Believing in God

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Believing in God

• This unit is based on Christianity only

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• What you need to know
• Key words agnosticism, atheism, conversion,
  free will, miracle, moral evil, natural evil,
  numinous, omni-benevolent, omnipotent,
  omniscient, prayer
• The main features of a religious upbringing in
  Christianity and how it may lead to belief in
  God.
• How religious experiences, as seen in the
  numinous, conversion, miracles and prayer, may
  lead to belief in God.
• The argument from design and causation and how it
  may, or may not, lead to belief in God.
• Why scientific explanations of the origins of the
  world may lead some people not to believe in God
  and how Christians responds to scientific
  explanations of the origins of the world.
• Why unanswered prayers may lead some people not
  to believe in God and how Christians respond to
  the problem of unanswered prayers.
• Why evil and suffering may lead some people not
  to believe in God and how one religion responds
  to the problem of evil and suffering.
• How two television and/or radio programmes and/or
  films about religion may affect a persons
  attitude to belief in God.

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Match up the keywords

1. Omniscient
2. Benevolent
3. Omnipotent
4. Agnostic
5. Atheist
6. Theist

1. God is all loving
2. The belief that God exists
3. God is all knowing
4. The belief the God does not exist
5. God is all powerful
6. A person who is not sure if God exists or not

4
Religious upbringing and how it can lead to
belief in God

• Just after birth many Christians choose to
  baptise their children in to the faith. This is
  where parents promise to raise the child in the
  Christian faith.
• Children will be taught how to pray and will be
  brought up hearing stories from the Bible and so
  will hear from a young age that God exists, and
  that He is good.
• Children may go to youth organisations such as
  girl guides and scouts which teach children how
  to live a good Christian life by helping others.
• Children may go to faith schools which teaches
  children about God along side the usual school
  things.
• When becoming a teenager a Christian may be
  confirmed as a Christian which is when they
  confirm that they take seriously the promises
  made on their behalf at their baptism.

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How experiences can lead to belief in God
1. Miracles when something happens which goes
against nature and is thought to be impossible
e.g Jesus walked on water. It must be God who
does these things because he is omnipotent and
can do the impossible.
2. Conversion when a person changes religion
from another or no faith. In the Bible St Paul
was converted from being a Christian hater to a
person who spread the faith. A person gets an
overwhelming feeling that God exists and must be
followed.
3. Numinous a feeling that there must be
something greater than us e.g when someone looks
at a great building or landscape. This something
is God.
4. Prayer this is a personal way of
communicating with God. It can vary from praising
God to asking for help. It may lead to belief,
especially if they seem to get a response to
their prayer. More on answered and unanswered
prayers later on!
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Suffering from natural disasters! How could God
allow it to happen?
Scientific theories such as the Big Bang have
proven that God did not make the world
Reasons people do Not believe in God
God is supposed to care but he does not seem to
answer prayers
If miracles happen why doesnt everyone get one?
Surely God loves us all?
7
Unanswered prayers

• People may come to believe that God CANT exist
  if their prayers are not answered because

If God was omni-benevolent he should show his
love by answering prayers. Many prayers are from
those wanting to stop suffering yet most seem to
go unanswered.
Not everyones prayers get answered but if God
was omnipotent he should have the power to help
no matter how big the request is.
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What Christians may say in response to unanswered
prayers
God has a plan and so wont answer prayers that
dont fit with this plan, no matter how it may
seem to us
Some prayers ask for bad things so God cant
answer them e.g. wanting God to hurt or kill
someone
Not all prayers need answering some are prayers
praising God
Some prayers contradict others e.g. if a football
supporter asked for their team to win, what is
God to do if a supporter from the opposite side
prays for the same thing?
God may have actually answered a prayer, but in a
way that was unexpected.
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Creation arguments

• Many people argue that creation theories either
  do or dont prove the existence of God. There are
  4 main ideas

2. The Cosmological Argument
4. The Christian Creation story
1. The scientific Big Bang Theory
3. The Design Argument
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The Big Bang Theory

• Many scientists believe this although they can
  not actually prove it is true. They only think
  that it is likely, some dont actually agree.
• Billions of years ago a singularity (smaller than
  an atom) exploded creating matter the size of a
  grapefruit
• Over time this expanded and cooled down
• Gases clumped together
• Over millions of years the gases formed planets
• Millions of years ago Earth was formed and
  eventually life evolved
• Not all scientists agree on this, it is only a
  suggestion!

