Religious Studies

• Shahadah


  'There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet' (Surah 3.18)
• Salah


  'Woe to those who pray, but are unmindful of their prayer, or who pray only to be seen by people' Qur'an 107:4-6
• Zakah


  "And those who hoard gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah – give them tidings of a painful punishment." Surah 9:34
• Saum


  'Oh believers! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was for those before you that you may learn self restraint.' Qur'an 2:183
• Hajj


  "Pilgrimage to the House is a duty towards God upon humankind, for those who can find a way there." Qur'an
• Festivals


  'Verily it is only a festival for he whose fast Allah has accepted and whose prayers he has acknowledged…' Imam Ali
• Jihad


  'The person who struggles so that Allah's word is supreme is the one serving Allah's cause.' (Hadith)
• 1. Ibrahim said: ‘For me, I have set my face towards the One who has created the skies and the Earth. I will never make partners with Allah’ (Qur’an 6:79) ‘Indeed I am going to set a vicegerent (earthly representative of Allah) on the earth’ (Surah 2.30)
  2. ‘We have sent among you a messenger of your own… and instructing you in scripture and wisdom, and in new knowledge’ (Surah 2.151)
  3. “Say, never will we be struck except by what Allah has decreed for us; He is our protector.” (Surah 9:51) 
• Psalm 95:1-11: 'let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!'
• Prayer


  Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret for your father knows what you need before you ask him
• Sacraments


  All of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? Just as Christ was raised from the dead we too may live a new life.
• Celebrations


  • Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him
• The work of the Christian community

  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
• John Bunyan (from Pilgrims Progress): 'I'll labour night and day to be a pilgrim'
• Christian mission and evangelism

  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
• Martin Luther King Jr: 'I have decided to stick with love. 'hate is too great a burden to bear.'
• The worldwide church
• 1. Omnibenevolent - The belief God is all-loving
  2. Omnipotent – The belief God is all powerful, able to do anything
  3. Trinity – refers to God being three persons in one. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
  4. Resurrection - he physical return of Jesus on the third day after he died
  5. Salvation - The saving of the soul from sin
• John 3:16: 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life'
• God's love for his creation

  Allowing his son to die on the cross as a sacrifice for sin and giving them access to heaven
• Views on the afterlife


  • Physical place to fundamentalists
  • Union with God to liberal Christians
• Jesus: 'I am the way, The Truth and The Life. No one comes to The Father except through me'
• Jesus and the Father

  Are one
• Salvation

  Requires faith in Jesus
• Hebrews 12:2: 'Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God'
• Jesus' suffering on the cross

  A shameful form of capital punishment reserved for criminals
• Jesus' crucifixion

  Christians and God are reconciled, joined again as they had been separated by sin
• The Big Bang Theory

  The universe began 13.8 billion years ago, with an explosion that caused everything to be flung outwards
• Scientists know the universe is still expanding and the movement can all be tracked back to a single point
• Background microwave radiation is evidence of the Big Bang, as explosions cause radiation that can still be detected in space
• Scientific Truth

  1. Make a hypothesis

  2. Repeated testing

  3. Tests confirm or disprove your idea
• Darwin's theory of evolution

  The world is the result of change and adaptation, evolution, a struggle for survival, natural selection - creatures adapt or become extinct
• Religious Truth


  Comes from religious experience and holy books, can be open to interpretation but the words do not change, it is eternal
• Genesis Creation Story

  1. Seven day creation

  2. God separates light from darkness, land from sea, plants, animals and humans

  3. Humans are 'specially created', creation is described as good, it is created out of nothing 'ex nihilo'
• Interpretations of Genesis Creation Story

  • Fundamentalists/literalists say creation occurred in 6 days, not through evolution
  • Liberal/Non-literalists have a symbolic understanding, God started creation but it occurred through evolution
  • Some Christians believe God uses scientific processes to create the universe
• Stewardship


  Looking after the world and leaving it in a better state for future generations
• Christians believe God gave humans dominion, that is the right to decide what happens in the world and all the species in it
• Environmental abuse

  • Pollution
  • Acid rain
  • Fertiliser
  • Pesticide
  • Litter
  • Light pollution
  • Noise pollution
• Global warming

  Temperatures everywhere are getting higher, the surface temperature will increase between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees centigrade before 2100
• Climate change is causing extreme weather like storms and floods, due to greenhouse gases, especially CO2 from fossil fuels