Mr Bigg's RPE blog

Hello all, hope you are having a nice holiday! As promised here is information for exam revision…

Part One – Picture Round
Remember, the trick here is to make links between what is happening in the picture and what it might therefore tell us about heaven/hell. For example, “Hell is an painful place” is no good, nor is “The picture shows a lot of people in agony”. The sentence you are looking for is: “The picture shows a lot of people in agony which tells us that hell is a painful place.” Got it? Good.

Part Two – Explanation
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS. You’ll be much better off answering one or two in detail. The first key is to explain. Think about what evidence people might have to back up their beliefs. Nobody believes something for no reason.

The second key is to analyse. This is hard to explain as what you need to do depends on the situation. However, the basic idea is that you compare and contrast. For example, if the question asks you to look at different beliefs about what happens when you die then analysis would be to identify similarities and differences between different religions and perhaps whether their beliefs make any sense (being sure to explain why/why not).

What you need to know
You’ve got some of the basics on life after death in your books. The basic distinction is between Christianity, Islam and Judaism on one hand (some concept of judgement), and Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddism on the other (re-birth of some sort). Have a look at BBC Bitesize and look at all the “beliefs about life after death” sections. You can even test yourself. This should give you plenty of extra detail to include in your answers.

You should also know about the concept of purgatory. Some Christians (Catholics) believe that after death only a few enough are pure enough to enter heaven straight away. Most of us instead go to a place called purgatory where we can spend time becoming purer so that we can go to heaven.

Good luck! Leave a comment if you have any questions!