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RE UNIT 2
Edexcel RE Unit 2 Key Terms
Term | Definition |
---|---|
agnosticism | not being sure whether God exists |
atheism | believing that God does not exist |
conversion | when your life is changed by giving yourself to God |
free will | the idea that human beings are free to make their own choices |
miracle | something which seems to break a law of science and makes you think only God could have done it |
moral evil | actions done by humans which cause suffering |
natural evil | things which cause suffering but have nothing to do with humans |
numinous | the feeling of the presence of something greater than you |
omni-benevolent | the belief that God is all-good |
omnipotent | the belief that God is all-powerful |
omniscient | the belief that God knows everything that has happened and everything that is going to happen |
prayer | an attempt to contact God, usually through words |
abortion | the removal of a foetus from the womb before it can survive |
assisted suicide | providing a seriously ill person with the means to commit suicide |
euthanasia | the painless killing of someone dying from a painful disease |
immortality of the soul | the idea that the soul lives on after the death of the body |
near-death experience | when someone about to die has an out-of-body experience |
non-voluntary euthanasia | ending someone’s life painlessly when they are unable to ask, but you have good reason for thinking they would want you to do so |
paranormal | unexplained things which are thought to have spiritual causes, for example, ghosts, mediums |
quality of life | the idea that life must have some benefits for it to be worth living |
reincarnation | the belief that, after death, souls are reborn in a new body |
resurrection | the belief that, after death, the body stays in the grave until the end of the world, when it is raised |
sanctity of life | the belief that life is holy and belongs to God |
voluntary euthanasia | ending life painlessly when someone in great pain asks for death |
adultery | a sexual act between a married person and someone other than their marriage partner |
civil partnership | a legal ceremony giving a homosexual couple the same legal rights as a husband and wife |
cohabitation | living together without being married |
contraception | intentionally preventing pregnancy from occurring |
faithfulness | staying with your marriage partner and having sex only with them |
homosexuality | sexual attraction to the same sex |
nuclear family | mother, father and children living as a unit |
pre-marital sex | sex before marriage |
procreation | making a new life |
promiscuity | having sex with a number of partners without commitment |
re-constituted family | where two sets of children (stepbrothers and stepsisters) become one family when their divorced parents marry each other |
re-marriage | marrying again after being divorced from a previous marriage |
community cohesion | a common vision and shared sense of belonging for all groups in society |
discrimination | treating people less favourably because of their ethnicity/gender/ colour/sexuality/age/class |
ethnic minority | a member of an ethnic group (race) which is much smaller than the majority group |
interfaith marriages | marriage where the husband and wife are from different religions |
multi-ethnic society | many different races and cultures living together in one society |
multi-faith society | many different religions living together in one society |
prejudice | believing some people are inferior or superior without even knowing them |
racial harmony | different races/colours living together happily |
racism | the belief that some races are superior to others |
religious freedom | the right to practise your religion and change your religion |
religious pluralism | accepting all religions as having an equal right to coexist |
sexism | discriminating against people because of their gender (being male or female) |
creationism | the belief that God created the world in genesis |
the big bang | ll the matter in the universe was concentrated into a single incredibly tiny point. This began to enlarge rapidly in a hot explosion (called the Big Bang) which happened 13.7 billion years ago |
causation | the belief that everything has a cause and an effect therefore the universe/big bang must have has a cause (God) |
design argument | the universe is too complex to just have 'happened' therefore there must have been a higher power behind it |
traditional marriage | a marriage in a church, with vows, the exchange of rings, a blessing from God, a bible reading and a sermon on the duties in a marriage |