Theist, atheist, agnostic

Start with the three words CCEA names.

• Theist — believes God exists.
• Atheist — believes God does not exist.
• Agnostic — holds that we cannot know whether God exists.

Precision: an agnostic is not simply 'unsure'. The claim is about knowledge — that the evidence does not settle the question either way.

Definitions

The First Cause argument (Aquinas)

Thomas Aquinas argued that everything that exists has a cause; the chain of causes cannot go back forever; therefore there must be a First Cause that was not itself caused — and this, he said, is God.

• Strength — it matches the intuition that things do not simply pop into existence uncaused.
• Weakness — if everything needs a cause, what caused God? And if God can be uncaused, why not the universe?
• Science — the Big Bang describes how the universe began expanding; believers may say it does not explain why there is anything at all.

Paley

The design argument (Paley)

William Paley imagined finding a watch on a heath. Its intricate parts working together for a purpose would force you to conclude it had a designer. The universe, he argued, shows the same marks of design — so it too has a designer: God.

• Strength — the order and fine balance of nature are striking and demand explanation.
• Weakness — evolution by natural selection explains apparent design without a designer; and a designed world contains parasites, disease and disasters.
• Hume-style objections: the universe is not really much like a watch, and one universe is not enough of a sample to reason from.

Which idea belongs where?

Tap a card, then tap the topic it belongs to.

Religious experience and morality

The argument from religious experience: people across history report encountering God — in visions, in answered prayer, in miracles, in a sense of presence. If so many sincere people report it, perhaps they are experiencing something real.

• Challenges CCEA names: hallucination, wish-fulfilment, and lack of evidence — plus the fact that experiences from different religions conflict.

The moral argument: we all sense that some things are genuinely right or wrong; that objective moral law needs a lawgiver — God. Challenge: morality can be explained by evolution, society and empathy, and atheists behave morally.

First Cause

Creationism, science, and the place of humanity

CCEA asks for creation stories from two world religions, for those religions' view of humanity's place in the created order, and for the scientific account. Learn all three.

• Judaism and Christianity — Genesis. God creates an ordered world by speaking, over six 'days', and rests on the seventh. Humanity is made last, and made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Human beings are placed in the garden "to till it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15). The 'dominion' given in Genesis 1:28 is understood by most Jews and Christians today as stewardship — responsible care on God's behalf — not a licence to exploit.
• Islam. God creates the heavens and the earth in six periods, purposefully and by his command — creation is not an accident. Humanity is God's khalifah (steward or trustee) on earth, entrusted with it and answerable for how it is treated. The natural world is a sign pointing to its Creator.
• Science. The Big Bang describes a universe expanding from an extremely hot, dense beginning around 13.8 billion years ago. Evolution by natural selection (Darwin) explains the diversity of living things over time.

The debate itself — set out the range:

• Young-earth creationists read Genesis literally and reject the scientific timescale.
• Many believers accept the science fully and argue that it answers how, while religion answers why — God may create through the Big Bang and evolution.
• Many atheists argue that once science explains the origin and the diversity of life, God has no explanatory work left to do.

The mark-earning move: do not write "religion says X, science says Y". Both religions above contain believers who accept evolution and believers who do not. Say which believers hold which view, and why.

Describing God

Learn these words exactly — CCEA lists them.

• Omnipotent — all-powerful. Omniscient — all-knowing. Omnipresent — everywhere. Omnibenevolent — all-loving.
• Transcendent — beyond and outside the universe. Immanent — present and active within it.
• Knowable and unknowable.
• Monotheism — belief in one God (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Polytheism — belief in many gods.

Contrasting beliefs about God's nature (CCEA asks for these):

• Personal (a God who can be addressed, who loves and judges) versus impersonal (an ultimate reality or ground of being rather than a 'someone').
• Transcendent emphasis (God is wholly other — stressed in Islam and Judaism, where God is beyond image) versus immanent emphasis (God present and active within the world — stressed in Christian belief in the incarnation).
• Knowable (God has revealed himself and can be genuinely known) versus unknowable (human language and minds are simply too small; we can say what God is not more safely than what God is).

