The Sanctity of Life
Most people think life is valuable. Christians however feel that life
is sacred. Sacred means that they think it is a special, given and
holy thing. The reason they think that its sacred it because the Bible
says how all life is a gift form God. God created us all unique and he
decided everything that will happen to us, nothing was an accident,
therefore life must be looked after and used how god intended.
Life is a responsibility and we should treat any kind of it
respectfully otherwise we are destroying God’s creation and so we must
value life highly, and also live it accordingly to God’s will.
People need to live their life until they die of a natural cause to
find what god has planned for them.
Christians try to model themselves to be like Jesus, to care for
everyone and to try to be active in helping others improve their
quality of life.
Most Christians believe that god created human life and the rest of
the world.
Genesis 1:26-7 (creation)
Then god said, ‘let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let
them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the air, over the
livestock, over all the earth and over all creatures that move along
the ground.’
‘So god created man in his own image, in the image of god he created
him; male and female he created them.’
I think that god meant that he wanted to create man in his image – to
help and care for each other. He wanted humans to rule over all other
life on the world e.g. animals.
Another passage is –
Psalm 139:13-16
‘For you (god) created my inmost being: you knit me together in my
mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully
made; your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was
not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
The pro-life stance on abortion is often associated with and defended by traditional Christian beliefs , ; however, this paper will argue that it can and should be defended with secular arguments that appeal to reason and our shared human condition. This paper will try and counter the notion that the argument is simply another battlefield where religion and secular thought meet. Rather, it is an important issue that carries with it heavy implications not only for the religious but also for the secular. The major arguments discussed include the emotional and physical toll on the mother, the societal toll of having abortion legalized, and the rights attributed to every human being; first, however, the stance taken in this paper will be further defined and clarified.
This thesis is shown by John Hick in his article Evil and Soul-Making. As Hick explains, humans already exist in God’s image but have “not yet been formed into the finite likeness of God . . . Man is in the process of becoming the perfected being whom God is seeking to create. However, this is not taking place – it is important to add – by a natural and inevitable evolution, but through a hazardous adventure in individual freedom . . . this involves an accumulation of evil as well as good” (Hick 1-2). In other words, humanity is slowly progressing toward a world in which evil does not exist, as implied by the term “finite likeness of God,” but in order to reach that state, we must first deal with acts of evil, in order to learn what good truly is. On a personal level, this is known as soul-builder
Christian's Beliefs in the Sanctity of Life Christians believe in the sanctity of life. This means that God
Abortions occur for all types of reasons, whether it is because the pregnancy was unplanned, rape-induced, or that it holds a life threatening capacity for the woman herself. Pro-lifers believe once one is conceived, he or she are entitled to a right to live. It does not matter whether or not the pro-lifers are able to prove that a fetus consists of personhood. The life of a potential person should not be able to override the right to one’s body. Judith Thomson presents a though experiment where personhood is granted to a fetus, but how that mere fact still fails to override the woman’s right to her body.
Tom Harpur, in his 1990 article in the Toronto Star - "Human dignity must figure in decisions to prolong life" - presents numerous arguments in support of his thesis that the use of advanced medical technology to prolong life is often immoral and unethical, and does not take into consideration the wishes of the patient or their human dignity. However, it must be noted that the opening one-third of the article is devoted to a particular "human interest" story which the author uses to illustrate his broader argument, as well as to arouse pity among readers to support his view that human life should not always be prolonged by medical technology. This opening section suggests that a critical analysis of Harpur 's arguments may find widespread use of logical fallacies in support of the article 's thesis. In this essay I will argue that, given how greatly
The ongoing controversy about Physician assisted suicides is an ongoing battle among physicians, patients and court systems. The question of whether or not individuals have the “right” to choose death over suffering in their final days or hours of life continues to be contested. On one side you have the physicians and the Hippocratic Oath they took to save lives; on the other you have the patients’ right to make life choices, even if that means to choose death to end suffering. The ultimate question “is it ethical for a physician to agree to assisted suicides and is it ethical for a patient to request assisted suicide?
A Defense of Abortion In her argument on abortion, Judith Thomson discusses some major points about abortion. She deals with extreme cases and those extreme cases help us to realize a single perspective of abortion. For example, she talks about the violinist attached to you. In that example, you keep everything constant and focus on a single point, violinist being dead if you unattached him.
It is also Pico's belief that when Humans were created, they were given qualities both divine and earthly, and could become whatever they chose:
We were designed for one purpose, to honor and love our creator (Matthew 6:24). When we look at ourselves, and others we find that we each have individual humanistic characteristics. Each with different thoughts of how we perceive God and what we think he wants from us. By using our talents and gifts wisely and just we are giving praise back to our creator (1 Timothy 6:17).
“God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance” (93).
But, contradicting itself the Bible then goes on in Genesis 9:6 to say, ‘Whoso shedeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.’ (KJV)
Abortion “is an issue that raises questions about life and death, about what a person is and when one becomes a person, about the meaning of life, about the rights of women, and about the duties of men”(Velasquez 485). Abortion is an unresolved ethical issue that has been in doubt for many years because one can argue that you are killing an innocent person/fetus but many argue that is not person because they don’t have a conscious or the characteristics that defines a “person”. John Stuart Mill in a way justifies abortion, Mill is known to be openly speak about women’s rights and about human rights. Although, it might be immortal to end someone’s life one might argued that the individual has the right to choose and have the option. But in
The Bible teaches that Adam was created in God’s image, and that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, in order to end his solidarity in paradise.
shows that God cares for us all greatly and that life is not just a
In the beginning of the Bible in the Book of Genesis, it is revealed to use in 1:26-27 that God has created man in his image. The text verbatim states “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” From this distinct text we can clearly conclude that when ad created man and woman, they were destined to be in God’s image and carry his image throughout his creation. Today we can see that many of us do not live in God’s image due to society becoming more secularized as it progresses through the years, however as Christians we can verse this by living in God’s image in our chosen vocations, churches, and even in the secular world.