R.S. Short Course GCSE

R.S Short Course Bible Teachings and Social Factors

Section 1 - Believeing in God

Topics:

• Reasons for belief (religious upbringing and experience)
• Design and Causation arguments
• Evil and Suffering 

Bible teachings:

• "love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength and mind"
• "God is love"
• "you shall have no Gods before me"
• "it was you who created my conscience"
• "faith without action is dead"
• "only the fool says 'there is no God'"
• "not to have known suffering is not to be truly human"
• "what can be known about God is plain to see because God has shown it"

Social Facts:

• In 2011, England and Wales 61% religious, 39% no religion.
• People who describe themselves as non-religious in the UK has risen from 31% to 50% between 1983 and 2009.

Definitions:

• Agnosticasm = not being sure whether God exists.
• Athiesm = believing that God does not exist.
• Conversion = when your life is changed by giving yourself to God.
• Free Will = the idea that human beings are free to make their own choices.
• Miracle = Something which seems to break the laws of science and therefore makes you think only God could have done it.
• Moral Evil = actions done by humans which cause suffering.
• Natural Evil = things which cause suffering but have nothing to do with humans.
• Numinous = the feeling of a presence greater than yourself.
• Omnibenevolent = the belief that God is all good.
• Omnipotent = the belief that God is all powerful.
• Omniscient = the belief that God is all knowing.
• Prayer = an attempt to contact God, ususally through words.

Section 2 - Matters of Life and Death

Topics:

• Life after death
• Abortion
• Euthanasia and Suicide
• Wealth, poverty and disease
• Money and charity

Bible Teachings:

• Parable of the sheep and the goats
• "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than it is a rich man to enter heaven"
• Parable of the rich man and Lazarus
• "thou shall not kill"
• "whoever believes in him may not die but have eternal life"
• "store up riches for yourself in heaven"
• "the love of money is the cause of all kinds of evil"
• "in my father's mansion there are many rooms"
• "the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away"
• "no one gets to God except through me"
• "you fashioned me in my mother's womb"

Social Facts:

• Abortion was made legal in 1967.
• Abortion can take place up to 24 weeks.
• 1961 Suicide Act made suicide legal.
• Euthanasia is still a criminal offence.
• There have been 12 prosecutions for euthanasia since 2005 in the UK.
• The UK government donates 0.7% to charity.

Definitions:

• Abortion: the removal of…