Wjec Religious Studies A Level

Front 1

Explain why the belief in miracles may be
challenged
(30 marks)

Front 2

"Belief in miracles is essential for a
religious believer"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 3

Examine what philosophers mean by the term
'miracle'
(30 marks)

Front 4

"No definition of miracle is accurate"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 5

Examine religious views of the origins of human

life
(30 marks)

Front 6

"Religious and scientific views of the origins of
human life are incompatible"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 7

Examine the differences between religious and scientific accounts of the origins of the universe
(30 marks)

Front 8

"Religious and scientific views of the origins of
the universe cannot be reconciled"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 9

"Arguments against miracles are convincing"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 10

Define Violation

Front 11

Define Volition

Front 12

Define fixity of species

Front 13

Define Old Earth Creationism

Front 14

Define Young Earth Creationism

Front 15

Define Everlasting God

Front 16

Define Timeless God

Front 17

Define ex nihilo

Back 17

- the Latin word for 'out of nothing'

- e.g. "he created a paradise ex nihilo"

Front 18

Define continuous creation

Back 18

- the theory that matter is being continually being created in the universe

Front 19

Define immanent

Back 19

- present within and throughout creation

Front 20

Define irreducible complexity

Front 21

Define evolution

Front 22

Define Genus Homo

Back 22

- the time when humans as we know them appeared

- any member of the genus (including extinct and modern humans) appeared

Front 23

Define Homo Floresiensis

Back 23

- a species of the genus homo

- found in Flores, Indonesia

- nicknamed 'Hobbit' due to its small body and small brain space inside the skull

Front 24

Define Homo Neanderthal

Back 24

- a species of the genus homo

Front 25

Define transcendent

Back 25

- beyond ordinary experience

Front 26

Define Anthropic Principle

Front 27

Explain the problems of religious language
(30 marks)

Back 27

- religious lang is logically odd and contradictory to our human knowledge, seemingly metaphysical (abstract) ideas confuse us e.g. Virgin Birth, timeless God

- our human worldly language is inadequate to express God or his work

- we end up anthropomorphising Him e.g. "God's guiding hand" and how can we say that when we cannot know anything about Him?

- VIENNA CIRCLE: unless a statement is able to be tested then it is meaningless

- is RL meaningful? - verification principle whether statements are analytic or synthetic

- AYER: all non-verifiable RL is non-cognitive, no better than emotive utterances and meaningless

- POPPER: falsification principle, if something can be proven wrong then the statement is meaningful, parable of the garden.

- FLEW: adopted this with the parable of the jungle - allow your statement to be falsified otherwise if you try and qualify it continually you lose its meaning

- univocal lang, same word and same meaning "God loves you" "Karen loves you", are these the same thing? By that logic, Karen is God?

- equivocal lang, same word and different meaning "Sam is loving" "God is loving", equivocally means two different things - but this means that nothing would ever be said because nothing compares, can't falsify or verify

Front 28

Determine how far the problems with religious language have been overcome by philosophers
(20 marks)

Front 29

Explain the concepts of religious language as:
- analogy and
- symbol
(30 marks)

Front 30

"Religious language can be understood only by
believers"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 31

Explain how the principles of verification and
falsification challenge the meaningfulness of
religious language
(30 marks)

Front 32

"The verification and falsification principles are
convincing arguments against the
meaningfulness of religious language"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 33

"The problems of religious language have not
been overcome"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 34

"Religious language is meaningless"
Assess this view (20 marks)

Front 35

Define Omnipotent

Back 35

- having unlimited power

- e.g. "God is omnipotent"

Front 36

Define Anthropomorphising

Back 36

- to give something human qualities that is not human

- e.g. in this case, God

- e.g. "the hand of God guided me"

How can we give God these qualities when we cannot even begin to know him?

Front 37

Define Verification

Back 37

- proving that something is true

Front 38

Define analytic

Back 38

- true or false by definition

- e.g. 1+1=2, all cats are cats

Front 39

Define synthetic

Back 39

- true or false through research

- e.g. Hannah has brown eyes, there are three cars on the drive

Front 40

Define Cognitively

Back 40

- based on fact

- true or false

Front 41

Define non-cognitive

Back 41

- a statement is not true or false

- AYER said these non-cognitive statements at best are 'emotive utterances'

- because all unverifiable religious language is meaningless

Front 42

Define falsification

Back 42

- proving something is false

Front 43

Define qualify

Back 43

- to modify, change or limit

- rather than just accepting a flawed argument

- you try to QUALIFY it and end up changing your original statement

FLEW

Front 44

Define univocally

Back 44

- same word with the same meaning

- e.g. football is a game and rugby is a game
- e.g. God is wise and Karen is wise

This is problem because does wise mean the same thing here or does it imply Karen is equally as wise as God is.

Front 45

Define equivocal

Back 45

- same word with a different meaning

- e.g. football is game and pheasant is game
- e.g. God is loving and Sam is loving

So loving here means two different things and shows the difference between God and Sam's love. The problem here is it is too broad, we would never be able to say anything because nothing compares, and we cannot falsify or prove it.

Front 46

Define analogy

Back 46

- comparison between two things

Front 47

Define attribute

Back 47

- a quality

- something you can have or lack

Front 48

Define finite

Back 48

- limited in size or extent

- has a beginning and an end

Front 49

Define symbols

Back 49

- something physical that represents something non physical

- e.g. a cross represents my faith, the union jack represents Britain

Front 50

Define arbitrarily

Back 50

- something that is determined by judgement or whim and not for any specific reason or rule

- basically, something random

Front 51

Define eschatological verification

Back 51

- confirmation of religious beliefs at the end times

Front 52

How can religious language be contradictory?

Front 53

How can religious language be puzzling?

Front 54

How might religious language be inadequate?

Front 55

What is anthropomorphism in relation to God?

Front 56

What does Hume view as meaningful?

Front 57

Summarise strong verification

Front 58

Summarise weak verification

Front 59

Summarise the implications of religious
language.

Front 60

Summarise Flew's falsification principle

Front 61

What are the implications of religious language
from Flew?

Front 62

What is analogical language?

Front 63

Summarise Aquinas' analogy of attribution.

Front 64

Summarise Aquinas' analogy of proportionality.

Front 65

Summarise Ramsey's models and qualifiers.

Front 66

Summarise Tillich's understanding of religious
language as symbolic.

Front 67

Summarise Wittgenstein's understanding of
religious language.

Front 68

Summarise D.Z. Phillips understanding of
religious language.