Thematic Studies Glossary Flashcards
Abortion
Deliberate expulsion of foetus from womb with the intention to destroy it
Afterlife
Beliefs about what happens after we die to our self/soul
Animal Rights
The idea that animals should have rights because of respect for life
Awe
An overwhelming feeling often of reverence with a link to God
Big Bang Theory
The scientific view of beginning of the universe
Charles Darwin
The man who put forward the theory of evolution in the 19th Century
Conception
When the sperm fertilises the female egg, so allowing pregnancy
Conservation
To repair and protect animals and areas of natural beauty
Creation
The idea that God created the world/universe from nothing
Dominion
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 has degenerative disease
Can be voluntary or involuntary
Evolution
Change in inherited traits in a species
Fossil Fuels
The Earth’s natural resources - coal, oil and gas
Hospice
A place that cares for the dying usually from an incurable disease
Hypothesis
A proposed explanation of something
Natural Resources
The resources the earth provides without the aid of mankind
Natural selection
One of the basic mechanisms of evolution
Pesticide
Chemicals used to kill pests especially on crops
Pro-choice
Pressure groups which campaign for the right of a woman to decide on abortion
Pro-life
Pressure groups which campaign against abortion/euthanasia
Quality of Life
How good/comfortable life is
Right to Die
The beliefs that a human being should be able to control their own death
Sanctity of Life
Life is special, as life is created by God
Science
Knowledge coming from observed regularity in nature and experimentation
Stewardship
Duty to look after the world, and life
Sustainable Energy
Resources that are renewable e.g. solar, wind and nuclear power
Agnostic
A person who believes there is not enough evidence to say whether a God exists or not
Atheist
A person who believes there is no God
Teleological (Design) Argument
The idea that the world is designed so God exists as the designer
First Cause
The idea that the world was a result of something causing it
General Revelation
Indirect revelation, for example, through seeing God through nature
Humanism
A belief system which does not include God, but sees as central the morally good behaviour of humans
Illusion
Something that is not real, but a trick of a mind
Immanent
That God is at work in the world, for example, performing miracles
Impersonal
That God is beyond human capacity to understand; distant in intellectual and emotional terms
Miracles
Good events which are considered impossible, so should not have been able to happen, and are inexplicable by science
Omniscient
All-knowing
Omnipotent
All-powerful
Omnibenevolent
All-loving
Personal
Relatable; humans can meet and connect with God
Polytheist
Person who believes in more than one God
Reality
What is real or actual
Revelation
God revealing Himself
Science
The collection of knowledge from observation and testing
Special Revelation
Direct revelation, for example, seeing God in a vision
Theist
A person who believes in a God
Thomas Aquinas
An Italian philosopher and Catholic priest in the 13th century, who wrote 5 arguments for the existence of God, including the Argument from Cause
Transcendent
That God is beyond space and time, controlled by neither
Ultimate Reality
The idea of One God which is absolute
Vision
An image seen in the wind or a dream, especially as part of a religious or supernatural experience
William Paley
An English clergyman who in the eighteenth century put forward the design argument for the beginning of the world
Civil War
Armed conflict between factions within the same country
Conflict
Disagreement which escalates
Conscientious Objector
A person who refuses to do something, here fight in a war, because of their conscience
Conventional (warfare)
War using conventional weapons - weapons acceptable under Geneva Conventions
Forgiveness
Willingness to not blame a person any more for wrongs they have done
Holy War
Rules around fighting a war acceptable to Islam
Justice
Making things fair again
Just War
Rules around fighting a war acceptable to Christianity and Sikhism
Nuclear weapons/war
A weapon/war of mass destruction
Pacifism
Belief that all violence is wrong
Peace
The opposite of war; harmony
Protest
Voicing disagreement with something
Reconciliation
Making up between two groups after disagreement
Retaliation
To pay back for harmful action
Terrorism
Use of violence and threats to intimidate, especially for political purposes to create a state of fear in a population
Violence
Causing harm to someone
War
Armed conflict between two or more sides
Weapons of mass destruction
Weapons which cause uncontrollable and untold damage, for example, nuclear weapons
Capital Punishment
Death penalty
Community Service Order
Punishment; criminal has to do a set number of hours’ work in the community as their punishment
Conscience
Sense of right and wrong; usually the guilty voice in our head
Corporal Punishment
Physically hurting the criminal as a punishment
Crime
Breaking the law; can be against a person (e.g. assault) against property (e.g. arson) or the state (e.g. terrorism)
Deterrence
Aim of punishment; where the punishment puts someone off committing the crime
