Year 10 RE Belief in God edexcel unit 3

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Year 10 RE

Believing in God

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Key words

• Agnosticism• Atheism• Conversion• Free will• Miracle• Moral evil• Natural evil

• Numinous• Omni-benevolent• Omnipotent• Omniscient• prayer

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Checklist for this unit:1By the end of this unit you should be able to:

• Give definitions of the key terms• Outline or describe the features of a Roman Catholic

upbringing and how it may lead to a belief in God• Explain how people come to believe in God through

a religious experience• Outline or describe different explanations of the

origins of the universe, including the ‘causation’, ‘design’, and scientific arguments

• Explain why scientific explanations of the origins of the universe cause some people to doubt God’s existence, and how Christians respond to this

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Checklist for this unit: 2

• Outline or describe other examples of problems that may cause some people to doubt God’s existence; for example, unanswered prayers or evil and suffering

• Explain how Roman Catholic and other Christians respond to these arguments

• Explain,with examples, how media programmes about religion may affect a person’s attitude to belief in God

• Evaluate why these programmes affect people’s belief and whether this is fair to religious people

• Express with reasons and evidence your own opinion about the reasons for believing or not believing in God, and your own thoughts about whether God exists

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How are we going to do this?

• The slides will provide images, ideas, information and tasks

• Read each slide carefully, make sure you understand what is written

• Either print or take notes on the topic (mind maps or bullet points)

• Complete the tasks

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What is God like?

Task:Look at the following pictures

Each one is what someone thinks God is like

1. Which is the odd one out? Why?

2. Which is closest to your idea about God? Why?

3. Each picture raises questions about God. What questions do you think they raise?

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Did you know…

According to surveys done in the UK,

around 70% of people claim that they believe in some sort of God

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Qualities unique of God:God is everywhere (omnipresent):

Mk 5:10; Jude 6; Rev 20:1-3; 1 Ki 8:27; 2 Chron 2:6; 6:18; Isa 66:1;

Acts 7:49; 17:27-28; Ps 139:7-13 God is all knowing (omniscient):

Ps 139:1-6; Job 42:2; Acts 2:23; 1 Tim 1:17

God is all powerful (omnipotent): Gen 17:1; 35:11;

Rom 13:1; 1 Tim 6:15; Rev 19:6

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Outline or describe the features of a Roman Catholic upbringing and how it may lead to a belief in God

What do we mean by a Roman Catholic upbringing?• Catholic parents will get their child baptised; they and God parents

make promises to raise the child as a Catholic• Catholic parents teach their child sign of the cross and say simple

prayers (often at bedtime and to thank God for all the good things they have).

• They often have a Children’s bible and learn simply bible stories• Catholic parents will help their child take part in celebrations of the

main festivals and teach them the meaning of the festivals• Catholic parents have a duty to set a good example to their children in

how they interact with others• Catholic parents will ensure that their children attend a Catholic

school, where they will take part in assemblies and masses. They school will have a Catholic atmosphere and ethos. They will mix with other Catholic children

• Catholic parents will teach their children about sacraments and make their first Holy Communion and attend reconciliation. They will take the sacrament of Confirmation when they are old enough.

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Outline or describe the features of a Roman Catholic upbringing and how it may lead to a belief in God

• Catholic parents will take their children to Mass regularly especially on Sundays. Catholic children can experience the presence of Christ during Mass and learn about the Rite of Mass. They learn about the importance of the faith to themselves and others in the community, and learn the need for commitment to the faith.

• They may go to Sunday school where they can gain a deeper understanding of the Mass and the faith

• They may become an altar server or reader at Mass, showing their commitment to the faith and a service to the community.

Tasks Design a timeline for a child from the birth to the age of

17.Put on all the events in that child’s life that shows the

child has a Catholic UpbringingExplain how each one helps a child have a faith in God

for themselves.

