Believing in God
This unit is based on Christianity
only
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 person’s
attitude to belief in God.
Match up the keywords
1. Omniscient
a. God is all loving
2. Benevolent
b. The belief that God
exists
3. Omnipotent
c. God is all knowing
4. Agnostic
5. Atheist
d. The belief the God does
not exist
6. Theist
e. God is all powerful
f. A person who is not sure
if God exists or not
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.
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!
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
If miracles happen why
doesn’t everyone get
one? Surely God loves
us all?
God is supposed to
care but he does not
seem to answer
prayers
Unanswered prayers
• People may come to believe that God
CAN’T exist if their prayers are not
answered because:
If God was omniNot everyone’s prayers
get answered but if God
was omnipotent he should
have the power to help no
matter how big the
request is.
benevolent he should
show his love by
answering prayers. Many
prayers are from those
wanting to stop suffering
yet most seem to go
unanswered.
What Christians may say in
response to unanswered prayers:
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 has a plan and
so won’t answer
prayers that don’t fit
with this plan, no
matter how it may
seem to us
Some prayers
ask for bad
things so God
can’t answer
them e.g.
wanting God
to hurt or kill
someone
God may have
actually answered a
prayer, but in a way
that was unexpected.
Creation arguments
Many people argue that creation theories
either do or don’t prove the existence of
God. There are 4 main ideas:
2. The
Cosmological
Argument
1. The
scientific
Big Bang
Theory
4. The Christian
Creation story
3. The Design
Argument
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 don’t
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!
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:
1.
Complex things aren’t 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
2.
The world is complex too and so can’t 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
3.
Only a thing know that is big enough and powerful enough to
have made a world is God
4.
Therefore there must be an assumption that God exists
The Cosmological Argument
This can sometimes be called the causation argument or the argument
for God based on cause and it goes like this:
1.
Everything has a cause, including Earth
2.
Either the cause of Earth goes back forever to infinity OR there
must have been a first cause which itself did not have one
3.
Logic says that there must have been a first cause at some point
(called the uncausable cause)
4.
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
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
Test yourself!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
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?
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) couldn’t he get rid
of it? He would surely stop natural disasters from
happening???
• If God was omniscient (all Knowing) wouldn’t 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) wouldn’t he want to
stop people suffering? Surely he wouldn’t 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.
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
Moral evil: suffering caused by
people
• Murder
• Rape
• Assault
• Theft
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
God’s plan. Suffering was part of God’s 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.
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?)
How two television and/or radio programmes and/or films
about religion may affect a person’s 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 person’s 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
Root of all Evil
This is a documentary presented by atheist Richard
Dawkins. It may affect a person’s 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 presenter’s voice implies that it would be
wrong and silly to be religious
50:50
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
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What is an atheist?
50:50
A: A Christian
C: Someone who believes
in God
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B: Someone who does
not believe in God
D: Someone who is not sure
if there is a God or not
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What is an agnostic?
50:50
A: A Christian
C: Someone who does
not believe in God
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B: Someone who
believes in God
D: Someone unsure if they
believe in God or not
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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
50:50
A: The Cosmological
Argument
C: Big Bang
Theory
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B: The Design
Argument
D: The Creation
story
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Who
believes in
the Big
Bang
Theory?
50:50
A: A scientist
C: All religious
people
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B: A Christian
D: No one
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Which is the odd one
out?
50:50
A: Religious upbringing
C: Education
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B: Conversion
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.
the £1,000
Milestone!
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Which event/s will most likely help
someone having a religious
upbringing believe?
50:50
A: RS lessons at school
C: Being prayed for
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B: Baptism and
Sunday School
D: Praying at meal
times
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What means an
experience
which arouses a
deep spiritual
feeling?
50:50
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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?
50:50
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?
50:50
A: The Bible
C: Suffering and
evil
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B: People
D: Not going to
church
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What is natural evil?
50:50
A: suffering from car
crashes
C: Mental illness
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B: when people hurt
each other
D: suffering from
natural disasters e.g
floods
the £32,000
Milestone!
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Which word means
that God is all
powerful and
nothing is beyond
his power?
50:50
A: Benevolent
B: Omnipotent
C: Omniscient
D: Strong
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One way to remember this might be to
remember the P’s
OmniPotent = Powerful
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Which is NOT a
Christian response to
suffering?
50:50
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A: God alone knows the
meaning of suffering
B: Suffering comes from
an opposite power - Satan
C: God can’t stop
suffering
D: Suffering is a result of
sin brought in to the world
by humans
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What is 1 Christian
approach to suffering?
50:50
A: Deal with it – it’s life
C: Suffering is all part of
the Bible and it’s what God
wants
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B: You have to have
downs to feel the ups in
life
D: God joined in
suffering by sending
Jesus
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Which is a
programme we
studied which may
affect someone’s
attitude towards
God?
50:50
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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?
50:50
A: Bangladesh cyclone
C: 20 million dying of
malnutrition
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B: Rhys Jones shot
D: Children born with
incurable diseases
This is because the others are forms of
natural evil, yet Reece Jones being
murdered is an act of moral evil
YOU WIN
£1 MILLION!