How do you decide what to believe? 23-Sep-18 How do you decide what to believe? Get students to raise their hands to show which image they see, if they see both then they raise both hands The idea is that we all see the world differently If you want buy a pack of pom bears and give them one each. Ask the kids if they have a rabbit or bear Old woman Young woman

How do you decide what to believe? Get students to raise their hands to show which image they see, if they see both then they raise both hands The idea is that we all see the world differently If you want buy a pack of pom bears and give them one each. Ask the kids if they have a rabbit or bear Duck Rabbit

THERE IS ACTUALLY A FLAT EARTH SOCIETY! Is there anything we can know for certain? ‘The earth is a cube.’ THERE IS ACTUALLY A FLAT EARTH SOCIETY! Ask students how they know this picture is wrong. The should come up with ideas that link to science i.e. testing and observing This becomes important later in the lesson True False

‘It’s cruel to keep too many animals.’ Ask how students know this is right or wrong. Here the discussion is much more likely to be focused on how it makes them feel. True False

‘King Henry VIII married 6 times.’ Ask how the students how they know who he is, or how they know he was a king. Hopefully the discussion will start to include things they’ve studied on History. You could prompt them with things like books, his portraits, historical records etc. True False

‘If we are good in this life we will spend an eternity in paradise.’ As with slide 4 the idea here is likely to be because they just believe, or because of how they feel. This is absolutely fine True False

Truth, moral, scientific, historical, religious Different kinds of truth Objectives By the end of this lesson you should be able to… Describe different kinds of truths Choose which ‘truth’ is most important Question whether any truth can be considered always true Keywords Truth, moral, scientific, historical, religious

Through scientific evidence Through historical evidence The media Through scientific evidence Through historical evidence Think about which is the most important to you? How do you decide what to believe? Get them to do a spider-diagram first and then see if they got all the 6 above. The idea here is that we get our knowledge and beliefs from a wide variety of sources. When it asks which is most important students will place emphasis on different sources and that is what we want to highlight Teachers Through religious leaders and texts Through family and friends

There are different kinds of ‘truth’ How do we know what to believe and what should be considered to be true? There are different kinds of ‘truth’ Historical truth: Something is considered to be true because there are historical records that thing is true. The more evidence there is for something then the more likely it is we’ll believe it. Scientific truth: Science attempts to prove things through observations and tests. The more tests and observations that are done make the data even more reliable. Moral truth: This is the idea that some actions are right or wrong and that is a ‘true’ way in which humans should act. Religious/spiritual truth: This means that you consider something is true or false because of your religious and or spiritual beliefs. You might want to delete the sentences and just have the titles and talk through them

What does this picture show? Can you think of an argument using scientific ‘truth’ to claim that the Loch Ness monster is real? Can you now try and think of an argument using historical ‘truths’ to prove the same thing? The idea of this is that different ‘truths’ are proved in different ways. You might just want to show the picture and ask the students to imagine they’re a scientist who has been tasked with proving the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. How would they do it? Some ideas that have come up have been: Drain the lake (taken from the Simpsons) Submarine Cameras Etc These all show scientific principles of doing tests and looking for evidence Historical : you might ask the students how a historian might find if Nessie is real? More difficult, but can you think of a religious or moral way of arguing its existence? IMPORTANT: You don’t have to believe the ‘truth’, this is just an exercise to see how people might use these methods to justify their belief in something.

The Romans came to Britain In pairs try to come up with a statement you could say is a truth that relates to historical , scientific, moral and religious. You don’t have to believe these statements but you’ll have to explain how someone might believe it using these ideas. Historical Scientific Moral Religious The Romans came to Britain Historical and scientific: The more evidence confirming the more likely it is to be true Moral and religious is more difficult. Explain it’s about how we feel about right and wrong, good and bad, our beliefs/faith It’s more difficult to prove and we might feel differently form other people but that doesn’t make it any less important to us.

Different kinds of truth For each of the following write your own definition of the term and then give an example. Religious truth: When you believe something is true because of your religious views e.g. God exists Moral truth: Scientific truth: Historical truth: Which type of truth do you think is the most reliable and why?

