Writing a conclusion
In conclusion most Christians would agree/ disagree with the statement..........because
or
Having looked at the different arguments I would conclude that xxxxx is the most powerful argument because................
Here is a sample answer
or
Having looked at the different arguments I would conclude that xxxxx is the most powerful argument because................
Here is a sample answer
Skills
SkillsThere are a number of key skills that you need to master in order to do well in your RS GCSE. We will go through these in more detail later in the book, but below you will find a basic explanation of the skills you will need to develop.
First and foremost there is a lot of content to cover in the four exams so you need to have a good system in place for remembering all the content. We would suggest creating revision material as you go alone, as you finish each area of study you produce your own summaries that you can use to test yourself when you get closer to the exams.
In order to be successful you need to know a lot of technical religious language. You will use this language in every type of question in the exam so developing your knowledge and understanding of these words is the backbone of your learning.
×REVISION TIP - create a glossary as you learn. Whenever your teacher introduces a key word or concept rewrite the word with its definition in a glossary list. Put the word under the heading for the area of study you have been learning, for example, 'Abortion - termination of a foetus' would come under 'Medical Ethics'.Another key skill is illustrating points using examples. In some cases you will be asked to just state an example that is relevant to a particular concept, for example, exchanging of rings is an example of a ritual that occurs in a Christian wedding service. However, in explanation and evaluation questions just stating an example is not enough, you also need to justify your reasons for using that example. So if you were asked to explain the importance of sanctity of life for Christians you may state that in the book of Genesis it says that God created humans in his own image. This is a good point but needs more justification, for instance you might go on to say that,
"The example of God creating humans in his own image shows that Christians believe that human life is linked to God in a way that does not occur with the rest of his creation. This sets human life above other life, showing that it is more important and there is something special about it.Illustrating a point with examples is part of the wider skill of explaining, the purpose of which in RS is to explain how or explain why. In the book we go through the different types of explain questions that can occur in the exam. The important thing to remember is that you are not describing,this is a different skill and involves stating something as it is, whereas explaining involves going into a lot more detail about how something works or why it might be important.
Analyse also involves looking at something in great detail, but for the sake of the RS exam you will be analysing the strengths and weaknesses of particular beliefs or behaviours that religious followers have. For instance, you could be asked whether Christians should support contraception. As a part of your response you may consider the Roman Catholic approach to contraception. Once you have explained their teachings, which concludes that people should not use contraception because it undermines the sanctity of human life, you would then highlight some strengths and weakness of this approach.
For example, you might say that a benefit of this position is that it maintains the intrinsic value of all human life, even potential human life, whereas a problem with this approach is that it suggests people should not use contraceptives like condoms that help to manage the risks of sexually transmitted infections and of falling pregnant in people who decide they want to have sex with each other.
The final skill you need to master is that of evaluation. Once you have produced your analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of an approach you then need to establish whether, overall, it is a good or bad approach to follow. This is a final answer (conclusion) that clearly justifies why you reason it to be a good or bad approach. This does not mean summarising what you have already said but instead weighing up all of the evidence in front of you and establishing why you have come to this final answer.
Defining the group you are talking about
Religious Studies is about learning about and understanding different religious groups without falling into the trap of making sweeping statements about them. This means using the right language to speak about a particular group – so rather than saying 'Muslims believe ...' it would be better to say that 'Some Muslims believe ... '
Every religion is made up of a large number of different groups who interpret their religious texts and teachings in a specific ways that are based on historical and cultural development. In Christianity there are over thirty thousand different denominations (groups of believers) who have specific traditions and identify themselves in particular ways. You would not be expected to know all of these groups, nor a deep historical understanding of any particular group – however it is useful to know something of the context of a group as this will help you to understand why they hold certain beliefs and act in certain ways. So it is a good idea to know about the Great Schism between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholics, and also a bit about the later Reformation between the Roman Catholics and the Protestant Churches. By understanding these splits one can recognise why for instance the Orthodox Churches put their emphasis on tradition, the Roman Catholics on the scholarly teachings of the Church hierarchy, whilst the Protestant Churches put an emphasis on reading and interpreting Scripture. In this way you are able to illustrate how different religious groups identify themselves.
"... candidates are likely to gain higher marks if they are able to demonstrate, for a particular topic, not only the commonality of viewpoint within a religion but also to give examples of diversity within that religion together with reasons for this difference in interpretation. (For example, within Christianity, The Roman Catholic Churches teaching about contraception differs markedly from the Anglican churches teaching. Within Islam there are differences in interpretation of key verses of the Qur’an which relate to attitudes towards war and self defence.)"Therefore, you would do well to show some recognition of this difference that exists within each group. The way some teachers deal with this is by highlighting three political movements that have an effect on most denominations, namely; conservatives, liberals and fundamentalists.
