Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this lesson, on the creation story and Christianity.

I'm miss Kendrick, and if you haven't seen any other lessons from this units, I am teaching all of the lessons on Christian beliefs.

If this is the first time you're joining then that's absolutely fine.

But you might want to go back to the first lesson of this unit in which we looked at Christian beliefs, about the nature of God.

If you haven't seen that though, and you're keen to get going with the story of creation and Christianity, that is absolutely fine.

Then we're just going to go through what we're going to look at in this lesson.

So we're going to be looking at the origins of the universe, the origins of humanity.

So the word origins means where something comes from.

We're going to look at the different understandings of those origins in Christianity and what the creation story means for Christians.

We are going to need a pen or a pencil and some paper, ideally a different coloured pen as well for corrections as we're going through.

Now, we're sort of starting this lesson with a question.

Have you ever wondered why you're here, and how the universe came to be? It's definitely a question that's kept me up at night and perhaps that's why I became an RE teacher, because this is one of the questions that many religions explore and offer answers to.

Although many Christians will accept scientific views on how the universe came into existence, something which we will touch on it today, and in other lessons and other units, they would say that their scientific explanation doesn't always give us everything we need.

A lot of Christians would say that they're still wanting further answers than science can give.

Because even though science might be able to tell us the how of how humans came into existence or the universe came into existence, they would say that it can't answer the why.

And this is a really important question for Christianity.

Now, have you ever turned up somewhere and being asked, why are you here? Perhaps you've turned out outside the staff room at school and a teacher said to you, why are you here? Why are you hanging around outside the staff room? Now that question is asking you what your purpose is.

And in that situation, if you have a purpose, you know how to answer that question you can go, oh I'm looking for Mr Smith or something like that.

But if you don't know why you're there, you're a bit stuck aren't you? You're a bit purposeless, and you might even feel a bit lost or confused.

Now, many Christians believe that knowing how the universe and humanity came into existence helps to answer questions about people's purpose and what they should be doing with their lives.

And they're going to look to the Bible to answer these questions and stories in the Bible about the origins and the universe.

So we are going to go through the story in the Bible, about creation, I'm going to read it to you.

I might not read it word for word.

I think for length, I'll summarise it in some places as I go through the story, then pictures are going to come up on the slide and that's going to help you to remember what happens on each day.

So in the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate.

The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness.

And the spirit of God was moving over the water.

Then God commanded, "let there be light" and light appeared.

God was pleased with what he saw.

Then he separated the lights from the darkness and he named the lights day and the dark night.

Evening passed and morning came and that was the first day.

Then God commanded, "let there be a dome to divide the water and to keep it in two separate places." And it was done.

So God made a dome and it separated the water from under it, from the water above it.

He named this dome sky, evening passed and morning came and that was the second day.

Then God commanded, "let the water below the sky, come together in one place and so that land will appear." And it was done.

He named the land earth and the water, which had come together he named sea.

And God was pleased with what he saw.

Then he commanded, "let the earth produce all kinds of plants so that will bear grain and will bear fruit." And it was so.

So the earth produced all kinds of plants and God was pleased with what he saw.

Evening passed and morning came that was the third day.

Then God commanded, "let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show when the days, years and religious festivals begin, they will shine in the sky to give lights to the earth." So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night.

And he also made the stars.

God was pleased with what he saw, evening passed and morning came.

That was the fourth day.

Then God commanded, "let the water be filled with many kinds of living creatures and let the air be filled with birds." So God created the great sea monsters, all kinds of creatures that live in the water.

He blessed them all and told them to reproduce and fill the sea and told the birds to increase in number also.

Evening passed and morning came, and that was the fifth day.

Then God commanded, "let the earth produce all kinds of animal life, domestic and wild, large and small." And it was done.

So God made them all and he was pleased with what he saw, then God said, "and now we will make human beings they will be like us and resemble us, they will have power over the fish, the birds and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small." So God created human beings, making them to be like himself.

He created them, male and female.

He blessed them and said, "have many children so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control.

I'm putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals.

I've provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat, but for all the wild animals and for all the birds, I've produced grass and leafy plants for food." And it was done.

God looked at everything he made and he was very pleased.

Evening passed and morning came.

That was the sixth day.

And the story goes on, say that on the seventh day, God rested from all that he had created.

