Philosophy, Ethics and Religion (RE/RS) Unit 3

The Ten commandments-the most useful:
-You shall not murder;
-You shall not commit adultery;
-You shall not steal;
-You shall not lie;
-Do not be jealous of your neighbours possesions.

Jesus' Command : Love your neighbour. Do unto others as you would have done to yourself.

Parables
The Good Samaritan (loving others): This is about a man who was robbed and the man who helps him was a samaritan-his enemy. THe message is that you should help any one who needs it-enemy or not. Not helping shows your lack of humanity and lack of care and concern for anyone but yourself.
The Sheep and Goats (life after death): Jesus divided those who go the heaven (if they helped others) and those who go to hell (do not help others). The message is that you will be judged in the afterlife according to how you lived your life on earth and if you helped people or not.
The Unforgiving Servant (forgiving others): The message is to forgive people from your heart, if you do not then you cannot expect forgiveness yourself.

The Sermon on the Mount - Jesus' Sermon on Life:
- Do good things in life                                                      - Keep Promises
- Do not break the lawn                                                    - Help others
- Settle problems before they get out of hand                  - Do not retaliate to violence
- Do not take life                                                                - Do not hate people
- Treat Marriage with respect and be faithful                   - Give to the needy - but not for attention

Other Beliefs:

• Your body is a temple - do not abuse it
• The love of money is the root of all evil - you become greedy and obsessed and this leads to evil
• Compassion - show care and concern for others
• Charity - give money or your time to help others
• Sanctity of life - life is precious and special as it is God given
• Heaven and hell - on the day of judgement the soul will be judged, believers will go to heaven with God, non believers to hell
• The bible is a sacred writing
• The Pope (Catholic) and Archbishop (Church of England) are religious leaders
• Conscience : For believers this is a voice of God, telling you what is right or wrong.

The Buddha is not thought of as a god but as an enlightened human being.

The Eightfold path - 8 steps for people to follow, the word 'right' means the 'best possible', the most useful are:

• Right Intention-try to do good things, even difficult things can be done with the right intention
• Right Speech-Do not tell lies or gossip
• Right Action-Do not kill, hurt others, lie, steal, misuse sex, take drugs or alcohol
• Right Livelihood-Do not have a job that hurts others (including animals)

The 5 precepts - these help follow Right Action:

• Do not kill or harm any living thing
• Do not take what is not yours
• Do not misuse sex
• Do not tell lies
• Do not take drugs or alcohol

Suffering - all life involves suffering. This suffering is caused by three 'poisens'

• Ignorance, Greed, Hatred
• The cure for suffering is to get rid of ignorance, greed and hatred
• Buddhists can achieve this by following the Eightfold path

Other beliefs

• Samsara - this is the cycle of birth, death and rebirth
• Nirvana - the aim for a Buddhist is to become free of the cycle of samsara and to enter nirvana, the peace beyond suffering
• Karma - Good actions = good karma, Bad actions=bad karma
• Merit - gained by practising good actions such as volunteering
• Meditation - to empty the mind of all thoughts, so that ignorance, greed and anger are replaced by peace and tranquillity
• Dharma - duty in life