Duty
Something we are bound to do
Evil
Something or someone considered morally wrong; wicked; often linked to the idea of malevolent force e.g. the devil
Forgiveness
Letting go of anger toward someone for a wrong they have done us
Hate Crime
A crime committed because of prejudice e.g. beating someone up because you think they are gay; in UK law, it can mean the doubling of a sentence if found guilty
Imprisonment
Locking someone up as a punishment
Justice
Making things fair again
Law
The rules which govern a country to keep us safe
Order
The enforcement of rules e.g. by a police force
Parole
Release of a criminal from prison, but continuing to monitor their behaviour
Probation Order
Punishment; monitoring of behaviour with the threat of greater punishment for offending again
Protection
Aim of punishment; to keep people safe
Reformation
Aim of punishment; helping the person see how and why they should behave better
Reparation
Aim of punishment; making up for, compensating
Retribution
Aim of punishment; getting back at the person for what they have done
Victim
The one against whom a crime is committed
Vindication
Aim of punishment; the punishment exists because the law does
Young Offenders
Persons under 18 who commit crime
Bible Quote - Stewardship
“Take care of it” (Genesis 2:15)
Bible Quotes - Creation (light)
“God made two great lights - the greater to govern the day” (Genesis 1:16)
“God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3)
Bible Quotes - Creation
“God blessed them” (Genesis 1:28)
“God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:18)
“Streams came up from the Earth and watered the whole surface of the ground” (Genesis 2:6)
Bible Quotes - Creation of Human Life
“Then the lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7)
Qur’an Quotes - Origin of Human Life
“You (humans) were lifeless, and He gave you life” (Qur’an 2:28)
“O Mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from these two has spread abroad a multitude of men and women” (Surah 4:1)
Qur’an Quote - Value of the World / Stewardship
“It is He who made you successors on the Earth” (Qur’an 6:165)
“It is to God that everything in the heavens and Earth belongs: God is fully aware of all things” (Qur’an 4:126)
Bible Quote - Dominion / Animals
“Everything that lives and moves about you will be food for you” (Genesis 9:3)
“The righteous care for the needs of their animals” (Proverbs 12:10)
“God blessed them and God said to them ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the Earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth” (Genesis 1:28)
Qur’an Quotes - Animals
“All creatures that crawl on the Earth and those that fly with their wings are communities like yourselves” (Qur’an 6:38)
“It is God who provides livestock for you, some for riding and some for your food; you have other benefits in them too” (Qur’an 40:79)
Bible Quotes - Value of the World / Stewardship
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31)
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15)
Qur’an Quote - Sanctity of Life
“… do not take life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus do as He command you, that you may learn wisdom” (Qur’an 6:151)
Bible Quote - Sanctity of Life
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16)
Bible Quotes - Abortion
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5)
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14)
Qur’an Quote - Abortion
“Do not kill your children for fear of poverty - we shall provide for them and for you - killing them is a great sin” (Qur’an 17:31)
Bible Quote - Euthanasia
“… all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16)
Qur’an Quote - Euthanasia
“No soul may die except with God’s permission at a predestined time” (Qur’an 3:145)
Bible Quotes - Afterlife
“Wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death and mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4)
“The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever. There will be no rest day or night” (Revelation 14:11)
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Qur’an Quotes - Afterlife
“Gardens of pleasure” (Qur’an 31:8)
“For one whose scales are heavy with good deeds, he will be in a pleasant life… for one whose scales are light, his refuge will be abyss” (Qur’an 101:6-9)
Bible Quotes - Nature of God
“But will God indeed dwell on the Earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:1-4)
Qur’an Quotes - Nature of God
“Your God is but one God. There is no god other than Him, Compassionate and Merciful” (Surah 2:163)
“O Messenger, say: ‘He is God, the One, the God Who is free of need for all things and of Whom all beings stand in need. No one is His offspring, and He is not the offspring of anyone, and He has no like or parallel” (Surah 112:1-4)
“Pure and exalted is thy Lord, God the Powerful and Unique, Who is pure of what men in their ignorance ascribe to Him” (Surah 37:180)
The Lord’s Covenant With Abram (Bible Quote)
Genesis 15:1-6
1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.”
Peter’s Vision (Bible Quote)
Acts 10:9-16
13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
Saul’s Conversion (Bible Quote)
Acts 9:1-19
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone
