Rights And Responsibility

Question 1

Quick fire quotes

Answer 1

Parable of the Sheep and Goats “ Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Golden rule “ Love thy neighbour”
Playing God = genetic engineering/cloning

Question 2

Why is the Bible the only source of moral authority for some Christians?

Answer 2

• Christians believe the bible is the actual word of God, by following it’s teaching’s they believe they are acting as God wants them to
• The Bible is filled with laws that are laws that God wants them to follow. The most famous of these are the 10 commandments
• The leaders of the early church gave moral teachings on how Christians should behave
• The teachings of Jesus- life and death

Question 3

Sources of Authority: The Church

Answer 3

Catholic- the Pope has supreme authority from God and the Council of Bishops alongside him offer guidance to all Catholics.
Anglican- has 560 Bishops, vicars and laity forming the general Synod.
Independent- Assemblies ( gatherings of church leaders) agree to biblical response to moral issues.

Question 4

Why does the Church have authority for Christians?

Answer 4

• God speaks to Christians through the church
• The church is the “Body of Christ” - the people in the church have an impact on the world around them
• The Church is a community of believers and God guides them
• Church leaders have had training in understanding the Bible, they can pass this on

Question 5

Official ways of help from the Church

Answer 5

• Protestant - some Churches discuss the moral issue in an Assembly that contains people who are elected by members of the church
• Roman Catholic - the Pope and the council of Bishops (magisterium) offer moral guidance to all Catholics

Question 6

How the Church helps in less formal ways

Answer 6

• both churches - the church can help if Christians accept the authority of the Church as God’s word
• both - the church can help by praying and worshipping together
• both - the church can help by letting other Christians tall to each other
• both - allow people to speak to the priest or vicar

Question 7

Conscience

Answer 7

an inner feeling of rightness or wrongness of an action
Should follow your conscience:
- The voice of God speaks to the as what to do
- Church says you should because it is the teachings of the church
- The church and bible has been translated and is not from God, the conscience is God speaking directly to individuals
- best outcome?
Shouldn’t follow your conscience:
- People have mistaken the voice of God, if you can mistake the voice of God then you can mistake the voice of the conscience
- If everyone followed their conscience rather than the law, life would become chaotic
- Some people are not religious

Question 8

Holy Spirit

Answer 8

• When Jesus died he said he would be with his people always, in the form of the Holy Spirit
• Christians believe God’s presence is them in the Holy Spirit

Question 9

Reason and Logic

Answer 9

• St Thomas Aquainas and Immanuel Kant believed in something called “natural law”. Part of it is being able to distinguish right from wrong because we are created by God in his image
• using reason and logic we should know what God would want us to do

Question 10

Situation Ethics

Answer 10

The idea that Christians should base moral decisions on what is the most loving thing to do
Sometimes must come before biblical rules

Question 11

Human rights are important to Christians be cause ….

Answer 11

• they believe every human being is crated by God in his image and deserves respect
• they believe God loves everyone equally so all should be treated equally
• the teachings of the bible support more human rights

Question 12

Desmond Tutu

Answer 12

archbishop of cape town
campaigned for equality in South Africa. tried to influence people to not discriminate against on another
gave children of Johannesburg a fair education, gave black people of south Africa same human rights a s white people

Question 13

Government parties

Answer 13

Lib dems- the government and individuals should work together to help everyone
green issues are important
strength - helps everyone and benefits the environment
weakness- more important issues e.g. healthcare and education
Conservative- the state should encourage people to look after themselves
the state should only provide what people cannot pay for themselves
strength - gives people independence and promotes people to work harder
weakness- unwelthy will struggle, large class divide (will increase)
Labour - the state should help the poor
should provide hospitals and schools for everyone equally
strength- looks after the vulnerable, everyone treated equally
weakness- people can take advantage of the gov and it can become expensive for them