- CONSERVATIVES - tend to focus on trying to maintain the best of the past whilst recognising that religious texts may need to be interpreted to work in a modern contemporary context. Conservatives tend to hold the view that tradition is very important and there is a lot that each new generation can learn from the experiences of past generations. Large parts of the Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church tend to be conservative.
- LIBERALS - work on the idea that each individual should be free to interpret religious texts and they should try to understand them within the context of changes that have happened in the modern world. For example, Liberals might revise teachings that may have originally seemed sexist because it is considered unacceptable to treat women as second class citizens. A big part of the Church of England is liberal, as well as some other Protestant groups like the Quakers and Methodists, there is a revisionist part of the Roman Catholic Church, especially in South America, but this only represents a small part of this Church and it has little influence at the moment.
- FUNDAMENTALISTS - tend to state that religious texts are the direct teachings from the divine and should therefore be followed as closely as possible with little deviation. The idea is to interpret teachings as little as possible so that they are not corrupted in any way, this is not always possible, but where there are direct commands it is believed that these should be followed. In Christianity, fundamentalists are also known as Evangelicals.
- EVANGELICALS - believe that they have a duty to spread the teachings of scripture to non-believers. There are many Protestant Churches that are largely evangelical, for instance, Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, but there is also a growing number of evangelists within the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church.
Beliefs, Attitudes, Teachings and Behaviour
When answering questions that ask you to explain, analyse or evaluate it is important to be able to refer to how beliefs and teachings can lead people to behave in particular ways. Whether someone identifies themselves as religious or not, all people show behaviour that is directly affected by beliefs they hold and those beliefs are strengthened or weakened by teachings they follow.
If someone has prejudiced beliefs against someone of a different colour skin to them and then acts upon these beliefs then they are being discriminatory and racist. There may be many reasons why they hold these beliefs, for example they could have been brought up being taught that one should be prejudiced against particular groups of people or they may have had negative experiences with a few individuals that they then associate with a whole group of people.
may have been taught by their family or friends to hold these views or they may have been informed by their experiences. If this person then takes these taught beliefs and then treats someone differently, perhaps not serving them in a shop or not employing them, then we can say that they acting in a discriminatory way and being racist. However, beliefs are not always set and will often come into conflict with other beliefs.
For example, the racist person described above may live in the UK, where there are religious and non-religious reasons for believing that racism is wrong. For instance, the Bible has a number of sections that teach that you should treat everyone equity (equally), for example in Galatians it says "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." This would teach a Christian that from God’s perspective all humans are equal, and that they should try to act as Jesus would and most Christian Churches teach that all people should be accepted within the Christian community whatever their ethnicity.
Similarly, in the UK there are laws that protect the rights of all people who are entitled to live here whatever their ethnicity, this has developed over a long period of time by philosophers who believed in freedom for all people, like John Locke and John Stuart Mill. We have developed a society which believes that individuals should have the freedom to do as they wish so long as they do not harm others, therefore we have created laws that protect people so that they should not feel threatened or be attacked, have an equal chance of employment, get equal pay for the same job as someone else, have a right to follow any religion (or no religion) they wish and cannot be refused goods or services. There are therefore many religious and non-religious reasons why it can be argued that someone should not act in a discriminatory way even if they hold some prejudiced views, and it would be hoped (from both a religious and non-religious perspective) that the individual would over time become less and less prejudiced.
×REVISION TIP - Use each of the relevant lists as a checklist and glossary. Go through the list and write down the definition of words that you know and understanding. When you come to word that you do not know look it up and write out its definition. Highlight these words and spend some time testing yourself on them so that you can fix them in your memory.
- Teachings
- Relationship between
- Attitude to
- Principle of
- Influence
- Representation
- Educate
- Responses to
- Reasons
- Significance
- Purpose
- Concept
- Support
- Approaches
- Importance
- Emphasise
- Reflect
- Issues
- Put into practice
- Impact
- Causes
- Treatment
- God
- Arguments
- Miracles
- Jesus
- Christ/Messiah
- Holy Spirit
- Soul
- Heaven
- Hell
- Salvation
- Redemption
- Suffering
- Moral behaviour
- Resurrection
- Good
- Evil
- Symbolism
- Prayer
- Faith
- Revelation
- Bible
- Conscience
- Sacred
- Sacred Text
- Humanity
- Christian Church (denomination)
- Christian church (building)
- Charity
- Moral
- Immoral
- Evangelism
- Forgiveness
- Believers
- Belief
- Reconciliation