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The Design Argument

• If a C question asks you to explain why God may
  exist based on the argument by Design, these are
  the 4 points you need to make
• Complex things arent a random chance, they have
  a designer. William Paley said this about a
  pocket watch if you had never seen one you
  would not assume it came together by chance
• The world is complex too and so cant be random
  chance, it must have had a designer. Complex
  things such as they eye, the human body, the
  eco-system seem too perfect to be random
• Only a thing know that is big enough and powerful
  enough to have made a world is God
• Therefore there must be an assumption that God
  exists

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The Cosmological Argument

• This can sometimes be called the causation
  argument or the argument for God based on cause
  and it goes like this
• Everything has a cause, including Earth
• Either the cause of Earth goes back forever to
  infinity OR there must have been a first cause
  which itself did not have one
• Logic says that there must have been a first
  cause at some point (called the uncausable cause)
• Religious people says that this must be God as he
  is the only thing capable of being this powerful
  (omnipotent) and so God must exist
• Many Christians argue that God is the cause of
  the Big Bang, based on this argument

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The Creation story

• This is the Christian version of how the world
  was made and is recorded in the first book in the
  Bible Genesis. Many Christians believe that it
  did not literally happen, it just represents what
  God did. However, others believe this is exactly
  how it happened and that God put fossils in the
  earth to fool people
• This story says that God created the world in 7
  days.
• He formed the earth and made day and night
• He created the plants and trees
• He created the animals, and lastly he created
  humans to look after everything
• On the 7th day he rested

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Test yourself!

• What does numinous mean?
• How can experiences lead to belief in God?
• What is conversion?
• List 3 things that Christian families do to raise
  their children as Christians which can make them
  believe in God
• Give 2 reasons why people may not believe that
  God exists
• What is another name for the cosmological
  argument?
• What did William Paley say about design?
• Give examples of things in nature that some
  people say are too complex to be random chance
• What do Christians think about the Big Bang
  theory?

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The problem of evil and suffering

• Many people question the existence of God based
  on the problem of evil and suffering. They may
  ask
• If God was omnipotent (all powerful) couldnt he
  get rid of it? He would surely stop natural
  disasters from happening???
• If God was omniscient (all Knowing) wouldnt he
  know what was going to happen and stop it? Surely
  he would warn people of natural disasters or
  moral evil??
• If God was benevolent (all loving) wouldnt he
  want to stop people suffering? Surely he wouldnt
  let children die of diseases etc???
• This is a problem as all of this makes people
  question if God exists and lead to some no longer
  believing.

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Natural Evil suffering caused by natural
disasters

• Volcanoes, floods and drought etc cause thousands
  of people to suffer each year.
• They are usually in the poorest regions and
  people have no control over them
• Over 200 million people a year die of
  malnutrition, they have no control over where
  they are born or the circumstances they are in
• Many people all over the world die of incurable
  diseases such as cancer

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Moral evil suffering caused by people

• Murder
• Rape
• Assault
• Theft

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The Christian response to suffering

• Suffering is a consequence of human sin in some
  cases e.g. getting lung cancer through smoking.
  Sin was only introduced when Adam and Eve
  disobeyed God in the book of Genesis in the Bible
  it was not part of Gods plan. Suffering was
  part of Gods punishment.
• Suffering comes from an evil power opposite to
  God. Christians call this power Satan. (In
  argument to this some ask where this opposite
  power came from?)
• Only God knows the meaning of suffering. Some
  Bible passages show us this e.g. in the book of
  Job, in the Old Testament, Job was tested by God,
  and Job still showed complete faith to God even
  in the worst of times.
• Suffering is the beginning not the end. God did
  not leave humans on their own to suffer, he sent
  down his son Jesus. God shared in suffering in
  this way.
• Jesus suffered on the cross, but this was only so
  that humans could then find an end to suffering
  once they die and reach heaven. Death itself
  means that people can be united with God.

