Aqa Gcse Religious Studies B. Miracles Key Teachings

Front 1

The miracle of the milk drinking statue

Back 1

Statues of the Hindu God Ganesha made milk disappear all over the world. The event was filmed and shown worldwide on television.

Front 2

Guru Nanak and the grazing buffalo

Back 2

When the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak was a boy his father sent him to graze the buffalo. Guru Nanak began to meditate and forgot to watch the buffalo and they ate all the crops in the next field. The farmer was angry and went to get Guru Nanak's father, but when he returned the crops were flourishing.

Front 3

Judaism. Joshua 10:13-14

Back 3

"So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!"

Front 4

Buddhist and Atheist views about God working in the world through miracles.

Back 4

Buddhists and Atheists do not believe in God so would agree that God does not work in the world through miracles. Buddhists do not reject the concepts of miracles but they do not think that God causes them.

Front 5

Christian beliefs about God working in the world through miracles

Back 5

Christians believe that God works in the world directly through miracles. They believe Jesus performed miracles that showed the power or love of God, or revealed that Jesus was God in human form.

Front 6

Hindu beliefs about God working in the world through miracles

Back 6

Hindus believe that miracles are the result of direct intervention by Brahman, but others are performed by the Gods in their many aspects of Brahman, such as Ganesha drinking milk.

Front 7

Hindu beliefs about humans performing miracles

Back 7

Hindus believe that through a positive attitude to life, it is possible to obtain some of the positive energy from the universe. When a Hindu achieves perfection they gain spiritual or mental powers. Hindus believe that miracles are actions of nature which are not understood fully by the observer.

Front 8

Christianbeliefs about humans performing miracles

Back 8

Humans can perform miracles but only because God works through them.

Front 9

Buddha tames an elephant

Back 9

Devadatta (the Buddha's cousin) released an elephant to try to kill the Buddha. A frightened woman accidentally dropped her baby in the path of the elephant. Before the elephant trampled the child the Buddha touched the elephant's forehead. The elephant stopped and became calm. It then knelt down before the Buddha.

Front 10

The birth of Krishna in Hinduism

Back 10

The king was told that the 8th son of his sister would grow up to kill him. He imprisoned his sister and killed her child each time she gave birth. When the 8th child was born, Vishnu appeared and told the husband to exchange the baby with a girl born at the same time. The prison doors opened to free him and the guards remained asleep. The river parted so that he could reach the palace and swap the children. When the king tried to kill the child, she flew up into the sky and became a Goddess.

Front 11

Example of a miracle from Christianity and Judaism

Back 11

Moses parted the Red Sea to aid the Hebrew slaves escape from Egypt.

Front 12

Miracles associated with Varanasi

Back 12

Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus. It is where the God Shiva is supposed to have lived, and has been the centre of religious teaching for centuries. Hindus bathe in the Ganges in the hope that their sins will be washed away or that they will be miraculously cured.

Front 13

The Angels of Mons

Back 13

In August 1914, a group of three angels appeared in the sky to protect the British army during the battle of Mons. Many soldiers were given hope and survived.

Front 14

The power of prayer to heal

Back 14

In 1995 a research project began to investigate the power of prayer to heal people. All 20 Aids patients received the same medical care, but psychic healers prayed for 10 of them. At the end of the 6 month study all of the patients prayed for were still alive and recovered faster.

Front 15

Christianity, John 3:16

Back 15

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Front 16

Christianity, Mark 3:22-26

Miracles can't be the work of the devil

Back 16

"How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come"

Front 17

David Hume's argument against miracles

Back 17

There can never be enough evidence to deny the Laws of nature.

The witnesses are unreliable.

The witnesses are uneducated.

Religions depend on miracles.