Theme-issues of life and death

• Afterlife


  Life after death; the belief that existence continues after physical death
• Environmental sustainability


  Ensuring that the demands placed on natural resources can be met without reducing capacity to allow all people and other species of animals, as well as plant life, to live well, now and in the future
• Euthanasia


  The act of killing or permitting the death of a person who is suffering from a serious illness
• Evolution


  The process by which different living creatures are believed to have developed from earlier less complex forms during the history of the earth
• Abortion


  When a pregnancy is ended so that it does not result in the birth of a child
• Quality of life


  The extent to which life is meaningful and pleasurable
• Sanctity of life


  The belief that life is precious, or sacred. For many religious believers, only human life holds this special status
• Soul


  The spiritual aspect of a being; that which connects someone to God. The soul is often regarded as non-physical and as living on after physical death, in an afterlife
• Creation


  The idea that the universe was planned and brought into being by a divine power (for example God)
• Psalm 139:13,16: 'For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb .… Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.'
• Monotheism


  One God
• Until the rise of scientific thinking there was an acceptance within Christian society that the Bible was the absolute, unchanging word of God. The traditional Christian view was that the earth had been created by God, as described in the Book of Genesis
• Evolution by natural selection

  The idea that the species that flourish are those which are best suited to their environment
• Evolution


  The process by which different living creatures are believed to have developed from earlier, less complex forms during the history of the earth
• In 1965 cosmologists published conclusive evidence to show that the universe did in fact have a beginning. This theory, that time and space began around 15 billion years ago, became known as the Big Bang theory
• According to the Big Bang theory the universe began from a 'singularity', an infinitely tiny point. This 'singularity' was infinitely hot and infinitely dense and, as it expanded, sub-atomic particles and then atoms began to appear
• Most physicists believe that the universe will continue expanding for countless billions of years to come, becoming bigger and colder
• The evidence for the Big Bang theory comes from the discovery of background radiation, which is thought to be left over from the initial expansion at the start of the universe
• Liberal Christians, Jews and Muslims find no problem in accepting the Big Bang theory. They have no reason to question the evidence on which it is based and accept that this is a way that God may have chosen to allow the universe to create intelligent life
• Religious creationists are very critical of these ideas. For them it contradicts the truth that God has formed all life through his own power
• Even if scientists are correct in saying that the universe began with a 'Big Bang', have they really solved the question 'Where does the universe come from?'. We are still left with the question of what caused the Big Bang. Some Christians have argued that it was God
• Big Bang theory


  A theory that describes how the universe came into existence from a single, extremely hot and dense point which rapidly expanded and cooled, eventually forming the structures we observe in the present-day universe
• Big Bang theory


  1. Singularity - tiny point of hot dense matter

  2. Matter expanded
• There are problems with the Big Bang theory
• Scientific concepts


  • chance
  • evidence
  • change
  • probability
  • facts
  • reasoning
• Religious concepts


  • design
  • faith
  • purpose
  • beliefs
  • trust
  • hope
• Tasks


  • origin
  • life
  • value
  • proof
• Stephen Hawking has made major contributions to the field of cosmology
• Hawking's research showed that the universe emerged from a singularity at the birth of the universe
• Hawking's studies demonstrated that the universe is expanding at an astonishing rate and can be traced back to the Big Bang
• Literal interpretation


  Believing that holy texts should be understood word for word
• Liberal interpretation


  Believing that holy texts should be understood as parables or symbolic stories, not necessarily as historical fact
• There are two creation stories in the Book of Genesis
• Genesis 1 describes God creating the earth over six days, with humans as the peak of creation
• Genesis 2 describes God creating Adam first, then Eve, and placing them in the Garden of Eden
• Christian attitudes to creation

  • Evangelical Christians (creationism)
  • Liberal Christians (accept science, disagree on God's role)
• Young Earth creationism believes the world was created by God in seven actual days less than 10,000 years ago
• Old Earth creationism believes the world was created by God over long eras of time, not 24-hour days
• Liberal Christians see the creation stories as myths or metaphors, not historical fact
• Theistic guided evolution is the belief that life evolved through a process guided by God