R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q1 The Existence of God.
Card 1 Side 1
• Three main ways we prove things exist: 1) Personal Experience; 2) Reliable Evidence;
3) Logic (using a chain of reasoning to reach a conclusion).
• Something must have caused the Universe to exist so there must be a First Cause.
• Thomas Aquinas First Cause Argument (Cosmological Argument): You cannot create
something from nothing (0=0=0). The universe must have been created from something
outside the universe. If God had not caused the universe then there would be no universe
and we would not exist.
• Design Arguments:
William Paley’s Pocket Watch (look how complicated a watch is, it works, someone
designed it. Look at the universe, even more complicated, it too works, therefore
someone designed it – therefore, God exists).
Isaac Newton’s Design Argument. Our thumbs are different to our fingers. The way in
which the thumb can be used to grasp things is only found in humans and primates, and
this he regarded as evidence of God.
The Anthropic Principle. 1930s, F.R. Tennant. Look at the beauty, complexity and
diversity of the universe. It all works perfectly and is finely tuned. This must have been
designed. Therefore, God exists.
However, both The Big Bang Theory and The Theory of Evolution explain how the universe
was created and life came to exist without the need for God. Also, if God is benevolent,
omnipotent, omniscient, immanent, why is there evil and suffering in the world?
PROBLEM: Where did the singularity that started the Big Bang come from? Where did the
first single cell come from?
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q1 The Existence of God.
Card 1 Side 2
• Argument from miracles for existence of God. Miracles cannot be explained by the laws
of science or nature. Example of miracle from Bible: Jesus raises Lazarus from dead.
Modern miracle: Boy in Brazil has a car run over his head and survives with only few
grazes and bruises.
• Argument from Religious Experience for existence of God. These include communicating
with God through prayer and worship. Feeling God’s presence in worship. Feeling the
presence of God in nature. Experiencing God in a dream or vision. Experiencing a religious
conversion. Involvement in a miracle.
• Argument from morality for existence of God. Morality is a sense of right or wrong that
guides people’s behaviour. Your conscience is like an inner voice from God. It guides our
behaviour. It makes us feel God when we behave well and bad when we don’t.
• Basic problems with miracles. If God loves us all why do only some people experience
miracles? Theists want miracles to happen so they claim ordinary events as miracles.
Some miracles are false or made up by people who want you to believe what they
believe. People who are less educated or more superstitious are more likely to believe
miracles come from God. (DAVID HUME – Scottish Philosopher, reasons why miracles
cannot happen.)
• Basic Problems with experience. Difficult to prove as genuine. If you have not had the
experience yourself you have to trust the person telling you.
• Basic Problems with morality. We all have different ideas of what is right or wrong. If
came from God would all be the same? We learn what is right or wrong from parents,
teachers, society.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q2 Revelation.
Card 2 Side 1
• Revelation is the way that people experience God.
• How does God reveal himself? Dreams, visions, nature, worship, prayer, sacred writings,
people, miracles, conscience, belief (conviction).
• General Revelation: God becomes known through ordinary, common human experiences
or natural means. General Revelation is indirect and available to everyone, e.g. nature,
holy scripture, writings of religious leaders, seeing God in the life and work of other
people, seeing God’s character through reason, conscience and faith. Experiencing God
through prayer and worship. Examples: A beautiful day, Mother Theresa, The Bible.
• Special Revelation: When someone is believed to have spoken directly to an individual or
a group of people. Examples, enlightenment, hearing God’s call, experiencing dreams or
visions, through miracles, through prayer and worship. Case Study: Paul’s enlightenment,
Lourdes.
• The power of Revelation: Provides proof of God’s existence, help or start a religion, help
people to know what they must do to live as God wishes.
• The impact of Revelation: Life changing, religious conversion (changing from one faith to
another, or atheist/agnostic to theist!)
• What does Revelation teach us about God? Different aspects of God (the Trinity; Father,
Son, Holy Spirit) God – the Father is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. God – the
son came to earth as Jesus and God – the Holy Spirit is how God works in the world.