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Test yourself

1. What is natural and moral evil?
2. Why is evil and suffering a problem to some
   people when considering if God exists?
3. Explain 4 Christian responses to evil and
   suffering (why do they say God can exist even
   though suffering exists?)

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How two television and/or radio programmes and/or
films about religion may affect a persons
attitude to belief in God.

• Songs of Praise
• This programme is weekly and shows
• hymns, sermons and discusses how to
• be a good Christian. It is a Christian programme
  
• aimed at Christians
• It may affect a persons belief in God because
• It features people saying how God has helped
  them, or made their lives better
• It shows many people worshipping so may inspire
  people to believe that he exists
• It shows people singing hymns which say how good
  and loving God is which may lead people to want
  to know more
• It teaches about Christianity and what it means
  to be a follower

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• Root of all Evil
• This is a documentary presented by atheist
  Richard Dawkins. It may affect a persons
  belief/attitude
• towards God because it is very biased that
  God
• does not exist
• It uses emotive language which pokes fun
  religious people and hints that they are or have
  the potential to do evil. It calls followers
  sheep and deluded.
• It gives examples of bad things religious people
  have done in the past but does not mention any
  good things that religion does.
• It tries to show that religion is not based on
  anything which can be proven e.g. says that
  official teachings were made up by popes, that
  the Creation story is wrong based on scientific
  evidence of evolution
• The tone of the presenters voice implies that it
  would be wrong and silly to be religious

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Who Wants to be a R.S -Believing in God
Millionaire Instructions click once to get to
the next slide and wait for the Q and possible
answers. Click again to find out the correct
answer
5050
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What is an atheist?
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B Someone who does not believe in God
A A Christian
C Someone who believes in God
D Someone who is not sure if there is a God or
not
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What is an agnostic?
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B Someone who believes in God
A A Christian
D Someone unsure if they believe in God or not
C Someone who does not believe in God
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What is this theory called? Nothing happens by
itself, everything needs a cause. Therefore the
universe must have a cause. As the universe is so
big only God can be the cause, therefore God
exists
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B The Design Argument
A The Cosmological Argument
C Big Bang Theory
D The Creation story
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Who believes in the Big Bang Theory?
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A A scientist
B A Christian
C All religious people
D No one
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Which is the odd one out?
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A Religious upbringing
B Conversion
C Education
D Miracles
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• This is because the others often lead people to
  believe in God, yet education only (or should)
  teach people about what religious people think
  and do.

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Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Youve Reached
the 1,000
Milestone!
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Which event/s will most likely help someone
having a religious upbringing believe?
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B Baptism and Sunday School
A RS lessons at school
D Praying at meal times
C Being prayed for
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What means an experience which arouses a deep
spiritual feeling?
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A Awe
B Conversion
C Miracle
D Numinous
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In the Design argument, what did William Paley
compare the design of the world to?
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A A pocket watch
B A clock
C A radio
D A tv
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What can lead some people to question if God
exists?
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A The Bible
B People
C Suffering and evil
D Not going to church
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What is natural evil?
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A suffering from car crashes
B when people hurt each other
D suffering from natural disasters e.g floods
C Mental illness
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Congratulations!
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the 32,000
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Which word means that God is all powerful and
nothing is beyond his power?
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A Benevolent
B Omnipotent
C Omniscient
D Strong
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• One way to remember this might be to remember the
  Ps
• OmniPotent Powerful

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Which is NOT a Christian response to suffering?
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A God alone knows the meaning of suffering
B Suffering comes from an opposite power - Satan
D Suffering is a result of sin brought in to the
world by humans
C God cant stop suffering
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What is 1 Christian approach to suffering?
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B You have to have downs to feel the ups in life
A Deal with it its life
C Suffering is all part of the Bible and its
what God wants
D God joined in suffering by sending Jesus
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Which is a programme we studied which may affect
someones attitude towards God?
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A Songs of Praise
B East is East
C Bruce Almighty
D Coronation Street
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Which is the odd one out?
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A Bangladesh cyclone
B Rhys Jones shot
D Children born with incurable diseases
C 20 million dying of malnutrition
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• This is because the others are forms of natural
  evil, yet Reece Jones being murdered is an act of
  moral evil

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YOU WIN 1 MILLION!