Beliefs, Teachings and Practices (Christianity, Islam, Non-Religious)

Three answers to one question

Unit 1 asks how beliefs shape the way people understand identity, meaning and what happens after death. Underneath all of those sits one question: what is a human being? Christians, Muslims and non-religious people give different answers, and each answer rests on what that worldview says about God, or about whether there is a God at all. Christians believe humans are made by God in the image of God, with a soul that is eternal. Muslims believe the soul is created by Allah and breathed into each person, as it was into Adam. Many non-religious people, including humanists, believe there is no soul, that death is the end of a person, and that this gives the one life we have its value. This module sets those answers side by side, with the teachings about God that each rests on. As in the rest of Religious Studies, the aim is to describe each view accurately and in its own terms, and to give reasons on more than one side, never to rule on which is true.

Five words for this topic

Three of these describe God, one names what many believers say makes a person, and one names what Muslims hold to be the most serious sin.

Match each source to its teaching

A request for a painting

A Muslim artist is asked to paint a picture of Allah for a school display about beliefs. Which response best fits Islamic teaching?

• Declines, explaining that nothing is like Allah, so any picture would be false and could lead towards shirk
• Paints Allah as a mighty king, to show that He is all-powerful
• Agrees, as long as the painting is respectful
• Paints Allah as a bright light, since light is not a person

One God, described two ways

Christians and Muslims are both monotheists: each believes in one God. They describe that one God differently, and the differences shape what each says about human beings.

Spot the two misdescriptions

Six statements about Christian and Muslim beliefs about God. Tap the TWO that describe a belief wrongly.

• Christians believe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate gods.
• Muslims believe Allah is beyond the universe and also close to every person.
• Christians believe God made the universe out of nothing.
• Muslims use pictures of Allah to help them focus in prayer.
• Both Christians and Muslims describe God as all-powerful and all-knowing.
• Muslims come to know Allah through qualities named in the Quran.

The line of the prophets

Muslims believe Allah has guided humanity through prophets. Put these in order, earliest first.

• Adam, the first human, given a soul and made the first prophet
• Ibrahim, who turned from idols to worship the one God
• Isa, a prophet of Allah, known to Christians as Jesus
• Muhammad receives the Quran from Allah through the angel Jibril
• The revelation is complete, and Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets

Three answers about the soul

Christian teaching: humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and when God breathes life into the first human (Genesis 2:7) Christians see a divine spark from God in every person. The soul is eternal and transcendent, and humans have reason and free will, though Christians believe humanity has fallen through disobedience (Genesis 3). Muslim teaching: the soul originates from Allah and is His creation, breathed into each human being, as it was into Adam (Quran 32:7-9). Non-religious perspectives: many non-religious people, including humanists, believe there is no soul, that death is the end of existence, and that there is no future reward or punishment. Many add that this is significant, because a life that is the only one a person will have is worth making the most of, now. Notice the pattern: each view on what a person is follows from a view on whether, and how, God made them.

Two reasons a life matters

Choose the option in each gap to explain how a Christian and a humanist can both value human life.

The beliefs run

Five quick questions on God and the soul across the three worldviews. Three lives.

A museum of thunder

A museum is putting together a display on how people across history have explained thunder. The curator writes each label in the words its own culture used: for some a god at work in the sky, for others a clash of cold and warm air. She never adds a line saying which explanation is right, because the display exists to show how each made sense to the people who held it, and what followed from it in the way they lived. Visitors leave knowing more about all of them, able to compare them carefully, and free to make up their own minds.

Complete the key beliefs

Muslims believe Allah is one, a belief called _____, and that associating partners with Him, called _____, is the most serious sin. Christians believe in one God known in three persons, the _____. Many humanists believe death is the _____ of existence for a person.

What would a humanist reject?

Choose the TWO beliefs that a humanist would not hold.

• The soul is breathed into each person by God
• There will be a judgement with reward or punishment after death
• Death is the end of existence for a person
• People should make the most of the one life they have
• A good life is one lived ethically and responsibly

Build a fair display

Your Religious Studies group is making a display called "What is a human being?". Work through three decisions about what goes on it.

• A classmate has drafted a panel that says "Muslims believe in the Trinity." The display goes up tomorrow. What do you do?
• The humanist panel reads "Humanists think life is meaningless because there is no afterlife." You have time to fix one line. What do you change it to?
• The group now needs a heading for the panel that sets all three views side by side. Which do you choose?

Discuss the value of a life

"Belief in a soul makes human life more valuable." Discuss this statement, showing that you have considered more than one point of view. Refer to Christian, Muslim and non-religious perspectives, attribute every view, and reach a reasoned conclusion.

• Christian teaching on the soul, with a source such as Genesis 1:27 or 2:7
• Muslim teaching that the soul is created by Allah, with Quran 32:7-9
• A non-religious view that this one life is what gives it value
• Where the views agree that human life matters
• A reasoned conclusion that attributes every view