Rights and Responsibilities Flashcards
(25 cards)
What are some of the laws in the Human Rights Act of 1998?
- The right to life
- The right to freedom from torture
- The right to a fair trial
- The right to freedom of thought and religion
- The right to an education
- The right to vote in free elections
Why do Christians support the human rights?
- They believe in the sanctity of life, meaning life is special and should be respected
- Humans are made by God, in God’s image, so everyone is to be cared for and respected
- Freedom of religion is essential to being a Christian
- Many teachings of the Bible and of Jesus are similar to human rights law (The Golden Rule, The Ten Commandments, Love thy Neighbour)
What rights causes problems for Christians?
- Many Christians who are against homosexuality believe that the same-sex marriages should not be allowed
- Some Christians do not allow marriage to people of other religions
- The Roman Catholic Church does not allow women to be priests, which some people think is against equal rights
Why should you vote?
- People have died for the right to vote in the past
- Politics affects every person in the UK
- If you don’t vote you can’t complain about what the government is doing
Why do people not vote?
- They don’t think their vote will make a difference
- They think the money spent on elections could be used elsewhere
- They don’t understand or like any of the political parties’ policies
- They don’t think politics affects them
Why do Christians believe they have a moral duty and responsibility to help one another?
- The Golden Rule is to ‘treat others like you would want to be treated’
- The parable (story) of the sheep and the goats
- The Bible story of ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’
What is the parable of the sheep and the goats?
This was a story told by Jesus about how all the good people helped those in need by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison and attending the sick. These good people were like sheep because the followed the rules, and would go to heaven.
What is the Bible story of ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’
This story tells of a man who kills his brother then says he did not need to look after him anyway. He is told by God that he should have looked after his brother, as we should look after others
What are the four main ways to which Christians make moral decisions?
- The Bible
- The Church
- Conscience
- Situation ethics
Why do Christians use only the Bible?
- Christians believe it was either inspired by God, or are the words of God so it is important
- It contains laws and teachings that can help them with decisions
- It contains teachings from Jesus who they believe is very important
Why might Christians use other sources than the Bible?
- The Bible is very old and doesn’t give advice on modern issues
- They believe the Bible was written by people who were influenced by God, so it needs adapting
- It can be difficult to understand
Why do Christians use only the Church?
- They can talk to other Christians and pray and worship together
- They can listen to the priest/vicar who is well trained in religious teachings
- They believe God speaks to the world through the Church
- The Church offers teachings on how to behave
Why might Christians use other sources than the Church?
-The priest/vicar might not be well qualified to give advice on certain situations (abortion, sex, family)
Why do Christians use only their conscience?
- Everyone has a conscience that they can use to make decisions
- They believe their conscience is God speaking to them and telling them what they should do
- It is flexible and can be used in any situation
Why might Christians use other sources than their conscience?
- Their conscience might be mistaken
- Their conscience could be conflicting with other beliefs and teachings that they know
- Their conscience could be corrupt and tell the person to do bad things (Yorkshire Ripper)
Why do Christians use only situation ethics?
- It is similar to the teachings of Jesus: love thy neighbour, the Golden rule
- Love is a foundation of Christianity and so doing the most loving things goes with their religion
- It can be used in all situations and each situation is judged individually
Why might Christians use other sources than situation ethics?
- It depends on being able to predict what is going to be the most loving result
- In theory immoral things could be justified as being ‘loving’
What is genetic engineering used for?
- Genes can be altered to help cure genetic diseases
- It can be used to produce hormones which can help those who suffer with genetic diseases such as diabetes
- Genes can be inserted into animals to grow human body parts that can be used for testing and for transplants
- Genetic engineering could also be used to change the genes of an embryo (to create ‘designer babies’)
- It can be used to create genetically modified crops
What are the non-religious arguments for genetic engineering?
- Could lead to cures for diseases
- Genetic research is a very important part of medical research
- There are already strict laws about what is allowed
- Some diseases have already been cured by stem cell research
- GM crops could help to solve the shortage of food by creating crops that grow easily
What are the non-religious arguments against genetic engineering?
- We do not know of the long term consequences
- It places too much power into the hands of scientists
- It treats human life like it is the same as a plant or animal
- If anything went wrong it would be irreversible
- Who decides what is defective in a human? It could mean humans are no longer unique
- We don’t know if changing the genes of plants could lead to them becoming poisonous
What are the reasons Christians accept Genetic Engineering?
- Christians believe God has given them ‘dominion over fish of the sea, the birds, and every living thing’ so it is ok to use forms of genet engineering
- The Golden rule ‘treat others as you wish to be treated’ means some Christians believe it is ok if it’s used for curing diseases
- Jesus healed as many people, which suggests Christians should do all they can to cure people
What are the reasons Christians oppose Genetic Engineering?
- Only God can create life. Humans should not be ‘playing God’ by using genetic engineering
- Roman Catholics believe life starts at conception and see an embryo as a person. These Christians are against genetic engineering that involves embryos being destroyed as they see it as murder
- Most Christians would be opposed to genetic engineering that corrects ‘defects’ which do not cause suffering
What are the advantages of cloning?
- Can be used to help cure diseases and create organs for transplants
- Can be used to create plants and animals that have useful characteristics. This could help solve the food shortage problem
What are the disadvantages of cloning?
- Many animals that have been cloned have had genetic defects and have died at a young age
- We don’t know how reliable or accurate cloning is, it could be very dangerous to clone a human
- It seems immoral to clone humans. It could result in clones being created to ‘farm’ body parts
- Families may clone a dead loved one and they place high expectations on the clone
