Term
| What normally happens in a Christian upbringing? |
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Definition
Christian parents:
• are likely to have their babies baptised, when they promise to bring up their children to believe in God and be good Christians
• will teach their children to believe in God
• will teach their children to pray to God
• will take their children to worship God in church
• may send their children to a Church school. |
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Term
| Children who've had a religious upbring are more likely to believe in God, why? |
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Definition
Children who have had a Christian religious upbringing may feel it is natural to believe in God because:
• Their parents will have told them about God and they will believe their parents.
• Christians pray to God, so they will believe that God exists because their parents would not waste their time praying to nothing.
• Seeing so many people worshipping God when they go to church will make them believe that God exists.
• They will be taught that God exists when they go to Sunday school, or Church school, and will believe it because their teachers tell them it is true. |
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Term
| Why are religious upbringings a good idea? |
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Definition
A religious upbringing helps to keep a family together as parents and children join together for religious activities.
• A religious upbringing gives children an understanding of what is right and wrong, and gives them good morals.
• A religious upbringing gives children a sense of belonging and community, giving them emotional stability. |
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Term
| Why are religious upbringings a bad idea? |
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Definition
• A religious upbringing means children are brought up following a religion they have not chosen themselves.
• Some people think that a religious upbringing can take away a child’s human right to freedom of religion.
• A religious upbringing can reinforce and continue religious prejudices which are harmful to society. |
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Term
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Definition
| A feeling of the presence of God. When people are in a religious building, in a beautiful place or looking up at the stars on a clear night, they may be filled with the awareness that there is something greater than them, which they feel to be God. Such a feeling is likely to lead you to believe in God. |
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Term
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Definition
| An experience of God, which is so great that people experiencing it want to change their life or religion and commit themselves to God in a special way. Conversion experiences make people believe in God because they feel that God is calling them to do something for him. |
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Term
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Definition
| An event that breaks a law of science and can only be explained by God. If you experience something that seems to break all the laws of science, you will look for an explanation, and if the only explanation you can think of is a miracle, you will start believing in God. |
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Term
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Definition
| If the person praying feels that God is listening to the prayer, then they are likely to believe that God exists. Also, an answered prayer (for example, when someone prays for a sick loved one to recover and they do) will lead to belief in God. |
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Term
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Definition
| • Anything that has been designed needs a designer. • There is plenty of evidence that the world has been designed (laws of science such as gravity and magnetism; DNA being a blueprint for life, etc.). • If the world has been designed, the world must have a designer. • The only possible designer of the universe would be God. • Therefore the appearance of design in the world proves that God exists. |
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Term
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Definition
• Cause and effect seem to be a basic feature of the world. Whatever we do has an effect. If I do my homework (cause), I will please my parents and/or teachers (effect). Modern science has developed through looking at causes and effects, and scientific investigations seem to show that any effect has a cause and any cause has an effect.
• This means that the universe, the world and humans must have had a cause.
• God is the only logical cause of the universe.
• Therefore God must exist. |
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Term
| What's the argument against the domino effect? |
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Definition
• If everything needs a cause then God must need a cause; why should the process stop with God?
• It is possible that matter itself is eternal and so was never created. That would mean that the process of causes could go back for ever.
• Just because everything in the universe needs an explanation does not mean the universe needs an explanation. The universe could just have been there forever.
• Even if there was a First Cause it would not have to be the God of any particular religion. It could be good, evil, a mixture of good and evil, several gods, etc. |
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Term
| How can scientific explanantions for the Creation lead to agnosticism or atheism? |
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Definition
If science can explain the universe and humans without God, it can lead some people to be agnostic, as they no longer need God to explain why we are here.
Other people may become atheists because they believe that if God existed, he must have made the world and be the only explanation for it. So the way that science can explain the world and humans without God is proof to such people that God does not exist. |
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Term
| How do Christians respond to scientific explanations for the world? |
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Definition
Reaction 1 - God caused the Big Bang
Reaction 2 - The Big Bang is wrong, Creationism is right (the world was created looking old)
Reaction 3 - Believe both theories and believe they fit together in harmony |
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Term
| How do Christians respond to unanswered prayers? |
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Definition
| Accept God has other plans for them, they may be answered in a different way than they are expecting and that God is doing what is right for them. |
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Term
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Definition
| Caused by humans using their free will. Wars and crimes such as rape, murder and burglary are good examples of moral evil. |
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Term
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Definition
| Suffering that has not been caused by humans. Earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, are not caused by humans, but they result in lots of human suffering. |
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Term
| How can evil and suffering affect believers? |
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Definition
| For many religious believers, evil and suffering become a problem if they experience it (for example, they are in an earthquake, or their child dies from a disease), when it can change them into an atheist or an agnostic. |
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Term
| How do Christians cope with evil and suffering? |
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Definition
Response 1 - Accept is, God knows what he's doing
Response 2 - Evil and suffering is due to free will and therefore humans cause it not God
Response 3 - Get on with it because we are being rewarded with heaven
Response 4 - We don't know everything God does, there could be a reason for our suffering |
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Term
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Definition
| A charity formed and run by Christians helping those in need no matter what their faith is. |
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Term
| Causes of world poverty include... |
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Definition
Natural Disasters
Debt
War
Unfair Trade |
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Term
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Definition
| Someone who leaves their own country for their safety, often for political reasons or because of war, and who travels to another country hoping that the government will protect them and allow them to live there. |
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Term
| Why do Christians help others in need even if they're not Christian? |
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Definition
| Because Jesus said to love your neighbour, Jesus was also an asylum seeker when he fled to Egypt, the Bible teaches that we should seek justice for others and be just. |
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