R.S/R.E Edexcel Section 1 - Believing in God

Section 1: Believing in God

Topic 1.1 – Religious Upbringing

Summary

A religious upbringing is likely to a belief in God because:

·         Children will be taught to believe in God

·         May be sent to a religious school

·         Will spend most of their time around people who believe in God

·         Children will not want to be different from their parents or upset them

Topic 1.2 – Religious experience (numinous, prayers and miracles)

Summary

·         People claim to experience God in miracles; answered prayer, numinous and conversion. These type of experience make some people feel that God is real.

Key Terms

·         Numinous – The feeling and presence of something greater than yourself

·         Miracle – when something appears to happen that science cannot explain

Topic 1.3  - The argument from design and how it may, or may not, lead to belief in God

Summary

·         The Universe seems to be designed, like a watch. Anything that has been designed must have a designer, therefore, God must exist because only God could have designed the Universe.

·         For: The only possible thing that could have designed something as beautiful as the Earth must have been God.

·         Seems to match up to Holy texts such as the Bible and the Qur’an.

·         Against: The world is clearly not designed because of all the suffering and design flaws such as volcanoes and disease.

·         All the evidence for design is explained through science: Big bang (proven my red shift) and evolution.

Topic 1.4 – The  argument for causation and how it may, or may not, lead to belief in God

Summary

·         The way everything seems to have a cause makes people think the Universe must have a cause. The only possible cause of the Universe is God, so God must exist.

·         For: Seems to match…