DNA:

• Stick in your big picture sheet for the new ‘Looking for meaning’ unit

• Find and write down definitions for as many of the key words as you can.

Looking for meaning

1. Belief in God

2. What is God

3. Experiencing God

4. Finding God

5. Christians, Muslims and God

6. Christianity and death

7. Islam and death

Key words:God Symbolism Lord Redeemer Pilgrimage Vocation

Community Awe Revelation Akhirah Funeral theist

atheist Allah Resurrection Belief Trinity Bible Quran

freewill religion omnipotent omniscient Omni-benevolent

miracle prayer judgement afterlife secular agnostic

Believing in God/Allah

Learning intentions: 1. To explore the

concept of whether God exists?

2. To discuss and evaluate points both in favour and against the idea of God.

Success criteria:•To be able to put

forward a personal opinion and support it with reasons.

Key words for today!

• Theist

• Agnostic

• Atheist

Theist- some one who definitely believes in a god

Agnostic- some one who is unsure and wants more evidence before they decide

Atheist- some one who definitely thinks there is no god or divine

What is God to you?

• You have one minute to complete you own personal definition of God

•God is.....

What about God?

Around the room are several different statements and responses about the existence of God

In your pairs you need to move to each one and add:

•What you think.

•What someone who disagrees with you might say.

•What some who are religious might say.

•Pick one of the statements you looked at and give two well explained reasons why a religious believer

might agree or disagree with it.

“God must exist Millions of people

can’t all be wrong!”

“If there was a loving and caring God then He wouldn’t

let things like floods and suffering happen”

Some thing must have created the universe,

you can’t get something from nothing. So God

must be real

God is about as believable as dragons

and unicorns there’s no evidence.

Science can explain

everything we don’t need God.

God tells us how to live a good life.

“ I believe in what I can experience and

I've not experienced God

so why should Believe in Him?”

Why do some people believe in God and others don’t?

Why believe in God? Why not believe in God?

Use page 70-71 to help you fill in the table

Why believe in God? Why not believe in God?

Upbringing Upbringing

Education Education

Personal choice Personal choice

A sense of purpose Not any evidence for God

Belief that there is more to the world than we know

Belief that science tell us all we need to know

Believe it gives people a good way to live

Observation of the natural world

Observation of the natural world Questioning the nature of God

Why have God?

Richard Dawkins

• In the clip think about the points Dawkins is making?

• What does he think of religion?

• Do you agree with anything he is saying? Give reasons for your answer.

Marcus’ story

• Marcus Brigstock is a well known comedian,

• He also has a few things to say about belief.

• Pay close attention to his article as you will be writing a response to it.

• The article is addressed To God.

“I find myself, a 38 year old married man with two children, loving my job, reasonably content most of the time, with periods of ecstasy and spells of gloom, and yet for reasons both explicable and inexplicable I wish I could find a God to believe in. It ought to be simple – decide to believe, stop being a smart-arse, find a church, temple, mosque, woodland ritual, statue of a thing, special book or ritualistic dance, and get stuck in. I know a great number of people far cleverer than me who believe in God without any trouble at all. So why can’t I?

Though I seek to express myself through comedy a lot of the time, there are some things I’m deadly serious about, and the desire for a workable and available Deity in my life is one of them...

I wish there was a God. I wish for that God to exist now and for all time. I wish to be fully conscious of God and more importantly for Him to be fully conscious of me. I wish for God to be powerful, infinitelywise, kind, loving, fair....”

Responding to Marcus

•Now you are going to imagine that you are God or at least someone in charge of his post. (No offence intended to anybody!)

•You are going to write a response to Marcus’s article

Writing your response

• Things to consider

• What is Marcus’ problem?

• Is he right to blame God?

• What can he do?

• What advice would you give him?

• Where else could he go for advice?

• Does he have anything good in his life as well as bad?

• Sentence starters:

• Dear Marcus

• I think that you are right/wrong to blame God....because....

• I think that you should....because....

• You could also......

• Somewhere else you could look for meaning is....

Peer assess (what, went, well and even better if)

•Read your partner’s work and mark it with your purple pen!

•Write two things they did well and one thing they could improve for next time.

Home work

Find some evidence to support todays lesson- gather quotes from the Bible/Quran/Hadith or religious teachings.