After reading “The Gospel of Life”, JP II touches on a number of issues concerning the value of human life. The five most important elements concerning a complete vision of human dignity would be:
1. As creatures created by God and who share in His life, we all have “inestimable value” (JP II 2). By virtue of the fact that He sent His Son to die for us on the cross in order to bridge what was broken in the Garden, God shows how much He really loves humanity. The Incarnation is proof positive how important human life is in the eyes of the Trinity. Jesus Christ could have taken on any form, yet as Philippians 2:7 teaches us, He took the form of a human servant and died a human death on the cross in order to provide salvation for humankind. Because of this relationship, all humans are valuable and share a divine dignity with one another and with God.
2. The right to human life, from conception to natural death, trumps and supersedes all the other individual and human rights that a society may create. As a matter of fact, the right to life is the foundation by which all other rights are built on. As Christians, in regard to a culture of life, we have to in the words of JP II, “choose to be unconditionally pro-life” (27). That is, in modern society, there is never a reason to take the life of a human being (aside from self-defense or the defense of others), where life begins at conception and ends at a naturally occurring death.
3. Though the right to life is the initial
God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, therefore a predetermined path of righteousness or condemnation is contradictory to the core values of Christianity, as it eliminates the need for the will to be saved by Christ. This shows that God does not control our actions, in hopes that we live in accordance to him.
In Richard Taylor’s chapter “Meaning of Life”, he concluded that objectively, life is meaningless. He stressed his opinion by arguing that life tends to be a cycle of goals that cumulate to nothing. These goals require sequences of exhausting work and attempt that will continue throughout the rest of life but will have no meaning. As one goal is reached, the next is sought out for, forgetting the one that was just achieved. I do not support Taylor on his objective meaningless of life. Life has a meaning, even if it is just being alive, we were created by God and he has a plan for us. Goals help us become better people and they are important to us. Taylor explained that we can find meaning in our lives when a will is put behind our actions. This means that meaningfulness can be found within the veins of anyone. I agree with Taylor, that our actions should be of interest to us, yet his account fails to show that they will make our lives have a meaning. There is no validation, that a change of the state of mind will cause our lives to achieve meaning.
Salvation describes the deliverance by God for those who believe in him. It is the saving of the soul from sin (and its consequences) through Gods will and grace. Though it takes different forms in every religion, the principle is still the same, often emphasising the necessity of both good works, repentance, and asceticism, as well as divine intervention (in this case the action being the grace of God). If assuming that Christ is the full truth, then the only way to gain access to God after death is through the salvation given by the Christian God. Jesus himself has indicated that a person must hear the word, believe it, repent of past sins, and be willing to confess faith before others, be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins, and then continue to live a faithful life throughout this physical life if we are to go to heaven.
I specify Christians because I am not familiar with the rights or wrongs of abortions in other religions. Christians use the bible for teaching and reproof. The bible is not confusing when it comes to this issue. In the new world translation of the bible the psalmist states “Your eyes saw even the embryo of me.” (Psalm 139:16) There are several instances where God has condemned the murder of an unborn child. In Exodus 21: 22-23 22 there is an illustration and condemnation of evens that cause the accidental harm of a pregnant woman. It states “If men should struggle with each other and they hurt a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but no fatality results, the offender must pay the damages imposed on him by the husband of the woman; and he must pay it through the judges. 23 But if a fatality does occur, then you must give life for life, God stated that a person would be called to account for injuring an unborn child. So, in his eyes, killing an unborn child is murder. (Ex. 21:22,
One of the most prominent issues in America is abortion. Abortion was legalized in America in 1973 as a result of the Roe v. Wade court decision. According to Guttmacher Institute, a 2011 statistic stated that since the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, 56,405,766 abortions have been performed. The argument that most people make, including Catholics, is the question, “When does human life begin?” This question has divided America into two separate sides is still present today. Not only can scientific and religious evidence support claims that human life begins at conception, I can argue that human life can be defined through its natural beginning. During the March for Life, I saw countless genocide photos from abortions. It proved to me after seeing tiny hands and feet being compared to a quarter that a life is a life, and it should be treated with respect at any stage of development. The world needs to understand the uniqueness and sacredness of human
