Year 12 A Level Taster Lesson

Transcription

1 Year 12 A Level Taster Lesson What it entails and what is expected. Today we are going to examine the three main areas of study in A Level Religious Studies, 1. Philosophy 2. Ethics 3. Developments in Christian thought

2 The Course- Year 1 Philosophy Ethics Christian Thought Ancient Greek Influences on Philosophy of Religion Traditional Arguments for the Existence of God Four ethical theories and two applications. Situation Ethics Natural Moral Law Augustine and Human nature. Person of Jesus Existence of God Religious experience The Problem of Evil Euthanasia Kantian Ethics Utilitarianism Business Ethics Life after death Christian moral principles Christian moral action

3 The Course- Year 2 Philosophy Ethics Christian Thought ancient philosophical influences the nature of the soul, mind and body arguments about the existence or nonexistence of God the nature and impact of religious experience the challenge for religious belief of the problem of evil ideas about the nature of God issues in religious language Situation ethics. Kantian ethics Utilitarianism Natural moral law Business ethics Euthanasia Ethical language and thought Debates surrounding In year 1 you will study all of the religious beliefs, values and teachings, their interconnections and how they vary historically and in the contemporary world previous slide and then in year sources 2 of religious you study further modules. Your wisdom and authority practices which shape and exam at the end of the 2 year express religious identity, and how these vary within the significant idea of a tradition topics AND second year topics!!! conscience significant social and historical developments in Sexual ethics and the theology and religious influence on ethical thought thought of key themes related to the developments in relationship between religious beliefs. religion and society course will be made up of first year

4 You will have 1 hour 15 minutes for EACH of the three papers. You will be given the choice of THREE essay questions and you will answer TWO! Assessment- Year 1

5 Assessment at A Level You will have 2 hours for EACH of the three papers. You will be given the choice of FOUR essay questions and you will answer THREE!

6 Expectations Attendance- You MUST have 96% or above attendance during year 12- that means no McDonalds trips instead of lessons! Wider Reading- you will be expected to take out a book from the RE Library every two weeks and complete the reading log. Essay planning and completion- You will regularly plan and then write essays. You will receive written feedback on them!! RIGHT LETS ACTUALLY DO Note taking- Your notes are your own. BUY three folders for each of the 3 areas to make sure everything is organised. The better the notes the better the understanding! SOMETHING NOW Completion of reading log THEN SHALL WE Acting on feedback- We are all trying to improve everyday! Make sure you act on essay feedback given!

7 Ethics Look at the following situations. In pairs or small groups decide what you would do in each situation. Be ready to justify your decision. 1. You witness a car crash. The wreckage is burning, but you may be able to save one of the two passengers. To your horror, you realise that one is a member of your family and the other is a famous cancer specialist on the brink of a breakthrough. Who do you save and why? 2. Your ship goes down and you re lost in the sea with two others, in a life raft. You have no food. Without a supply of food, there s no hope of rescue before you starve to death. Two would survive by eating the third: otherwise, all three will die. What do you do and why?

8 Aquinas Cosmological Argument In Summa Theololgica Aquinas outlines five arguments for the existence of God. Three of these are cosmological arguments arguments that try to prove God s existence by looking at the general qualities of the world. The First Way From Motion Things that move must be moved by something. Things cannot move themselves. Things are evidently in motion. There cannot be an infinite chain of movers (infinite regression). There must be a first, unmoved mover that causes motion in all things. This first, unmoved mover we call God.

9 Aquinas Cosmological Argument It is certain, and evident to our senses, that in the world some things are in motion. Now whatever is in motion is put in motion by another Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God. In Aquinas own words

10 Aquinas Cosmological Argument J.L. Mackie Hume Russell Aquinas is correct that infinite regression is not possible. We observe this in everyday life. An infinite number of train carriages would set themselves into motion, they need an engine at the start. Aquinas makes an inductive leap in his logic. He establishes the need for an unmoved mover but then leaps to the conclusion that this must be the God of classical theism. Just because we need to explain why certain things in the universe are in motion does not mean we need to explain why the universe as a whole is in motion. Aquinas commits the fallacy of composition by suggesting what is true of part is true of the whole. Who makes the strongest/weakest response to Aquinas argument?

11 Michelle slides Philosophy

12 Christian thought List the attributes of what you think is a human being? Is everyone the same, or are we thinking of our potential? Could it be said that one of these men is more human than the other one? Do we all share the same human nature? Dictionary definition- the general psychological characteristics, feelings, and behavioural traits of humankind, regarded as shared by all humans. This is Nikolas Cruz. On the 14 th February 2018 Nikolas Cruz walked into a school in Florida wearing a gas mask and carrying an AR-15 rifle, he killed 17 students. This is Saint Maximillian Kolbe. He was a Polish Friar who volunteered his life to save a stranger in the death camp Auschwitz in 1941 when 10 people were randomly sentenced to death as a deterrent to the rest of the camp. He did not know the man he saved and he spent his time with the other 9 men praying and supporting them until they died. He was finally killed after 2 weeks through a lethal injection.

13 Christian thought Jean Jacques Rousseau thought that humans were essentially generous and kind, with only certain situations causing them to act in other ways Thomas Hobbes thought the opposite to Rosseau. He thought that human nature was selfish and brutish (much like the behaviour of animals). Hobbes believed that the only thing that separates humans and animals is reason.

14 Christian thought Rousseau s thoughts continued Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Many a man believes himself to be the master of others who is, no less than they, a slave Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract., page 1 (1762) Rousseau thinks that the chains in this metaphor are a symbol of Human Competition. The drive humans have to gain more and more power have become chains in their lives and they are no longer free. Rousseau believed that the purpose of a human s life was to try and become rid of these chains and rediscover our natural human instinct of generosity and kindness.

15 Bridging work Ethics- Create two resources on situation ethics and utilitarianism. There will be key points to include! Philosophy- Create a one page revision guide on dualism, monism and materialism. Key scholars must be included.