Religious Studies

Course summary

Religious Studies at Sedbergh School is all about big thinking. We support our students in discovering different ways of looking at things and help to facilitate them in their exploration into their own perspectives and ideas about big questions. We are a diverse, vibrant and passionate department who pride ourselves in going the extra mile for our pupils. We offer A Level RS in VI Form following the AQA Religious Studies specification- Philosophy, Ethics and Christianity and Dialogues. This is a popular choice for a range of candidates and we often have pupils pursuing RS at Degree Level through Philosophy and PPE. As with GCSE, there is no requirement for pupils to have studied RS or to have any religious belief. Paper 1: Section A: Philosophy of religion • Arguments for the existence of God • Evil and suffering • Religious experience • Religious language • Miracles • Self and life after death. Section B: Ethics and Religion • Ethical theories • Issues of human life and death • Issues of animal life and death • Introduction to meta-ethics • Free will and moral responsibility • Conscience • Bentham and Kant. Paper 2: Section A: Study of religion – Christianity: • Sources of wisdom and authority • God/gods/ultimate reality • Self, death and the afterlife • Good conduct and key moral principles • Expression of religious identity • Religion, gender and sexuality • Religion and science • Religion and secularisation • Religion and religious pluralism. Section B: The dialogue between philosophy of religion and religion. • How religion is influenced by, and has an influence on philosophy of religion in relation to the issues studied. Section C: The dialogue between ethical studies and religion. • How religion is influenced by, and has an influence on ethical studies in relation to the issues studied.