Lets Revise ... Believing in God

What are the main features of a Christian upbringing? Children will believe that God exists because parents teach them to pray Going to a Church school means Christianity seems normal Going to Church & seeing other people worship makes them think God exists. What are the main features of a Christian upbringing? Being baptised parents will promise to bring children up as Christians Move the boxes to find out how these would lead to believing in God. Being confirmed would support your belief as you learn about God

Plums Never Collect Mouldy Yeuch that's mouldy! What does this phase have to do with Religious Experience? Yeuch that's mouldy! Never Collect Mouldy Plums

PRAYER MIRACLES NUMINOUS CONVERSION Sing a long to this! - do miracles still happen?

EASY! Bless my soul! A watch in the forest - how did that get there? It must have a designer. . .therefore the earth must have a designer too! 1.Move the box 2. Memorise the 5 steps in 2 minutes 3. Cover the box 4. Write everything you can remember on your white board! The Design Argument - Explained 1. Anything that has been designed needs a designer 2. There is evidence that the world has been designed - e.g. laws of science 3. If the world has been designed it must have a designer 4. The only possible designer must be GOD 5. So Design = God Exists! EASY! William Paley

Evidence of Design in the World

What about me?! I'm not part of the design plan Well I think the design argument is rubbish! What about volcanoes and earthquakes . . . who designed them?! Science can explain the world. We don't need God What about me?! I'm not part of the design plan

b (4 marks) Exam Question Do you think God designed the world? Give 2 reasons for your point of view (4 marks) Don't forget - you need to state an opinion and then give two reasons for your opinion

The Causation Argument Everything that happens has a cause CAUSE EFFECT What does Olivia learn about cause and effect here? What causes the wagons on this train to move?

Therefore God must exist Everything that has been caused MUST have been caused by something else Sort these into the proper order! When you look at the world you can see that everything has a cause Every cause must have a first cause The Universe must have a first cause too The only possible cause of the Universe must be God

So who caused God then? If everything needs a cause then God must need a cause too! If matter is eternal and nothing can be created or destroyed then causes can go back forever (I'm an A* pig!) Anyway even if there was a First Cause it doesn't have to be God

d Practice Question i Do you agree? Give reasons for your opinion (3) "The argument from causation proves that God exists" i Do you agree? Give reasons for your opinion (3) ii Give reasons why some people may disagree with you (3) Remember! 3 For 3 Against

Science says the world started like this: Matter is eternal - it cannot be created or destroyed, only changed Dark Matter Big Bang 15 billion years ago this matter exploded Primitive Life This formed stars and then the solar system Solar System Early Humans Primitive Life forms started to emerge 2.5 million years ago humans evolved

Because Because Because Because Explain why the scientific explanation of the world leads some people to become atheists or agnostics (8 marks) Because Because Because Because

BECAUSE How would a Christian respond to the scientific argument? Response 2 Response One Some Christians would say that science is accurate but it helps prove that God created the universe BECAUSE BECAUSE Some Christians are creationists and think science is wrong The Big Bang and evolution can be explained by: - the effects of Noah's flood - the Apparent Age theory Only God could have made the Big Bang at the right microsecond Only God could have made laws like gravity Only God could have made gases form life Response 3 Miss Martin's favourite song! Some Christians believe that both science and the Bible are correct BECAUSE - One of God's days could be millions or billions of years long

Unanswered Prayers We prayed for them to be safe - Why didn't God listen?? If people feel that God is not listening to them or not answering their prayers they may become agnostic or atheist

What would a Christian say? God has a different plan for your life If you pray for selfish things God won't answer What would a Christian say? God will answer all prayers but not always as you want or expect God gives us what we need but not always what we want

Exam Practice Do you think prayer is a waste of time? Give 2 reasons for your point of view. (4) I agree/disagree that prayer is a waste of time because 1. 2.

RAPE FLOODS MURDER GBH CANCER VOLCANOES THEFT EARTHQUAKE VANDALISM Underline all the moral evils in green and all the natural evils in red FLOODS RAPE GBH MURDER CANCER VANDALISM VOLCANOES THEFT EARTHQUAKE

Omniscient ? Omni-benevolent ? Omnipotent ? So what's the problem with evil and suffering? Omni-benevolent ? If God is all good he must want to remove suffering Watch, Read, Think . . . Do you agree? Omnipotent ? Omniscient ? If God is all powerful he has the power to remove evil and suffering. If God is all knowing he would know that evil & suffering would come into the world and should have created the world differently. BUT . . . there is evil and suffering in the world so either God is not all good and powerful or he does not exist

Do you understand the problem of evil and suffering? Yes No

Needed From the Thumbs Up Crowd - A brave volunteer to come up and explain the problem of evil and suffering in your own words

What would a Christian say? You should help those suffering through prayer and service God gave humans Free Will so evil and suffering are the fault of humans What would a Christian say? Evil and Suffering are part of a test to help people prepare for heaven. God has a reason but humans cannot understand it.

The Media Remember for each programme you need to be able to: 1. Outline what happened in the programme 2. Explain how it encouraged some people to believe in God 3. Explain how it encouraged some people to NOT believe in God 4. State whether it affected your beliefs about God

Do you think watching something like this in your home could make you feel closer to God? Some people might have their belief in God strengthened by watching Songs of Praise because: They were convinced by the way religious believers talk about experiencing God. Listening and singing along to the hymns and prayers could make people feel closer to God in their homes and more likely to believe in God. The programme made religion look real and interesting and showed how it affected people's daily lives. Some people might not agree and think that Songs of Praise would not make someone believe in God because: Religious programmes are boring and not enough people watch them It is just talking about religion and not about God's existence.

Did it affect your beliefs? Some people might have their belief in God strengthened by watching Miracle of Peckham because: They are convinced that the miracle that happened in the Church could really happen. It makes them more likely to believe in miracles. The character of the vicar shows them how a good Christian would act. The programme made religion look interesting and fun and showed how it can affect people's daily lives. Did it affect your beliefs? Some people might not agree and think that The Miracle of Peckham would make someone not believe in God because: The miracle was faked and the programme shows that miracles don't really happen. Delboy and Rodney were not really interested in religion, they just wanted to make money so are not a good example. The programme just encouraged people to not believe in God.

Final Question C. Choose one programme about religion and explain how it might affect someone's belief about God.

REVISE REVISE REVISE NO FAILING ALLOWED!!! If you fail to prepare, prepare to Fail! REVISE NO FAILING ALLOWED!!!