GCSE RS Theme B: Religion and Life
KEY WORDS
🔑ABORTION: Deliberate termination of a pregnancy, with the intention to
prevent life.
🔑AFTERLIFE: Beliefs about what happens to our self/soul after we die.
🔑ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION: Use of animals to test for toxicity and
validity of medicines.
🔑AWE AND WONDER: Sense of amazement.
🔑BIG BANG THEORY: the scientific view of the beginning of the universe.
🔑DOMINION: The idea that humans have the right to control all of
creation.
🔑ENVIRONMENT: the world around us.
🔑EUTHANASIA: mercy killing; ending life for someone who is terminally ill,
or who has a degenerative disease; this can be voluntary (a person deciding
for themselves) or non-voluntary (being decided by others as the individual
is incapable.
🔑EVOLUTION: scientific theory which states the life today has evolved
from simple form through a process of natural selection and the survival of
the fittest.
🔑NATURAL RESOURCES: the resources the earth provides without the aid
of mankind.
🔑ORIGINS OF THE UNIVERSE: how the universe began; science = Big Bang,
religion, e.g. Genesis.
🔑POLLUTION: to put too much of something into the environment, causing
an overload.
🔑QUALITY OF LIFE: how good/comfortable life is.
🔑RESPONSIBILITY: duty to do something.
🔑SANCTITY OF LIFE: life is special; life is created by God.
🔑SCIENTIFIC VIEWS: knowledge coming from observed regularity in nature
and experimentation.
🔑STEWARDSHIP: duty to look after the world, and life.
ORIGINS OF THE UNIVERSE:
Science and religion disagree about how the universe began, but are they compatible
or conflicting?
The Big Bang Theory says that the universe began 20 billion years ago. There was
nothing and then a huge explosion made clouds of dust and gas and over time the
universe formed. The earliest signs of life appeared millions of years before the land
and sea settled. The earth was hot, covered in primordial soup - a mix of liquids,
chemicals, minerals, proteins and amino acids. These fused to give the first life forms
and from these all life developed, including humans.
Scientific evidence supports this theory. Scientists know the universe of expanding,
and they can track the expansion back to a singular point - explosions cause
everything to be flung outwards. Background microwaves radiation from the
explosion can still be detected in space.
However, questions are still asked about how nothing can actually explode. How can a
totally ordered and structured world come from an explosion?
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EVOLUTION:
The work of Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin was a natural scientist who through
years of research wrote The Origins of Species. He suggested the world was a place of
change and that the huge variety of creatures is the result of years of adaptation
(evolution).
There is a struggle for survival between creatures through climates, resources and
habitat and where species failed to adapt they became extinct. Only the fittest (best
suited) survived, which Darwin called Natural Selection.
Places change creatures because of the environment they are forces to live in, so over
millions of years species have evolved.
Environments are different across the world, and creatures live in appropriate places -
polar bears reside in the Arctic, not Africa! As environments change, if creatures don’t
adapt they die, leading to extinction of species. Adaptation is the key. This theory
suggests that it is wrong to think that creatures were designed to look as they do
today. A God of creation does not fit with this theory.
Darwin’s theory actually makes God an even figure of awe and wonder. Perhaps
science if just part of God’s creation.
GENESIS:
Genesis is the first Book of the Hebrew Bible. The Genesis creation story believed by Jews,
Muslims and Christians.
In the beginning there was nothing. Then over seven days God created light and dark, the
heavens, land, sea and vegetation, sun, moon and stars, birds and fish, land animals and
humans. On the seventh day God rested - it was a ‘good’ creation.
HOW THIS STORY IS UNDERSTOOD: Literal Christians- Some people believe it is literally true.
God is all-powerful so it is easy to believe that God did all this in literally seven days. Liberal
Christians - Others believe that it is true but not literally. It is a simplified version of what
happened, for example a ‘day’ is a ‘God day’ - so a long period of time. It uses the knowledge
and language of the time. Yet others would say it’s about the message - God as the creator
deliberately made the world; it was not an accident or chaos. Humans, made in God’s image,
are given a purpose to live by God.
CAN WE BELIEVE IN SCIENCE OR RELIGION OR BOTH?: Some believers would say we only
need religion. Genesis is accurate, God created the world in seven days as He can do anything.
Humans don’t need to understand, they just need to believe. Accepting the scientific view is
impossible with the interpretation of Genesis. Some accept totally the scientific view of the
origins of the universe and so see the religious view as nonsense. Some people believe that
God’s involvement is what started the Big Bang. So here science and religion go together to
explain how it all began. Some believe that Genesis is simply there to give us a message - that
humans have a purpose. So the story is telling us why humans are whereas science is telling
us how we came to be here. Thus together science and religion give humans a more complete
answer.
