Download - BELIEF IN GOD
BELIEF IN GOD
GCSE RELIGIOUS STUDIES UNIT A
REVISION NOTES
Belief In God – Revision Checklist
What you need to Know
NB
For the section, you only need to know about the Christian viewpoints
• Keywords• Being brought up a Christian (Christian Upbringing)• Christian beliefs about God• Christian beliefs on awe & wonder (numinous feelings)• Prayer• Miracles• Design Argument• Causation Argument• Moral/Natural Evil• Response To Evil
Belief in God
numinous
conversion
miracle
prayer
Agnostic atheism
Moral evilNatural evil
omnipotent
benevolent
omniscient
Being Brought Up Christian
• Baptized welcome into church
given godparents
Parents pray with children
celebrate festivals
Church children should attend with parents
Go to Sunday School
Community Help with elderly/poor families
celebrate festivals
Christian Beliefs About God
Benevolent – God is good
Omnipotent – God is more powerful than anything else
Omniscient – God knows everything
Humans not puppets-have free will
Awe & Wonder
Numinous feeling
Something Greater….Going Into A ChurchSomething Greater….Sun, Moon & Stars
Some people find the experience so incredible, they convert.
PrayerPeople pray to…
Communicate with God
Praising God
Asking for help
Are Prayers Answered….?
Sometimes…pray for sick relative who gets better
Prayers not being answered – lead to agnostic/atheism
But….Humans cannot possibly understand God
MiraclesMiracle – paranormal happening which break the natural laws of scienceSome religious people believe miracles are a natural event which must have been caused by Gode.g. pulling babies from the rubble days after an earthquake
Jesus performed many miracles in Gospels e.g. healing blind etc.
Many Christians believe..if miracles happen…must be a reason for believing in God
Design Argument
Paley’s Argument – watch in a woodDesign of it so intricate-must have a makerWorld is so intricate – must have a maker - GODEverything in the world is so intricately designed e.g. eye to see,
Birds wing to make it fly –could not have happened by random chance
Causation Argument
Everything has a cause – must be a cause for the universe
God must exist because everything must have a beginning – God created the beginning of the world
Science says – world created over millions of years. Christians believe six days
But what did God create the world out of - NOTHING
Moral Evil
MORAL EVIL: Caused by humans, e.g. Murder.A Christian might fund it difficult to understand why God created evil
However, the response would be that God created people with free will, so people can decided to become evil
Natural Evil
NATURAL EVIL: Humans are not responsible for this. E.g. Earthquakes
Christians find this difficult to understand that so many innocent people can be killed e.g. Tsunami in 2004 killed 250,000 people, many of them innocent children.
Response To Evil
God is omnipotent & omniscient – why does suffering happen e.g. Tsunami
Christian response is…
Free will – people can become evil of their own choiceLife is a test – in order to get to heaven – people have a series of tests on earth
Suffering gives people strength & power to overcome problemsHumans cannot understand the complexity of God
Christians respond to evil through prayer