Religious Education > Key Stage 4 > Believing in God

EDEXCEL GCSE RS                  RELIGION AND LIFE              

UNIT TITLE:             BELIEVING IN GOD

AIM:     To consider the key issues relating to belief in God as outlined in the syllabus. This section is based on a study of Christianity.

KEY ISSUES OUTLINED IN THE SYLLABUS:

• How religious upbringing in a family or community can lead to or support belief in God.
• The nature of religious experience as seen in the numinous, conversion, miracle and prayer and how this may lead to or support belief in God.
• How the appearance of the world (design and causation) may lead to or support belief in God
• How the search for meaning and purpose in life may lead to or support belief in God and how the presence of religion in the world may lead to or support belief in God
• How non-religious explanations of the world and of miracles may lead to or support agnosticism or atheism.
• How unanswered prayers and the existence of evil and suffering may lead people to question or reject belief in God
• Why the existence of evil and suffering raises problems for people who believe on God as omnipotent, benevolent and omniscient.

TECHNICAL TERMS:

Numinous – the feeling you get when you are in a great cathedral or look up at the stars and feel there is something much greater than you.

Conversion – when your life is changed by giving yourself to God.

Miracles – something that seems to break a law of science and makes you think only God could have done it.

Prayer – an attempt to contact God, usually through words.

Design – when things are connected and seem to have a purpose e.g. the eye is designed for seeing.

Causation – the idea that everything has been caused (started off) by something else.

Agnosticism – not being sure whether God exists.

Atheism – believing that God does not exist.

Moral evil – actions done by humans that cause suffering.

Natural evil – things like earthquakes and floods that cause suffering and have nothing to do with humans.

Benevolent – the belief that God is good/ kind.

Omnipotent – the belief that God is all-powerful/ can do anything.

Omniscient – the belief that God knows everything that has happened and that is going to happen.