And later on, we see this as a command in the 10 commandments that people should also rest on the seventh day as God did after he had finished creating the world.

So I hope you found all the pictures I've got next to me useful.

I'm going to get you to pause your video in just a moment.

And you're going to use those pictures to help you to write what God made on each day in this story, on the poor slide, you're also going to have some key words to help you say that you can make sure you include everything that you need.

Okay, so from this story, we have four key things that Christians believe because of what we can read in the story of Genesis.

Now obviously these aren't going to be the only things that they believe that's going to be linked to the story, but these are four key things that you need to know that it's going to be really, really helpful for other parts of your GCSE.

So firstly, there is the belief that God creates from his word and this links to the belief that God is omnipotent.

Can you remember what omnipotent means, if you did a previous lesson in this unit.

So you've got omni, that means all, and potent, that means powerful.

So omnipotent means all powerful.

Now Christians would say that one of the reasons why God is omnipotent is because he is the creator of the whole universe.

He has the power to create the universe and therefore he can control things within it.

And that links to his authority as well.

If God is omnipotent, then he has authority over the universe and is worthy of praise.

So lots of Christians would say that they worship God because he's the creator of the universe.

It's quite a lot for one point isn't it? Secondly, in this story, the world is good.

After each day of creating, God says he is pleased with what he saw or in some translations, it says, God saw the world and thought it was good.

So there's this idea that at the very beginning of creation, there was no evil or suffering in the world.

The word perfect isn't used, because we could say well, maybe there's potential for suffering, and that's going to go into what we're looking at, linked in this lesson, but it is good.

Humans are living peacefully with the animals they have everything that they could possibly need.

They do not know death or suffering.

Thirdly humans are made in God's image.

Notice that when I was telling the story, I said, God said let us make humans in our image.

Now Christians believe that it's linking to the belief that God is a Trinitarian God, that there's three persons, that make up one God.

And again, if you were taking part in the previous lesson, you'll know that I talked about God, the father not having a physical body.

So if God isn't physical, how are humans made in his image? Well traditionally Christians have understood this not to be made like God physically, but to be made like God in a more spiritual way, perhaps you might look at human morality or human creativity and say that these are some ways in which humanity reflects God.

Finally, in this story, humans rule over all of the animals.

And this is going to link to humans being made in the image of God.

They have authority like God does.

And it's also going to link and to issues such as animal testing or stewardship of the environment, which it comes up in later units.

So really useful to know that as well.

So those are four key points that I've talked about in a bit more detail.

Now what we're going to do is see how well you can remember them.

So I'm going to give you a moment to pause the video and just have a look over them.

And then we're going to go through them and I'm going to take one away and see if you can figure out which one is missing.

So I'll give you a moment now to pause.

Okay, and we'll go through and you can see what you think is missing.

So I've taken away the first point here, and what's missing? God creates from his word.

He is omnipotent.

Next one, So number two is missing here.

Can you say what it is or even just think it in your head? The world is good, is number two.

Number three, what's missing? Humans are made in God's image and number four.

Humans rule over the creatures.

So we're going to go through that again.

This time number three is missing, and yet humans are made in God's image.

Well done if you've got that.

Next one number two, the world is good.

Number two is missing again, what is it? I just said it.

The world is good, excellent.

Okay, so next thing we're going to do is answer some questions.

So you're going to need to pause the video and look at the questions on the next slide and see if you can answer them in full sentences.

Okay, well done for answering those questions.

And when you went through your feedback, I hope he did write down everything in full sentences to make sure you had as much as possible in your answer.

Remember for your GCSE, you need to make sure you've got real detail in your answers and evidence such as the Bible verse I gave you in that task.

So please make sure you're putting your full effort into these questions.

So next we're going to look at the origins of humanity and notice I'm using this phrase origins of the universe and origins of humanity, because if you're on the AQA exampled, it uses those two different phrases, origins of the universe, you must talk about those six days of creation, where the universe as a whole came from, for the origins of humanity, you need to talk specifically about this story about Adam and Eve.

So I'm going to tell you a little bit about that now.

So you already know from the book of Genesis, that it talks about humans being created on the sixth day and that they're told to increase a number and to rule over the animals.

Now, the Christian understanding of hue of the creation of humans is really important because this greatly impacts the value, which humans that Christians believe human life has.

Now like I've already said, some Christians will take this story very literally and believe that was an actual Adam and Eve, whereas others may take this more symbolically.