IS SCIENCE MORE IMPORTANT THAN RELIGION? Depending on the situation, sometimes one
is more important than the other. Sometimes we need hypothesis and testing, they help us
make sense of how things work and repeated testing shows us things work. It is not enough to
simply believe that medicines work, they need to be tested. At the same time religious truths
give life meaning and purpose, a sense of well being, as well as hope of something else after
life here. Science and religion simply answer different questions. There is not absolute proof
as to the origins of the universe. Science does challenge religion here, but they both
contribute something to our understanding.
KEY QUOTES
‘Where a person
is definitely going
to die, and
keeping them
alive leads to
more suffering,
then termination
of life is
permitted under
Mahayana
Buddhism’ Dalai
Lama
‘God created life
in his own
image.’ (Genesis)
“Do not Kill” (Ten
Commandments -
Exodus)
‘I, your God, give
life and I take it
away. ‘(Job)
THE VALUE OF THE WORLD:
The world is important for humans both now and in the future. Religious people believe they have a duty to look after it (Stewardship) and treat it with
respect/ Life is sacred to all religious believers. Humans have dominion (power) over nature by permission of God. The world’s beauty fills people with
awe, making many think of God and so worship Him.
ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE:
Pollution: damage and solutions - Pollution causes damage to the sea, (water) and land. Anything can be polluted - there is both light and noise pollution.
Factories and transport cause the most air pollution - toxic CO2 in the air damages the ozone layer, thus reducing its ability to keep the earth cooler. Rain
picks up the chemicals and drops them in acid rain, polluting land, water and crops and buildings. Factories empty their waste into rivers and farming
chemicals drain from the land into the water sources, killing fish and wildlife.
Pollution is the main reason for global warming - it causes the greenhouse effect as greenhouse gases heat the earth.
Poor air quality causes health problems. Contaminated food and water sources mean animals/fish die. Ecosystem change, becoming unbalanced.
Solutions: We can cut CO2 levels with government control over factories, reduce the use of fossil fuels and replace with cleaner energy, alter travel habits
and be aware of our ‘carbon footprints’.
GLOBAL WARMING: Global warming causes climate change as the earth becomes hotter. Extreme weather patterns - too hot, too wet, too dry - all lead to
floods,droughts, damage to animals’ habitats, ice caps melting, more deserts and reduction in rainforest. The earth heats up and cools of naturally, but
scientists tell us that human activites over the last 100 years have speeded up temperature change. The change alters ecosystems so plants and animals
have to adapt or die out.
DESTRUCTION OF NATURAL HABITATS: This refers to activites that damage forest and areas of nature beyond repair so that creatures’ living space is lost.
Pollution is a key cause of this, with acid rain destroying the canopy in rainforest areas, oil spills contaminating the seas and coastline areas, and
deforestation - taking land for grazing, house building, mining and roads, and planting of cash crops like palm oil plantations. Rainforest are millions of
years old and cannot just be regrown; as trees take in CO2 and produce O2 we lose the help they give to fighting global warming. Many rainforest plant
have medicinal qualities, which we might lose forever. Man’s needs here are being seen as more important than nature’s, hence cutting the forest. Many
countries regard building houses and farming land as development to provide for their people.
USE AND ABUSE OF NATURAL RESOURCES: Natural resources include vegetation, minerals and fossil fuels, which have taken millions of years to form.
However, humans are overusing them and they are running out because they are limited in quality and non-renewable. When a coal or oil field is empty,
for example, that’s it...GONE!!
RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND ANIMALS:
BUDDHISM:
● All life should be respected. As we will use the earth during many
lifetimes, we protect it for ourselves as well as for our children.
Ignorance and greed (two of the three poisons) lead to most of the
pollution being caused - e.g. companies building factories in the third
world so they can pay the workers less, have fewer pollution levels to
keep to, all leading to bigger profits.
● The First Precept tells us to not harm other sentient beings.
● Right Livelihood implies that Buddhists should not work in a job that
exploits animals.
● All living things fear being put to death - let no one kill or cause others
to kill (Dhammapada).
CHRISTIANITY:
● God gave us the world, entrusting us
with this great gift. HUmans have
responsibility to look after it as
stewards. We also have a
responsibility for each other, the
poor of the world and our future
children to make sure the world is
still intact for many generations to
come.
● Animals are part of creation and deserve respect and protection
(Assisi).
● Scientists must abandon laboratories and factories of death (Pope).
