HSC Studies of Religion Question Thread

[jamonwindeyer]

My religion teacher never really explained our course very well, I'm in studies of religion 1 unit and I'm confused as to when the prelim ends and HSC begins, he was on holidays for the first five weeks so nobody really explained whats going on

Hey Bella! It is a little complicated, but you do sort of need to know it all 

Year 12 consists of:
- 2 Religious Depth Studies, consisting of a Personality, Practice, and Ethic
- Aboriginal Spirituality (Dream Time)
- Religion in Australia Post 1945

So as soon as you start studying one of these things, you are in Year 12. This is usually in Term 4 of your preliminary year. Now, the confusing bit is that you will study the religions in Year 11 as well, but you'll spend Year 11 covering the basics: Beliefs, texts, practices, dynamic living religion, etc. You use this knowledge to inform your HSC studies, and it is important to know it all for the HSC Exam. Hope this helps! 
-

[Emilyom]

Hey

I have to do a 3 minuet presentation on Saint Paul and his contribution to Christianity, I was wondering if you knew what his contribution was?

Thank you so much!
Emily 

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey

I have to do a 3 minuet presentation on Saint Paul and his contribution to Christianity, I was wondering if you knew what his contribution was?

Thank you so much!
Emily 

Hey Emily! I'm one post late, but welcome to the forums!

We have some awesome notes for St Paul available free to download right here!

They should be a great way to get you started!

[Scarlet]

Hi all,
I'm not sure how to approach this question, any help would be appreciated !
Explain the reasons for Judaism’s ethical teachings on ONE of the following areas:
- Bioethics
- Environmental ethics
- Sexual Ethics

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi all,
I'm not sure how to approach this question, any help would be appreciated !
Explain the reasons for Judaism’s ethical teachings on ONE of the following areas:
- Bioethics
- Environmental ethics
- Sexual Ethics

Hey Scarlet! Thanks for posting! This is a really common question. What it is asking you to do is give reasons for the ethical teachings in the area of bioethics. Now, I didn't do Judaism, but I assume there are ethical principles which form the basis for Jewish ethics: Basic ethical ideas at the core of the faith. Love, human dignity, compassion, right to freedom of choice, things similar to these.

The Jewish faith then APPLIES these to modern bioethical issues; stem cell research, abortion, DNA modification, etc.

This is what the question wants. What are the ethical principles and how are they applied to bioethical issues. You would include scriptural references and other quotes to back up your argument.

I hope this helps to get you started, good luck!!

[hsciao]

Anyone know a good structure for an essay on Pope John XXIII ?

[elysepopplewell]

Anyone know a good structure for an essay on Pope John XXIII ?

Hey there! Jamon wrote this really helpful guide on SOR essays: http://atarnotes.com/sor-essay-guide/

Otherwise, for any significant person, you want to make sure you talk about the significance of the contribution to the expressionand the development of the religious tradition. Let this direct your essay. Perhaps you want to divide your essay into the contributions to the expression, then the contributions to the development? This is a strategy I often took because my significant person for Islam was very easily divided like this. But you can break it down further. You can let an entire paragraph be in relation to their contribution to writings. Then another paragraph on the contribution to practice. Obviously, this needs to be tailored to the essay question but also to the significant person.

Hopefully this gives you an idea. Feel free to write up an essay and post it in the essay marking thread for feedback!

[gusengler]

Has anybody got good notes on Martin Luther's contribution to Christianity and Buddhism environmental ethics?? Cheers [/font]

[elysepopplewell]

Has anybody got good notes on Martin Luther's contribution to Christianity and Buddhism environmental ethics?? Cheers [/font]

Hey! I've just had a quick look on what's been uploaded onto the site by students and we haven't yet had anything on these two topics. Not to say that there won't be someone who will post them after seeing your post! Good luck

[maccasgirl]

Hey

This is Studies of Religion 2 unit question about the topic 'Religion & Peace' with the religion in question being Islam.

I'm working on something for class at the moment and one of the questions I have to address is:
"Illustrate how the principle beliefs of Islam defined in the Aqida reflect the teachings of sacred texts in relation to peace"

Internet searches aren't being very helpful and the the text books I have are alright but there's not enough information in them. So any help anyone could give me would be very very appreciated!

