RS Unit 3.2

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  • Created by: naoumi
  • Created on: 13-05-17 14:33

Why Catholics believe in Life after Death

  • Resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament. This proves there is life after death.
  • The major creeds of the Church teach that Jesus rose from the dead and there'll be life after death.
  • The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that there is life after death. All Catholics should believe the teaching of the Magisterium.
  • Many Catholics believe in immortality of the soul. Therefore there must be life after death.
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How this affects their lives

  • Catholics believe that only if they have lived a good Catholic life they will be allowed into heaven. They have to follow the teachings of the Church to go to heaven when they die.
  • Encourages them to love God and show devotion to follow the commandments of love of God and love of neighbour. They will be affected as they worship God by attending mass every Sunday.
  • Jesus' teaching of the Good Samaritan teaches Catholics to help anyone in need. Therefore this leads Catholics into joining charities such as CAFOD in order to follow Jesus' teachings.
  • Catholics believe that sin prevents people from going to heaven and those who die will go to purgatory to be purified. Therefore Catholics try to avoid committing sins so that they'll go to heaven.
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Non-religious reasons for believing in

life after death

  • Near-death experiences - people enter a heavenly place where they see dead relatives or float above their body. If these experiences are true, there must be a life after death.
  • Evidence for a spirit world - mediums contact people's dead relatives and know information that they coouldn't possibly know without their contact being true. If mediums can contact the dead, there must be life after death.
  • Reincarnation - Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists believe in reincarnation and have collected evidence for reincarnation. If reincarnation is true, then there is life after death.
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Against non-religious reasons for life after death

  • Most beliefs about life after death think that the mind or soul can survive without the body but science shows that the mind cannot live without the brain, so when the body dies, the mind must also dies.
  • Catholics reject all evidence for mediums and ghosts. Many mediums are proven to be frauds so they can't prove there is life after death.
  • Catholics reject reincatnation as the Bible states "it is appointed for men to die once. There is no reincarnation after death."
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Why some people don't believe in life after death

  • If there is no God, there is no spirit world for life after death to happen.
  • Different religions contradict each other as some believe in immortality of the soul or resurrection and others believe in reincarnation. If life after death was true, they would all say the same thing.
  • Most beliefs about life after death think that the mind or soul lives on without the body. However, science shows that the mind can't live without the brain, so when the body dies, the mind must also die.
  • The evidence for life after death is based on holy books but they contradict each other. There is no way of deciding which holy books are true and which are false.
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Law on abortion

It is only allowed if two doctors agree:

  • the mother's life is at risk
  • the mother's physical or mental health is at risk
  • the child is very likely to be born severly handicapped
  • there would be a serious effect on other children in the family
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Why abortion is a controversial issue

  • Life begins at contraception. Therefore abortion is taking a human life.
  • Life begins when the foetus lives outside the mother, not at contraception. Therefore abortion is not taking life.
  • Non-religious people believe that a woman should have the right to do what she wants with her own body.
  • Religious people believe that the unborn child's right to life is greater than the mother's rights.
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Different Christian attitudes to abortion

Catholic Church - all abortion is wrong:

  • Life belongs to God, so only God has the right to end a pregnancy.
  • Life begins at conception so abortion is taking a life and this is banned in the Ten Commandments.
  • The Catechism teaches that all abortion is murder. Catholics must follow the teachings of the Catechism.
  • Adoption and counselling is a better alternative to abortion if the pregnancy is a result of **** as it preserves life and good can come out of evil in a new life.

Other Christians (mainly Liberal Protestants) - abortion is allowed sometimes:

  • Life doesn't begin at conception.
  • Jesus said to love your neighbour which means it is the duty of Christians to remove suffering, which abortion does.
  • Sanctity of life is broken in a just war so it can be broken in a just abortion.
  • Medical tests have allowed doctors to show parents if their baby will be born with serious medical issues. The parents should be allowed an abortion if these tests show that.
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Why euthanasia is a controversial issue

Reasons for it to remain illegal:

  • If it is non-voluntary, there may be doubt as to whether it is what the person really wants.
  • There is the problem as to whether the disease will end the life as a cure might be found for the disease.
  • Doctors are meant to save lives, not end them. May cause trust issues for patients if their doctors kill their patients.
  • People might change their mind, but then it would be too late.

