Flash Cards

Religious Upbringing
  * Some Christians baptise their children at a young age
  * The child is usually taught to pray and they go to church.
  * Families usually celebrate Christmas and Easter (and the meaning of those festivals and stories around them)
  * Some Christian parents arrange for their children to attend a ‘Sunday School’ where there is encouragement to be a good Christian and lead a Christian life.
How would this support a person’s belief in God?
  * Being born into a Christian family might support someone’s belief in God because they are surrounded by others who are convinced of the existence of God.
  * If the religion has been handed down through generations it may seem perfectly natural to members of that family to believe in God.
  * Learning about God at home, school and in the church could lead some people to decide that God must exist.


Religious Experiences
Sometimes religious experiences can convince people that God exists without a religious upbringing.

  * For some this is the ‘wow’ factor and they see something that takes their breath away and gives feelings of awe and wonder. This is called numinous and could be felt by looking up at a starry sky or a wonderful sunset and convinced that God is behind it all.
  * Prayer is an important and personal way for some people to communicate with God. If a prayer is answered then it can strengthen a person’s faith in God.
  * Miracles can also convince people that God exists e.g. surviving a plane crash, Jairus’ daughter
  * Conversion happens after an event where people believe they have experienced God and want to commit their life to God e.g. St Paul on the road to Damascus

DESIGN ARGUMENT
Several hundred years ago WILLIAM PALEY put forward the design argument. He said that if somebody happened to find a watch and had never ever seen one before, they would be astounded. The fact that finding something so tiny with lots of mechanisms inside it had been made...