Revelation teaches that God is omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent,
immanent/transcendent, personal/impersonal and eternal (always existed, always will).
• Christians believe that God has revealed himself to them through the Old and New
Testament (The Bible) and through the life and works of Jesus.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q2 Revelation.
Card 2 Side 2
• Strengths of General Revelation: Indirect (it is not just for one person or group of people
but for everyone!) Has been available to everyone at all times and all places (e.g. nature),
continuous and ongoing, for example conscience.
• Strengths of Special Revelation: Direct and received first hand by a person or group of
people. People who experience a special revelation posses and authority and confidence
that enables them to convince other people.
• Christians believe that by studying the Bible God reveals how he wants people to live
their lives and what he is like. Examples: Ten Commandments (rules for life) are sources
of moral authority.
• Problems of Revelation. Difficult to prove, evidence can be difficult to prove. If evidence
cannot be proved then is the revelation just an illusion? Are people just trying to say it is
God when in fact it can be explained by the laws of science/nature. Example, a beautiful
day may not be evidence of God it can be explained by the way the world works. People
are so desperate to have a revelation that they believe they have received one (wishful
thinking. Someone with a physical or mental illness may hear voices that they believe to
be God. The mind can play tricks on people. Hume: “The minute you prove one miracle in
one religion then all the other religions are wrong.” (Conflicting revelations in different
faiths). Example: Conscience is not from God, it is something we learn as children.
• Strengths of Revelation. Believers would look at the impact revelation has had on a
person as proof it is genuine. If there is no reason to doubt the word of a person then
why reject what they say? If a revelation matches scientific observation then that would
support the revelation as being true.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q3 The Problem of Evil and Suffering.
Card 3 Side 1
• Two types of suffering: 1) Natural suffering (earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes); 2) Manmade suffering (murder, theft, looting).
• If God loves us why is there suffering in the world? If God is omnipotent, immanent,
benevolent then why does he allow suffering? He could stop it or even prevent it in the
first place! Or just make evil people suffer? Why do innocent people suffer? (This is
unjust).
• Can suffering have a purpose? What could be more painful than child birth? Yet look at
the result – a new life! Pain can tell us there is something wrong with our body. Suffering
can make us appreciate things that we take for granted. Example, temporary blindness
would make someone appreciate their eyesight more when they got it back.
• BIBLE QUOTE – “suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character
produces hope.” In other words it can make us a better or stronger person. Sometimes
you have to suffer to achieve a goal (look at exam revision!!) Suffering could be a test of a
person’s faith. Some believers may say that suffering could be a punishment. Suffering
could just be part of God’s plan and only God knows the purpose of the suffering.
• Christians: Suffering can be as a result of human freedom (God gave us free-will). We
choose how to behave. Evidence comes from Adam and Eve when Eve was tempted by
the apple (Genesis 2). Jesus broke the power of evil and suffering over people by his
innocent suffering and death on the cross. Jesus showed people that no matter how bad
things were, follow the teachings of Jesus and you will live on in Heaven after death.
• Christian responses to suffering: Trust in God to accept and endure the pain (Bible
quote). Jesus “Love your neighbour”, allows people to show compassion to others.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q3 The Problem of Evil and Suffering.
Card 3 Side 2
• Evil is the word we use to describe a horrible event, crime or person.
• Evil as an impersonal force. It is something that draws people into doing wrong. Almost
like a magnet. For example, drug addiction over which a person has little control.
• Evil as a personal force It comes from Satan, who tries to trick you into doing wrong.
• Evil as a psychological phenomenon. It comes from human behaviour. It can be
influenced by the way a person is brought up, by society or even as a result of a damaged
mind.
• Who is to blame for evil? God – he gave us free will to choose, therefore it is God’s fault.
Our fault – it in not God, we choose to be selfish, greedy, lack respect, commit crimes,
murder, etc. Therefore, there is such a thing as man-made evil.