So the example I always give for the words literally and symbolically is if I was to say, my legs feel like jelly.

If someone was to take that and literally they would think that my legs have actually become jelly.

In which case I wouldn't be standing up very low.

Most of you, if I said that are going to take it symbolically a you know, that means that maybe I feel a bit wobbly, maybe I don't feel very well.

So when we're looking at these stories, like the six day creation story that I've just told you and the origins of humanity story that I'm about to tell you, then some Christians will believe that God literally created the universe in six days, others will believe in a scientific explanation or maybe beliefs there are words except a scientific explanation of the universe, but they might say that it does fit with the biblical story in some ways.

So perhaps the biblical story is a symbol for God creating the universe.

So we've got here, this picture of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and it looks very idyllic, doesn't it? There's lots of animals hanging around, the lions aren't eating the turkey, that's right in front of them.

Adam and Eve relaxing in the garden and they're innocent.

They're in a world that is good.

Now I'm going to tell you a little bit more about story of the creation of Adam and Eve and why Christians believe that we are not currently living in this beautiful garden of Eden scenario.

So Genesis 2:7 says, "then God took some of the soil from the ground and he formed a man out of it, he breathed life giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live." So there's a couple of things here, that you might be familiar with.

There's the belief that Adam has made from earth.

This shows that he is part of creation, and you might have heard it sometimes in funerals.

People said the priests might say from ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

And it links to this belief that Adam was made from soil.

And then we've got this verse here.

"He breathed life giving a breath into his nostrils and the man began to live." Now this links to the Christian beliefs about the soul.

There's the belief that in making Adam there's a real intimacy that wasn't there with the animals.

That God's getting right up close and breathing life into Adam.

And many Christians would say that this is the human soul.

Next part, pause very first and then I'm going to tell you the next part.

So answer the questions on screen and then we'll move on to the next bit.

Okay here we go.

So then the Lord place at the man in the garden of Eden to cultivate it.

So that means to farming and care for it like a gardener or farmer.

He told him, "You may eat the fruits of any tree in the garden, except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad, if you do, you will die." So this is the only thing that Adam is barred from doing.

The only thing he's told not to do is eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

He has everything else he could possibly desire in the garden.

So again, we're going to pause for a moment so that you can answer the question, Okay, next part of the story.

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to live alone, I will make a suitable companion to help him." So this thinks to Christian belief that humans are created to live in community.

They're not created to be alone.

And so God makes a companion for him.

It says, "then the Lord, God made the man fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the flesh, he formed a woman out of the rib and brought her to him." Sorry, now Adam when he sees the woman, he calls her Eve and he says, this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.

And it's showing that he recognises that she is of the same kind as him.

It's this idea that men and women are made of the same stuff.

Now, again there's lots I could unpack here about the roles of men and women, and different beliefs about the relationships between men and women, which will come up in later units.

I'll just be simple here, and I'll say that some Christians would interpret this as saying that men and women are made to be together, that they're made to be husband and wife.

And some would say that there are going to be some roles in here because Eve is talked about as Adam's help her.

But other Christians are going to disagree about this as well.

The main purpose of the assessor is not to get into all of those different views points, there will be other lessons in these units that are going to touch on that.

Like the roles of men and women and human sexuality as well.

So we're not going to worry about that too much right now.

So you guys are going to answer a couple of questions and then we're going to look at the story of The Fall.

Okay so the first two books of Genesis paint a really good world, don't they this beautiful Eden where humans have everything they need.

They're in perfect relationship with each other.

They rule over the animals.

Lions aren't trying to eat them, they don't have to work for their food.

And they've also got a close relationship with God.

The Genesis story talks about God walking in the garden of Eden in the cool of the evening.

It shows this idea that God and humans have a close and direct relationship.

Now it doesn't say in the Bible how long this idyllic world lasted, but it does say how it ended.

So in the story of The Fall and we call it The Fall because of idea of humanity falling from grace.

You might've heard that phrase before fall from grace.

We've got the serpent representing the devil tempting Eve, and you can see it in this picture here.

The serpent says to Eve, "if you eat this fruit, you will not die, instead you will be like God knowing good and evil." And Eve sees the fruit and sees that it looks good to eat.

So she takes it and she eats some and she gives some to Adam her husband, and he also eats it.

