear weapons and allowing a 12 year old to have an abortion. 
  • Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God and to love your neighbour, meaning Christians should always do the most loving thing.
  • They believe that Christianity is a religion of love and so Christians should make their moral decisions based on love not laws.
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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

Why do some Christians think Situation Ethics is wrong?

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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

  • They believe the Bible is God's word to Christians about how to live, so it should be the basis for moral decision making.
  • They believe they should follow the 10 commandments and the Sermon on the Mount rather than relying on their own ideas.
  • They think the Church knows better what Christians should do rather an individual Christian.
  • They claim you can never be sure of the consequence of a choice because you can never know you have all the facts of the situation. Therefore it is better to follow the rules of the Church and/or Bible.
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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

Why do some Christians use a variety of authorities when making moral decisions?

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Rights and Responsibilities - How Christians make

  • Protestants might usually use the Bible because it is straight forward to use. However on modern day issues the Bible says nothing so they will rely on the teachings of the Church or their conscience. 
  • Catholics would normally follow the authority of the Church, as the Magisterium applies the teachings of the Bible and the apostles to Modern life. However Situation Ethics and the conscience can be used to make a decisions on trivial topics for the Church (Homosexuality in religion).
  • A Christian who usually followed their conscience might turn to the authority of the Church or the Bible if their conscience was telling them something against the bible. 
  • A Christian who uses Situation Ethics might reject it if the issue was to complicated and use the Bible or Church to help.
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

What human rights do UK citizens have, under the 1998 Human Rights Act?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

  • The right to life 
  • The right to liberty.
  • Freedom of speech and expression.
  • Freedom from slavery and torture
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

Why do Christians believe that human rights are important?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

  • The right to life is a basic Christian Belief because of the belief that life is holy and belongs to God.
  • Christians believe that all people are made in the image of God and so are one human family. Therefore it is important to treat everyone equally and fairly.
  • Freedom of though, expression, assembly, religion and association are all an essential part of being Christian. Christians must have the legal right to believe in Christianity and share their beliefs with others.
  • It is also an essential human right for Christians to not be disadvantaged compared to others.
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

Why can some human rights cause problems for Christians?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

  • Many Christians are against the right to form civil partnerships because they believe homosexuality is against Gods will as shown in the Bible.
  • Some Christians are against the right to marry a person from a different faith. They believe on Christians should marry Christians so that children are brought up in the religion as well.
  • Some Christians are against the right for homosexuals to raise a family, they believe children should be brought up by a mother or father.
  • There might also be a problem for the Catholic Church if human rights laws were used to argue for women to become priests or for priests to be able to marry.
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

What are democratic and electoral processes?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

UK citizens over 18 are entitled to vote for 

  • MP's 
  • Local councillors
  • MEP'S

Also citizens have the right to 

  • join or form a political party
  • join or form a pressure group 
  • have a meeting with their MP or MEP
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

Why is it important to take part in democratic and electoral processes?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

  • You pay income tax on your wages and VAT on what you buy and voting gives you control of how much this is.
  • The national Government can pass new laws which will affect your life.
  • The national Government is responsible for many things (police, schools, prison etc).
  • Local councils are responsible for such things: leisure and cultural activities and waste.
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

What Christian teachings show that Christians should take part in electoral and democratic processes?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Human r

  • The Golden rule - When Christians look at the policies of candidates they will see wether people will be affected in the way Christians want them to be.
  • The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats - The teaching in the parable will affect the way people vote, they would help the poor and suffering with their vote.
  • Am i my brother's keeper? - By Cain being punished this shows that God wants everyone to look after his neighbour. Christians need to look after everyones feeling they vote and try social change. 
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

What are the non-religious arguments in favour of genetic engineering?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

  • It offers the prospect of cures for currently incurable diseases.
  • Cloning processes have been used to grow healthy cells to replace the malfunctioning ones and so cure disease.
  • Genetic research is closely monitored by the law but has vast potential benefits.
  • Cloning using animal eggs, as in cybrids does not involve any human loss of life.
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

What are the non-religious arguments against genetic engineering?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

  • There is too little information about the long term consequences.
  • It has effects which cant be changed so if anything went wrong it would be permanent. 
  • It places to much power in the hands of scientists who could produce scientifically created human beings.
  • It treats the human body as no different from a plant.
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

Why do some Christians agree with all forms of genetic engineering, so long as it is only done to cure disease?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

  • Jesus was a healer who showed Christians they should do all they can to cure disease.
  • Discovering the genetic make up of humans and using discoveries to improve humans life is what God wants us to do as we are his stewards.
  • There is a difference between creating harmless cells and creating people.
  • Embryo's cannot be regarded as human life until 14 days which is the limit set by HEFA 
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

Why do catholics agree with genetic engineering if it is done to cure disease, but not if it involves human embryos?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

  • Life begins at the moment of conception wether in a womb or a glass dish.
  • Killing an embryo is killing a human life.
  • Embryo's have been produced by methods banned by the Church.
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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

Why do some Christians oppose all forms of genetic engineering?

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Rights and Responsibilities - Religion and Genetic

  • They believe that God creates the genetic make up of each person at conception and people have no right to interfere with this.
  • It is trying to play God which is a sin.
  • It is wrong to make the Earth perfect, only heaven is perfect.
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Comments

javaira

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Rona - i love u . thanx soo much

Former Member

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thank you this really helped!

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