QUESTIONS
• Why is evil a problem? Evil cause suffering, so is a problem for everyone.
• If God is good – why does he allow evil to be present in the world?
• If God is omnipotent – why doesn’t he use his power to stop evil?
• If God is omniscient he must know that people may sometimes choose to be evil? Why
did he give us free-will?
ANSWERS: Christians would say the fact that God gave us free-will shows his goodness and
love, we are not simply God’s robots. If he interfered when someone was going to do
something evil we would not be free. God does not want evil to happen but unfortunately
people choose to go against God’s will. God made the world perfect, evil came into the world
through Adam and Eve choosing to disobey God when Satan tempted them with the apple.
CHRISTIANS: Jesus told people to love God and their neighbour. If someone is evil to you
forgive them. Then you too will be forgiven.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q4 Immortality
Card 4 Side 1
• What is meant by death? Death is when a person’s body stops functioning and their life
on earth in the current physical form end. In medicine you are dead when your brain
stops functioning.
• Immortality is the belief that there is endless life or existence (life after death).
• Is death the end? Yes – atheists would say no proof of an afterlife, no-one has ever come
back and said “I am dead this is what it is like …”
• No:
• Legacy – Shakespeare died in 1616 yet we still remember him and perform his plays,
poems and sonnets. He lives on through his work.
• Memory of others - People can live on in the memory of others (family/friends).
• Christians – Resurrection. Christianity teaches about the resurrection of the spiritual
body. A judgment is made by God at death and your soul (spiritual body) will go to either
Heaven or Hell. This is either when you die or at some future date (Judgment day).
• Dualism. Renee Descartes, French Philosopher. Two parts to a person: The mind soul) and
the body. When you die only the body dies. “I think therefore I am.” During our life the
mind and body are connected, at death the two separate and only the mind carries on
into the afterlife.
• Hindus/Sikhs/Buddhists – Reincarnation/Rebirth
The Law of Karma. Karma is an acceptance that there is a relationship between what people
do and what happens to them. The consequences of an action may not be experienced in
this life but in the next one. Events that happen to people in this life may be the result of
actions in past life. Good or bad actions build up good or bad karma. This will influence
events in the next life and whether an individual is reborn to a higher or lower situation.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q4 Immortality
Card 4 Side 2
• Hindus/Sikhs – Reincarnation. The belief after death the person’s soul is transferred into
a new body at birth. It may be a totally different form than the previous life. (The
transmigration of souls). This happens each time you die until you achieve perfection.
People who die with good karma will have a better life. People who die with bad karma
will have a worse life. When your soul is perfect you will enter a state of bliss (for Sikhs –
Samsara) and will no longer be reincarnated. For Sikh’s good karma brings you closer to
God. For Hindus, to the supreme being (Brahman).
• Buddhists – Rebirth. Buddhists prefer the term rebirth as they do not believe people have
souls (‘anatta’ means no soul). The Buddha taught there is an individual ever- changing
individual character (not soul) that moves from rebirth to rebirth. Each life is linked to the
previous life through the law of karma. Buddhists do not believe in God so there in no
union with God at the end of the cycle. The cycle ends when a person achieves
enlightenment and reaches the state of nibbana (nirvana). A freedom from suffering and
existence.
• Problems with Resurrection/Reincarnation/Rebirth – no proof! People don’t survive
death.
• Evidence: Ghosts, channelling (how a spiritualist talks to the dead sometimes through a
spirit guide), past-life experience, near-death experience. Problem – no proof! People can
be deceived, people can lie (fraudulent spiritualists making money), Near death is not
actual death! Wishful thinking!
• Evidence for Christians: Eternal life for Christians begins when they accept God into their
life. If they then follow Christian teachings, when they die they will enter the kingdom of
Heaven. The proof of this for Christians is the resurrection of Jesus.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q5 Miracles.