Reasons for it to be made legal:

  • Improvements in medicine have allowed people to suffer from their disease in agony rather than die so they should have a right to die.
  • Doctors can switch off life-support machines if they think there is no chance of recovery for a patient do euthanasia is already legal in one way.
  • People have a right to commit suicide so they should be able to ask doctors for assisted suicide if they are too weak to do it themselves.
  • Now that doctors can switch off life-support machines, judges have said doctors can stop treatment.
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Different Christian attitudes to euthanasia

Catholics - all forms of euthanasia are wrong (but life support and painkillers aren't euthanasia)

  • Life is holy and belongs to God (sanctity of life). Therefore only God can take a life, not humans.
  • Euthanasia is murder, which is against the Ten Commandments.
  • If doctors say someone is brain-dead, then they have already died. Therefore switching off the life machine is accepting what God has already decided.
  • If you give painkillers to a dying person in pain, and this person dies, this isn't murder because you were trying to remove the pain, not to kill them.

Some Christians believe any form is wrong:

  • They take the Bible teachings literally and the Bible forbids suicide.
  • Euthanasia includes switching off life-support machines and giving large doses of painkillers because life is ended by humans not God.
  • All forms of euthanasia are murder, which is against the Ten Commandments.
  • Life is sacred and should only be taken by God. The Bible says that life and death decisions belong to God.
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Different Christian attitudes to euthanasia pt. 2

A few Christians accept euthanasia in certain circumstances:

  • Medical advances mean it is hard to know what God's wishes about someone's death are. God may want someone to die but doctors are keeping them alive.
  • Jesus said to love your neighbour and justifying assisted suicide may be the most loving thing to do.
  • It is a basic human right to have control over your body. People can refuse medical treatment so they should be allowed to ask for euthanasia.
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The media and matters of life and death

The media shouldn't be free to criticise religious beliefs:

  • Stirs racial hatred, which is banned by the Racial and Religious Hatred Act of 2007.
  • The media's freedom should be limited because criticsm of religious beliefs can have fatal consequences such as Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris.
  • Criticising religious beliefs on life and death is close to the crime of blasphemy.
  • Religious statements are based on what God says so they are beyond human criticsm.
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The causes of world poverty

  • Natural disasters - LEDCs suffer from natural disasters that destroy homes and farmland that people live on.
  • Debt - most LEDCs borrow money from the banks of developed countries to survive and develop. However, the large interest can make the country poorer.
  • Wars - many LEDcs have been badly affected by wars as they destroy crops, homes, schools, and hospitals, which causes even more poverty.
  • Aids - this disease affects many people in LEDCs. Decreases the number of earners while there's a growing number of orphans, causing poor countries to become poorer.
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How CAFOD is trying to end world poverty

  • Development programmes - helps to give street children an education. Therefore that can learn skills that can help thay start earning a living.
  • Disasters and emergencies - CAFOD has a disaster fund to help with natural disasters and refugees. Food, shelters and antibiotics has been sent to victims of tsunamis and war refugees.
  • Raising awareness some of CAFOD's budgent is spent on educating the people and the churches of the UK about the need for development and how Catholics can help.
  • Speaking out on behalf of poor communities for social justice CAFOD is involved in the Trade Justice Campaign to change the rules of world trade to help poor countries work themselves out of poverty.
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Why CAFOD is trying to end world poverty

  • Jesus' taught in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats that feeding the hungry and clothing the naked is like feeding and clothing Jesus himself. Catholics want to help Jesus so they help the poor and suffering.
  • The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats also teaches that helping poor people is the way to heaven, and Catholics want to go to heaven.
  • The Catholic Church teaches that Christians have a duty to help the poor and suffering. They must follow the teachings of the Catholic Church to be a good Christian.
  • The Golden Rule is to treat others how you want to be treated, and everyone would want to be helped if they were starving.
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The media and matters of life and death pt. 2

The media should be free to criticise religious beliefs:

  • Freedom of expression is a basic human right, which is necessary for democracy. Free media is necessary for people to vote therefore they must have freedom of expression and can criticise religious beliefs.
  • Religious leaders use the media to make statements on life and death. Therefore they need to be prepared for the media to criticise those statements.
  • We live in a multi-faith society so there must be freedom of religious belief and expression. The media has a right to question and criticise what religions say about life and death.
  • Life and death issues are important to everyone - everyone wants to know what is right. This would be difficult if religious beliefs couldn't be criticised.
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