Thank you 

[elysepopplewell]

Hey

This is Studies of Religion 2 unit question about the topic 'Religion & Peace' with the religion in question being Islam.

I'm working on something for class at the moment and one of the questions I have to address is:
"Illustrate how the principle beliefs of Islam defined in the Aqida reflect the teachings of sacred texts in relation to peace"

Internet searches aren't being very helpful and the the text books I have are alright but there's not enough information in them. So any help anyone could give me would be very very appreciated!

Thank you 

Hi there! I haven't studied SOR 2, but I am researching it lately so that I can become more helpful on all of this stuff! This is definitely a very tricky question, though. I have been surfing the web and looking at some textbooks, and I'm going to kind of jot down some little dot points below and hopefully they give you some ideas about where to go with this.

Islam regards the mission of the Prophet Muhammad as one of peace and mercy to humankind. (21:107) You can relate this strongly to the principal belief, Tawhid.

The mission of the Prophet Muhammad is one of peace and mercy to humankind. (21:107)
(These two points came from here.)

I think you should go through each of the principal beliefs, and make a connection to peace in your own mind about them. For example, Islam promotes peace, and by living in a peaceful way, the Angel on one's shoulder will be able to note these good deeds for the day of judgement. Then you should search the Qur'an for specific examples of Angels and Peace. Does this strategy make sense? I know it definitely isn't ideal. I wish I could help you more. This is a tricky topic, no doubt. Interested to know what you think? Good luck!

[maccasgirl]

Hi there! I haven't studied SOR 2, but I am researching it lately so that I can become more helpful on all of this stuff! This is definitely a very tricky question, though. I have been surfing the web and looking at some textbooks, and I'm going to kind of jot down some little dot points below and hopefully they give you some ideas about where to go with this.

Islam regards the mission of the Prophet Muhammad as one of peace and mercy to humankind. (21:107) You can relate this strongly to the principal belief, Tawhid.

The mission of the Prophet Muhammad is one of peace and mercy to humankind. (21:107)
(These two points came from here.)

I think you should go through each of the principal beliefs, and make a connection to peace in your own mind about them. For example, Islam promotes peace, and by living in a peaceful way, the Angel on one's shoulder will be able to note these good deeds for the day of judgement. Then you should search the Qur'an for specific examples of Angels and Peace. Does this strategy make sense? I know it definitely isn't ideal. I wish I could help you more. This is a tricky topic, no doubt. Interested to know what you think? Good luck!

Thank you so much! This is definitely helpful. Really appreciate it, now I have a clearer idea of how to go about answering it. Yeah, it's certainly a hard topic, but thankfully I think it's quite interesting to learn about.
Thanks again

[elysepopplewell]

Thank you so much! This is definitely helpful. Really appreciate it, now I have a clearer idea of how to go about answering it. Yeah, it's certainly a hard topic, but thankfully I think it's quite interesting to learn about.
Thanks again

That's great to hear! Good luck

[kimmie]

hey elyse! I want to do Christianity and Islam in religion and peace since im more comfortable with writing an essay on them but my teacher says we have to do judaism and Christianity.  my teacher said the hsc markers may be prejudiced against someone relating peace with islam with the current issue of terrorism floating around and may award lower marks. So is it alright to use islam instead of Judaism? Im confused. Any help will be brilliant

[jamonwindeyer]

hey elyse! I want to do Christianity and Islam in religion and peace since im more comfortable with writing an essay on them but my teacher says we have to do judaism and Christianity.  my teacher said the hsc markers may be prejudiced against someone relating peace with islam with the current issue of terrorism floating around and may award lower marks. So is it alright to use islam instead of Judaism? Im confused. Any help will be brilliant

Hey Kimmie! I'll give you my opinion on this question and Elyse may want to add to it, we both did SOR 1 so we can't speak from experience of Religion and Peace. Elyse does know the content though 

Essentially, though I understand the rationale, my opinion is that your teacher is mistaken. The HSC markers CANNOT be biased about anything in SOR, especially something like that. You should write about whatever religious tradition(s) suits your style and your preferences!! Fair enough if one of them is a little easier, or suited the question a bit better, or whatever. But under no circumstances would you be prejudiced against for using Islam in the Religion and Peace section, and if you were, then you'd have grounds for a massive appeal, and the marker responsible would not enjoy their summer holiday