GCSE Religious Studies

Believing in God Key Words

Agnosticism - Not being sure wheter 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 humans 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 whcih causes suffering.
Natural Evil - Things whcih 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.

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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 dyring 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 a good reason for thinking they would want you to do it
Paranormal - Unexplained things which are though to have spiritual causes e.g. Ghosts, Mediums
Quality of Life - The idea that life must have some benefits for it to be woth living
Reincarnation - The belief that, after death, souls are reborn into a new body
Resurrection - The belief that, after death, the body stays in the grave until the end of the world when it is rised
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

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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 husbund and wife
Cohabitation - Living together without being married
Contraception - Intentionally preventing pregnancy from occurring
Faithfulness - Staying with your marriage partner and have sex only with them
Homosexuality - Sexuaol attraction towards the same sex
Nuclear Fmily - 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

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Communtiy Cohesion - A common vision and shared sense of belonging for all groups in society.
Discrimination - Treating people less favourably because of their ethinical/gender/colour/sexuality/age/class
Ethnic Minority - A memeber of an ethnic group (race) which much smaller than the majority group
Interfaith Marriages - A marriage in which the husbund and wife are from different religions
Multi-Ethnic Soceity - Many religons together living 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
Relgious Pluralism - Accepting all religons as having an equal right to coexist
Sexism - Discriminating against people because of their gender (being male or female)

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