Card 5 Side 1
• What is a miracle? A miracle is something defined as an act of God that causes a good
outcome. A miracle can be a happy coincidence and/or something that science/nature
cannot explain.
• Christian beliefs about miracles. Miracles show how God works directly in the world, he
is omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent, personal and immanent.
• Evidence from Holy Scripture. Evidence of God’s miracles can be found in the Bible: Jesus
raises Lazarus from the dead, Jesus turned water into wine at his cousin Hannah’s
wedding. Jesus performed these miracles to demonstrate the attributes of God and as
proof of God. Another example from the Old Testament is when God appeared to Moses
as a burning bush and gave Moses the Ten Commandments.
• Can humans perform miracles? For Christians – yes but only because God works through
the person who performs the miracle. Without God a person cannot perform a miracles.
Jesus performed miracles because God gave him the power or Jesus was God in human
form.
• Example of miracles from history. As well as the miracles in the Bible there are also
examples of miracles in history. One example is the Angels of Mons; in August 1914, the
British Army was in retreat and under attack when a group of three angels appeared in
the sky to protect them. Many British soldiers claimed to see them and as a result took
hope and survived.
• Example of miracles from personal experience. An example of this can be when someone
is very ill and not responding to treatment. They visit a faith healer, or pray or visit a holy
place (such as Lourdes in France) and are miraculously healed.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q5 Miracles.
Card 5 Side 2
• Evidence of miracles. Can come from personal experience, someone may have seen the
miracle or experienced a miracle for themselves. Miracles can be recorded by people who were
there (for example the disciples recorded the miracles of Jesus).
• Evidence for miracles. There have been too many accounts of miracles for at least some of
them not to have happened. Miracles have not only happened in the past they still happen
today (Brazilian boy run over by car). Many miracles have been investigated and no scientific
explanation found. The fact Jesus performed miracles convinces people to be Christians.
Medical research into the impact of prayer supports the belief that prayer can help healing.
• What do miracles teach about God? God is omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent, immanent
and personal.
• What problems do miracles cause for Christians? If God loves us all why does he only perform
miracles for some people? Just because science cannot explain the miracle now does not mean
it cannot explain the miracle in the future as our scientific knowledge develops. If Christians
believe in a transcendent God (outside the universe) then they cannot believe God performs
miracles as he is not involved in the world.
• Hume’s argument why miracles are impossible! David Hume, Scottish Philosopher from the
18th Century argued miracles are impossible! There is never enough evidence. Witnesses to the
miracles can be unreliable (lie, mistaken, want you to believe what they believe, uneducated so
more likely to believe it is from God rather than look for a scientific explanation.
• Why Christians believe Hume is wrong! It is not about evidence, miracles are the exception so
there can never be enough evidence. Each miracle is thoroughly investigated before being
called a miracle. Religions do not depend on miracles, they are only one source of evidence of
God’s attributes.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q6 Science and Religion.
Card 6 Side 1
• What is truth? Different types of truth: Scientific truth (proven by science), historical
truth (from documents), religious truth (from the teachings of a religion).
• Absolute truth – such as the sun always rises in the East and sets in the west.
• Relative (evolving or changing) truth – changes as our understanding changes. We used
to think the earth was flat.
• EXAMPLE: It is wrong to kill (absolute) unless an animal is suffering and cannot be
healed (relative).
• Origins of the Universe:
Science – The Big Bang 10-15 Billion Years Ago! (singularity exploded, cosmic soup of
chemicals, gases combined over time to make up the universe.
The Bible – The Story of Creation – Genesis 1 and 2: 1-3. God created the world in 7 days.