We are going to play the LEFT, RIGHT, BACK game Religious Historical Truth Moral Truth Students stand up and put their chairs under. Explain that you will show them a statement and then you will ask them to cover their eyes. When everyone has dome tis tell them to turn in the direction they think the statement is. This is a quick way of showing how many people have understood the ideas in the lesson. Stay facing forward if it’s a religious truth (explain a religious truth for some people, not everyone agrees on what is true about religion, as they don’t about science, history or anything else) Turn right if it’s an example of moral (right and wrong) Left if historical Backwards if scientific Some can be more than one Scientific Truth

Henry VIII had six wives Religious Students stand up and put their chairs under. Explain that you will show them a statement and then you will ask them to cover their eyes. When everyone has dome tis tell them to turn in the direction they think the statement is. This is a quick way of showing how many people have understood the ideas in the lesson. Stay facing forward if it’s a religious truth (explain a religious truth for some people, not everyone agrees on what is true about religion, as they don’t about science, history or anything else) Turn right if it’s an example of moral (right and wrong) Left if historical Backwards if scientific Some can be more than one Historical Moral Scientific

It is wrong to bully Religious Historical Moral Scientific Students stand up and put their chairs under. Explain that you will show them a statement and then you will ask them to cover their eyes. When everyone has dome tis tell them to turn in the direction they think the statement is. This is a quick way of showing how many people have understood the ideas in the lesson. Stay facing forward if it’s a religious truth (explain a religious truth for some people, not everyone agrees on what is true about religion, as they don’t about science, history or anything else) Turn right if it’s an example of moral (right and wrong) Left if historical Backwards if scientific Some can be more than one Historical Moral Scientific

We go to heaven when we die Religious Students stand up and put their chairs under. Explain that you will show them a statement and then you will ask them to cover their eyes. When everyone has dome tis tell them to turn in the direction they think the statement is. This is a quick way of showing how many people have understood the ideas in the lesson. Stay facing forward if it’s a religious truth (explain a religious truth for some people, not everyone agrees on what is true about religion, as they don’t about science, history or anything else) Turn right if it’s an example of moral (right and wrong) Left if historical Backwards if scientific Some can be more than one Historical Moral Scientific

The Earth is a sphere demonstrate Religious Historical Moral Students stand up and put their chairs under. Explain that you will show them a statement and then you will ask them to cover their eyes. When everyone has dome tis tell them to turn in the direction they think the statement is. This is a quick way of showing how many people have understood the ideas in the lesson. Stay facing forward if it’s a religious truth (explain a religious truth for some people, not everyone agrees on what is true about religion, as they don’t about science, history or anything else) Turn right if it’s an example of moral (right and wrong) Left if historical Backwards if scientific Some can be more than one Historical Moral Scientific

Stealing is wrong demonstrate Religious Historical Moral Scientific Students stand up and put their chairs under. Explain that you will show them a statement and then you will ask them to cover their eyes. When everyone has dome tis tell them to turn in the direction they think the statement is. This is a quick way of showing how many people have understood the ideas in the lesson. Stay facing forward if it’s a religious truth (explain a religious truth for some people, not everyone agrees on what is true about religion, as they don’t about science, history or anything else) Turn right if it’s an example of moral (right and wrong) Left if historical Backwards if scientific Some can be more than one Historical Moral Scientific

The Great Fire of London was in 1666 Religious Historical Moral Scientific

Mohammed was Allah’s greatest prophet Religious Students stand up and put their chairs under. Explain that you will show them a statement and then you will ask them to cover their eyes. When everyone has dome tis tell them to turn in the direction they think the statement is. This is a quick way of showing how many people have understood the ideas in the lesson. Stay facing forward if it’s a religious truth (explain a religious truth for some people, not everyone agrees on what is true about religion, as they don’t about science, history or anything else) Turn right if it’s an example of moral (right and wrong) Left if historical Backwards if scientific Some can be more than one Historical Moral Scientific

On your Post-It note write IN 12 WORDS which of the truths you think is the most reliable. Has to be exactly 12 words, no more or less. This makes it competitive. When someone gets 12 get them to read it out slowly and count along with them