Religion and Society Key Terms

Rights and Responsibilities
1. Pressure group: a group formed to influence government policy on a particular issue.
2. Democratic processes: the ways in which all citizens can take part on government (usually through elections).
3. Moral decision: when deciding what is the right or wrong thing to do.
4. Decalogue: the 10 Commandments
5. Electoral processes: the ways in which voting is organised.
6. Bible: the holy book of Christians on which the teachings of their religion is based.
7. Human Rights: the rights and freedoms to which everyone is entitled.
8. Social change: the way in which society has changed and is changing.
9. Political party: a group which tries to be elected into power on its policies.
10. Golden Rule: the teaching of Jesus that you should treat others as you would like them to treat you.
11. Conscience: an inner feeling of rightness or wrongness of an action.
12. Situation ethics: the idea that Christians should base moral decisions on what is the most loving thing to do.
13. Church: the community of Christians which gives modern advice on how to live a good Christian life.
14. church: a Christian place of worship.
Environmental and Medical Issues
1. Global warming: the increase in the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere (thought to be caused by the greenhouse effect).
2. Natural resources: naturally occurring materials, such as timber, which can be used by humans.
3. Conservation: careful use of resources to protect the environment for future generations.
4. Creation: the act of creating the universe, or the universe which has been created.
5. Environment: the surroundings in which plants and animals live and on which their lives depend on.
6. Stewardship: looking after the environment and its animals so it can be passed on to the next generation.
7. Shari'ah: Islamic law.
8. Animal Rights: Fundamental necessities that an animal needs to live.
9. Khalifahs: Islamic law to stewardship - we should protect Allah's environment.
10. Artificial insemination: injecting semen into the uterus by artificial means.
11. Embryo: a fertilised egg in the first 8 weeks after conception.
12. Infertility: not being able to have children.
13. In-vitro fertilisation (IVF): the method of fertilising a human egg in a test tube.
14. Surrogacy: where a women bears a child for another woman or where an egg is donated and fertilised by the man IVF + then implanted into the uterus.
15. Organ donation: giving organs to be used in transplant surgery.
Peace and Conflict
1. Conflict resolution: bringing a fight or struggle to a peaceful conclusion.
2. The UN: an international body set up to promote world peace and co-operation.
3. World peace: the ending of war throughout the whole world (the basic aim of the UN).
4. Aggression: attacking without being provoked.
5. Exploitation: taking advantage of a weaker group.
6. Just war: a war that is fought for the right reasons and in a right way.
7. Pacifism: the belief that all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.
8. Weapons of mass destruction: armaments which can destroy large areas and numbers of people (usually nuclear).
9. Bullying: intimidating/frightening people weaker than yourself.
10. Respect: treating a person or their feelings with consideration.
11. Forgiveness: when you stop blaming someone and/or pardoning them for what they have done wrong.
12. Reconciliation: bringing together people who were opposed to each other.
Crime and Punishment
1. Crime: an act against the law.
2. Judgement: the act of judging people and their actions.
3. Justice: due allocation of reward and punishment/the maintenance of what is right.
4. Law: rules made by Parliament and enforceable by the courts.
5. Capital punishment: the death penalty for a crime or offence.
6. Deterrence: the idea tha punishment should be of such a nature that it will deter people from committing crimes.
7. Rehabilitation: restore to normal life.
8. Reform: the idea that punishments should try to change criminals so they will not commit crimes again.
9. Retribution: the idea that punishments should make criminals pay for what they have done wrong.
10. Sin: an act against the will of God.
11. Addiction: a recurring compulsion to engage in an activity regardless of its bad effects.
12. Responsibility: being responsible for one's actions.
13. Scared authority: authority based on religious teachings eg. the 10 Commandments.
14. Secular authority: non-religious law.
15. Hadith: teachings based on Muhammad's actions.
16. Civil law: disputes between individuals (eg, divorce).
17. Criminal law: a crime breaking the law of the land.
18. Protection: criminals being removed from society for the safeguarding of society and themselves.
19. Shari'ah: Islamic law based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

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	Created by 09hicksedw over 11 years ago