1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. ‘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

5. ‘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

6. ‘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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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?

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

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

20. 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

21. 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