Year 10 RE

Believing in God

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 Key words
• Agnosticism • Numinous
• Atheism • Omni-benevolent
• Conversion • Omnipotent
• Free will • Omniscient
• Miracle • prayer
• Moral evil
• Natural evil

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 Checklist for this unit:1
By 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 Upbringing
Explain how each one helps a child have a faith in God
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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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 Explain how people come to believe in God through a religious
experience

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.stm

• http://101prayer.com/

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

• 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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Outline or describe different explanations of the
origins of the universe, including the ‘causation’,
‘design’, and scientific arguments

Why would a sunflower

Or a watch
Make people think
That the universe
Had been created
By a designer
God

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 Outline or describe different explanations of the
origins of the universe, including the ‘causation’,
‘design’, and scientific arguments
• 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 tasks
1.Do you think God designed the universe?
Give 2 reasons for your point of view
2.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?
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