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Explain how people come to believe in God through a religious experience

You need to be able to

1. Say what a religious experience is and give examples

2. Describe a religious experience

3. Explain why a religious experience may lead to , or support a belief in God.

Task : there are 4 other types of religious experience apart from religious upbringing they are-

Numinous ; conversion; miracle; prayer;

Describe each one and give an example.

Then explain why each may lead to or support a belief in God.

Use a different colour for each one.

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Task: look up the following references and decide which of the 4 types they belong to.

• Acts 9:1-23• Jean-Pierre Bely• Smell of incense in a Cathedral• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/485268.st

m

• http://101prayer.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/485268.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/485268.stm

http://101prayer.com/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:4paul1.jpg

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• Why do Christians believe in miracles? • A person may have witnessed a miracle. A person may believe that God is

powerful and believe in the teachings of the Church and the Bible as the word of God which tell us about God’s miracles and Gods intervention in the times of the prophets and the miracles of Jesus. Some people use their acceptance of miracles as faith in God’s existence. A miracle is an event with no explanation other than God.

Miracles performed by Jesus: Healed lepers, the blind, the paralysed and the sick, he raised the dead and overcome death himself.

Example of miracle since Jesus: Visions of saints/Our Lady ie Knock. 15 Villagers witnessed images of Mary, St Joseph and St John appear of the outer wall of the Church. There seems no other explanation.

Liberal miracles: God uses natural laws to perform miracles. People recover from terminal illness or survive against the odds. Prayers may be answered ie if people pray for particular weather or outcome of a disaster.

TASK : There are no such things as miracles. Do you agree, give reasons and consider more than one point of view

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Outline or describe different explanations of the origins of the universe, including the ‘causation’,

‘design’, and scientific arguments

• The only thing that has no cause is God.• Everything else was caused by something,

a creator, God.• Thomas Aquinas used the causation

argument to prove existence of God.• It is known as the cosmological argument• Image to remember: DOMINOES• Task: design a mind map to show you

understand and for revision.

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Why would a sunflower

Or a watch

Make people think

That the universe

Had been created

By a designer

God

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• Read carefully the “argument from design”• Design teaching material that you could use to

explain this idea to a year 7 class.• Make sure you clearly explain Paley’s argument.Exam practice tasks1.Do you think God designed the universe?Give 2 reasons for your point of view2.Do you think the argument from design

‘proves’ the existence of God?Give 2 reasons for your point of view

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Explain why scientific explanations of the origins of the universe cause some people to doubt God’s existence, and how Christians

respond to this

Creation story v the big bang

TASKS

• What are they? Where does the info come from? Can you believe both?

• Who is … and what do they believe: Georges Lemaitre; Richard Dawkins; Charles Darwin.

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Prayers…

• Why do unanswered prayers a problem for many people?

• Do people pray for inappropriate things?

• Is the answer sometimes no?

• What does the Church say?

• TASK: Explain how unanswered prayers may lead some people to reject belief in God (8 marks)

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The problem of evil?

• Moral evil… actions carried out by humans that cause suffering, like murder, theft, abuse

• Natural evil things that cause suffering but have nothing to do with humans like earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami

• TASK: What is the problem of evil and why would it influence whether people believe in God?

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Make sure you use

• Omnipotent

• Omniscient

• Omni-benevolent

• Suffering

• Freewill

• Natural evil and moral evil

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What is the Christian response to the problem of evil?

• God’s plan• Christians should pray and serve• We are not in paradise yet• Life is a test• Helps us to grow• Helps us appreciate good things• Not all God’s fault…we live in areas that are

constantly renewing themselves/people do evil things and others suffer

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media

• Explain,with examples, how media programmes about religion may affect a person’s attitude to belief in God

• Evaluate why these programmes affect people’s belief and whether this is fair to religious people

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media

• Songs of praise

• Father Ted

• Vicar of Dibley

• God channels on Sky

TASK: Explain how is religion portrayed on these programmes?

How do Catholics and non Catholics respond to Father Ted?

Year 10 RE Belief in God edexcel unit 3

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