Where the tension lies: the four 'omni' words are exactly what makes the problem of evil so sharp.

Evil and suffering

The problem of evil and suffering

Distinguish clearly:

• Moral evil — suffering caused by human choices (cruelty, war).
• Natural suffering — caused by nature (earthquake, disease).

The challenge: if God is all-powerful he could stop it; if all-loving he would want to; suffering exists — so either God is not as described, or God does not exist.

Religious responses (CCEA asks for two religions):

• Christianity — free will: genuine love requires the freedom to choose wrongly. Suffering can build character. God shares human suffering in the cross. Job shows that not every 'why' is answered.
• Islam — life is a test (a central Qurʾanic theme); justice is completed in akhirah, the life after death.

Key terms

Tap a term on the left, then its meaning on the right.

General and special revelation

Revelation is God making himself known.

• General revelation — available to everyone: through the natural world, conscience, and reason.
• Special revelation — a direct, particular disclosure: a vision, a miracle, a prophetic encounter, the sacred text.

CCEA also asks how believers experience God through sacred texts, through religious leaders and religious example, and through worship — and whether revelation can actually produce faith, or only confirm it.

The syllabus names three kinds of example — learn one of each:

• Answered and unanswered prayer. Believers point to prayers that were answered as evidence of a God who listens. But the unanswered prayer is the harder and more interesting case: the prayer of a parent beside a dying child. Believers respond that God is not a vending machine, that "no" and "not yet" are answers, and that prayer is chiefly about being changed rather than about getting. Critics reply that a God who answers some and not others looks arbitrary — and that answered prayers are simply the ones that would have happened anyway.
• Miracles — events taken to break the natural order and reveal God's power. Hume's objection is that it is always more likely that the witness was mistaken than that the laws of nature were suspended.
• Visions — direct disclosures to individuals, from Moses at the bush to modern reports. Challenged as hallucination, wish-fulfilment, or lacking independent evidence.

Revelation

Life after death

CCEA asks for two world religions' views, plus non-religious views.

• Christianity / Islam — resurrection and final judgement: the person is raised and judged.
• Hinduism / Buddhism — reincarnation or rebirth, shaped by karma.
• Non-religious views — death is the end; the 'soul' is a way of talking about mind and personality, which cease with the brain.

Possible 'proofs': near-death experiences and claims to remember past lives. Both are contested — they may be real, or may be explained by the dying brain, by suggestion or by cultural expectation.

How the belief changes how people live — CCEA asks for this explicitly, and it is the bullet most often missed:

• Resurrection and judgement (Christianity, Islam): this life is a test and nothing is hidden, so every act matters — which motivates honesty, charity and courage, and gives hope to the persecuted, who will not be cheated of justice. Critics object that doing good for fear of hell is not really goodness.
• Reincarnation and karma (Hinduism, Buddhism): actions shape a future life, so a believer takes moral responsibility seriously and may practise non-violence and detachment. Critics object that karma can be used to justify inequality — blaming the suffering for their own past lives.
• No afterlife (many atheists and humanists): this life is the only one, which some argue makes it more precious, not less — a reason to relieve suffering now rather than defer justice to a world to come.

Evaluation: a strong answer notices that all three positions claim to motivate good living, and asks which does so for the best reasons.

Judgement

Arguing philosophically

Unit 7 questions ask for strengths, weaknesses and evidence. Build every answer like this:

• State the argument accurately, with its name and the thinker (Aquinas, Paley).
• Explain how it works, step by step.
• Give a strength and a specific weakness.
• Bring in the scientific or non-religious response — the Big Bang, evolution, hallucination, wish-fulfilment.
• Judge: does the argument prove God, make God probable, or fail? Say which, and why.

Almost no philosopher claims these arguments prove God beyond doubt. Saying they make belief reasonable — or that they do not — is a more defensible line, and examiners reward that care.

The big ideas to know

You have covered the five content areas of CCEA Unit 7. Press Finish to see your score.