The principle of human dignity based on catholic social teaching is that every human being is the live image of a god himself (Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, 2016). therefore, every individual in our society is worth of respect as a member of the
In the Bible, God, sacrifices his only son, a respectable, revered "heavenly" figure, allowing Jesus to live amongst sinful people. In human form, Jesus treats the common people's illnesses and performs miracles to help them; above all, he cares for them and loves them. Jesus is selfless, endlessly devoting himself to helping and serving others, and ensuring that they will
Thou shalt not kill; one-tenth of what may arguably be the most famous guidelines of morality in the western culture, and also the main driving force for pro-life advocates. The argument supporting their beliefs typically starts with the premises that a fetus is a person, and to destroy or to kill a person is unethical. Therefore abortion, the premeditated destruction of a human being, is murder, and consequently unethical. I deny the fact that the fetus, what I will refer to as an embryo up to 22 weeks old, has the right to live. The opposing argument is invalid because a fetus, although perhaps a part of human species, is not formally a person. This leaves it simply to be a part of the woman?s body, whose fate lies solely in the
Consider for a moment a society in which there are no rules or laws. A society in which everyone is allowed to do what they please whenever they feel like it without any consequences. The world would be in a state of chaos. In order to maintain order and implement laws we use a set of morals to judge what actions are permissible and which are not. Through evaluating their actions and the outcomes of these actions, humans begin to develop morals. However, to fully understand the consequences one must first claim responsibility for her actions. The moral validity of abortion does not depend on the status of the unborn as a person, when life begins-whether it is conception, birth, or sometime between-or religious beliefs. The permission
From a biblical worldview perspective, abortion is wrong since it is the killing of a human. All humans are created by God and are created in His image. Since God is the creator of humans, He has the authority to set the value of life and not humans. Human life has value not only because God made them in His image but also because God redeemed them through His Son, Jesus Christ. Multiple verses in the New Testament, including John 3:16 and Romans 5:8, state how God loved humans enough to give up His own Son so humans can have a right relationship with Him. Jesus also talks about how humans are valuable to the Father in Matthew 10:31. God values all life and this includes the life of the unborn. In Psalm 139, David praises God for seeing him in His mother’s womb and ordaining all his days. God is the one who forms the baby in the womb. He does so in great detail and care, knitting together each baby in their mother’s womb. God does not start to value a human once they are born, instead, He knows and calls them even when they are in the mother’s womb. As in Jeremiah 1:5 and Isaiah 49:1, God called and set apart these prophets before they were even formed in the womb. Even Paul believed that God “set me apart from my mother 's womb and called me by his grace.” (Galatians 1:15). God values the unborn baby, He even calls the “fruit of the
‘Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ,
Life is prolonged through medicine and technology. Abortion might not seem bad, but it affects the natural order (Seindensticker 2). In nature, it is not natural for a baby’s life to be taken intentionally through medicine. In the Bible, abortion is
Looking at abortion from a religious viewpoint, abortion is a mortal sin. Taking the life of a human being is the greatest sin a human can commit. If it is not acceptable to take the life of a 5 year old, an 18 year old, or a 50 year old, then why is it acceptable to take the life of a human who hasn’t even had the chance to live yet? The point is it shouldn’t be. Taking a life, no matter what the age is, is morally wrong.
Nowadays, in this world, there are a lot of problems that can make tremendous conflicts for human beings. They are very complicated and bring a lot of argument and nobody knows what the exact answer is. They also have pros and cons. One of the most complex problems is abortion. This is due to moral and ethical values which we all have. The majority of us are Christians or are brought up in that kind of ambiance which means that as small children we were taught values that are based on the bible such as that famous phrase “Thou shall not kill”. This phrase relates to this topic because an abortion is the murder of a human being.
Even though many people practice pro-life because of their religion, it may be surprising to learn that catholic women are 29% more likely to get an abortion than Protestant women, though they are as likely as all women to do so2. In Christianity abortion has been considered homicide since Pope Sixtus V declared it so, but the debate didn’t become heated until the 19th century1. So even these pro-life supporters sometimes find the circumstances where abortion is necessary. An example of a situation where you may see this is in a given situation where bearing a child and giving birth would kill the mother because of health issues or womb complications the fetus would have. It’s said that the risks of death associated with childbirth is 10 times higher than