Day 1 Light and Dark, Day 2 The Sky, Day 3 Sun, Earth Oceans and Plants, Day 4: Sun, Moon
and Stars, Day 5 Birds and Fish, Day 6 People and Animals, Day 7 God Rested
• Can you believe in the Big Bang Theory and Genesis Creation? NO - atheists say no as
God does not exist and so the Genesis story could not have happened. Christian
Creationists say no as they do not believe in the Big Bang. YES – if you do not take the
Genesis story as absolute truth but as a story that people thousands of years ago could
understand. Many Christians believe in the Big Bang as an explanation of how God made
the universe. Infact both accept there was nothing before them and the stages in the
Genesis story and the Big Bang are not so different. There are many scientists who are
religious who accept both the Big Bang and Genesis.
R.E. Revision Card: Unit 4: Q6 Science and Religion.
Card 6 Side 2
• The Cosmological Revolution. In medieval times, the Church taught that God put humans
at the centre of the universe and made us in his image. Nicholas Copernicus(1473-1573)
was an astronomer employed by the Church to produce an accurate calendar. Using
maths and observation he concluded the earth went round the sun. Therefore we were
not at the centre of the universe. This observation was the beginning of the Cosmological
Revolution. Galilei Galileo (1564-1642) invented the telescope which then supported the
findings of Copernicus.
• Why was the Cosmological Revolution a problem for the Church? If the Church was
wrong about us being at the centre of the universe then were they wrong about God and
his special relationship with humanity? The Christian faith now no longer had control over
science. Scientists began looking at reasons other than God and no longer had to match
their findings with Christian teaching. God might have created the world and then moved
on!
• CAN SCIENCE AND RELIGION AGREE?
• NO -The Big Bang Theory and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (life evolves over time,
survival of the fittest, adapt or die!) explain how the universe and life exists without the
need for God. Creationist Christians refuse to believe science instead they believe the
Bible to be absolute truth.
• YES – Many Christians and scientists who are Christian believe the Big Bang Theory and
Theory of Evolution help explain how God created the universe and life.
• Science and Religion ask different questions! Science asks how? What, when? Religion
asks why? Therefore you can believe in both science and religion as they ask different
questions.
R.E. Revision Card: EXAM TIPS
Card 7 Side 1
There are 6 questions in the exam. You have to answer 4. Each of the 6 main questions is split
into 5 parts.
Look at the marks for each part of the question:
1 mark means 1 simple point
2 marks means 2 simple points or 1 point with an explanation that develops the point.
3 marks means 3 simple points or 1 or 2 points with an explanation
4,5, 6 mark questions means FARM!! (For, Against, Religion, Me). For these questions put
both sides of the argument, what you think and whether Christians would agree or disagree.
Try and use a Bible quote to evidence what Christians think.
Remember to take care with Spelling, Punctuation and Grammer (SPaG). Each 6 mark
question has 4 marks extra for SPaG. When the examiner has marked the paper, they will go
back and look at the SPaG marks. Your single highest SPaG mark gets added to the total
marks you got for your answers. Your SPaG mark is worth half a GCSE GRADE!!!
Avoid simple mistakes: God always has a capital G. Christian a capital C. Make sure you know
the meanings of omniscient, omnipotent, immanent, transcendent, benevolent, personal
God, impersonal God.
Get practice papers from Mr Mottram/Mr Hollas! Attend as many revision sessions as you
can! Don’t forget the half-term booster session and the booster sessions on the day of each
exam.
R.E. Revision Card: Bible Quotes
Card 7 Side 2
Learn these Bible quotes and make sure you use them. You can use each quote as many
times as you like. If you can, use the Bible reference as well. Write these quotes out at the
back of your answer booklet at the start of the exam and then you can refer to them when
you need them!!!
Creation Story from Genesis 1 and 2:1-3 – Day 1: Light and Dark; Day 2: The Sky; Day 3 Earth,
Oceans and Plants; Day 4 Sun, Moon, Stars; Day 5 Birds, Fish; Day 6 Animals, People; Day 7
God Rested.
Genesis 1: You made humans in your own image.
Exodus 3: 14: God’s name reveals that God is self-existent and self-perpetuating life.
Genesis 3: Eve is tempted by the Devil.
1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money … is the root of all evil.
Romans 5:3: Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character
produces hope.