Teachings of the Bible and the Christian Church About Human Responsibility for the World

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Teachings of the Bible and the Christian Church About Human Responsibility for the World The Bible contains many teachings about our human responsibility towards the created world. It talks about the start of creation in Genesis. Here it is made clear that human beings are made in the image of God so that they can continue his good work. At the outset they are given power over the rest of creation and now if all humans work together to make the world a better place they will be more powerful so it will happen, but even if just a few people are not willing to help then all will fall apart (see poster). The other implication here is that the power comes with responsibility. The role of human beings is therefore to act as responsible caretakers. The book of Genesis also makes it quite clear that what God had created was perfect and that therefore we, as caretakers, had to keep it that way. In Psalms there is a tribute to the beauty of God's creation (Psalm 19). In the early verses, the Psalm points out that everything in this world reflects the glory of God because everything does what its supposed to do. Things follow God's law, which is the natural law. The Psalm then goes on to say that human beings, like the rest of creation, must do what they are supposed to do and we already know from Genesis that human beings are meant to look after the created world. The Psalm also points out that human beings will never be truly happy if they do not do what they are supposed to do. Furthermore, this should not be a problem because the laws of the Lord are good and just and therefore "they are more desirable that the finest gold, they are... ... middle of paper ... ...d Tutu spoke out consistently against the atrocities of apartheid and ensured that it was put onto the world stage as an issue that needed to be addressed The Quakers promote the equality of all people. They say that within everyone, there is a seed of goodness (a seed of God), which should be encouraged to flourish. This belief means that Quakers are totally anti-war because all life is valuable and unique. Furthermore, at their meetings there is no leader, all are equal and will only speak if moved to do so by the spirit of God. We must conclude from this that if Christians accept God as their creator and acknowledge that God loves them so much that he made them in his image, they must also take responsibility for their actions and make very effort to preserve and care for the planet and all that lives on it.

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