Now as a result of them disobeying God, that innocence is lost.

At some point, they've realised they are naked and they're ashamed.

And they cover themselves with fig leaves.

And when God walks in the garden, they hide from him.

Perhaps you've done this before, when you've known your in trouble or that you've upset somebody, you know you've done something wrong.

Perhaps you've avoided the person that you've wronged because you don't want to face the situation.

You know there's a broken relationship here.

So we've got this broken relationship with God because Adam and Eve are hiding from him.

We've also got a broken relationship with each other beforehand they were naked and they knew no shame because they're in a perfectly trusting relationship.

But now they're divided from each other.

They're more concerned about what someone might see when they see them.

They feel exposed and ashamed, so they cover themselves with fig leaves.

This shows that their trust between each other is broken.

And also when God comes and says to them, why are you hiding? What would be done? The first thing Adam does is pass the buck.

He says, "well the woman, the woman that you put here gave me this apple and I ate it." Now, Adam knew the rules just as well as Eve did, in fact he was the first one to be told the rules, according to the story.

But he passes on the blame as soon as he's caught in his sin.

And again that breaks the relationship between him and his wife, just as it breaks the relationship between him and God.

Finally, in the account, the relationship between Adam and Eve and the world is broken.

That banished from the garden of Eden and God curses them.

Adam will now have to work the earth by the sweat of his brow.

He won't be able to just pick through from the tree whenever he needs it, but he's going to have to dig for it.

And Eve's pains and childbirth are increased and she's going to be subject to her husband because of her sin.

For many Christians, this is the beginning of sin in the world.

And many Christians will use this story to explain why there is evil and suffering today.

So it's a really important story.

And regardless of whether they will take it literally or symbolically, they will still see it as an explanation for why there is suffering in the world.

And this leads to the belief in original sin.

So original sin is the sin that is inherited from Adam and Eve, which some Christians believe that all humans are born with, and which causes humans to have a tendency towards evil.

Now Christians today believe original sin is something that can be washed away at baptism that's something important because you're going to be writing about that quite often in your RE GCSE as well.

But again, we're going to pause so you can answer some questions on the story of The Fall.

So it'd be quite easy to feel quite dreary, at the end of this story, we have this beautiful world that's being created, and then it's sort of dashed in the fall when Adam and Eve sin.

But the Genesis story does have a glimmer of hope in it.

When Adam and Eve and the serpent are cursed for bringing sin in the world, God says this, "I will make you and the woman hate each other, her offspring and yours will always be enemies, her offspring will crush your head and you will bite her offspring's heel." Now many Christians will interpret this as a prophecy for God's future plan to restore the world and restore his relationship with humans.

And this is a theme that's going to be running through all of the lessons that we go through in this unit, all of the story about Jesus and his life and his crucifixion, because many Christians would say that the offspring Eve's offspring who crushes the head of the serpent, who crushes Satan is Jesus.

But in the process, he has his heel bitten.

He is injured as well.

We'll have a look at this in later lessons because this is some really nice theology.

Theology is the study of God.

So this is a really lovely verse because it shows how Christian beliefs are sort of woven through all of these texts.

So if you can pull this out of your hat at some point in an assessment, that's going to look really really good.

Speaking of assessments, so we're going to just do a GCSE style question before we finish this lesson.

And this is really important to practise, lots of my students really grown when I say that we're going to do a GCSE style question, but it's how are you going to be tested.

So you're going to have to start practising them now.

Now I'm not going to teach to one specific example.

I'm going to tell you which examples questions might fit best with, that most examples will ask you to answer, explain questions, and then those sorts of questions, you will need to state a belief, then develop it by giving an example or explaining why a Christian may have that belief.

Now, the question I'm going to give you is explain to Christian beliefs about creation.

They are going to be slightly different in different examples.

They might be worth slightly different amounts of marks, and you need to talk to a teacher to find out what example you are sitting.

The question on this side fits best with AQA and Edexcel, and you might, excuse me, you might be expected to write a longer answers for Edugas and WJEC or the star might look a bit different for OCR.

Even though there's going to be a lot of variety here, it's still really good practise to explain these brings about creation.

And then you can work with your teachers about how you tailor this knowledge to those exam questions.

So what I would like you to do in this question is try to refer to some evidence.

Now evidence could be a quotation, or it could be a story, and that's going to be easy cause I've mostly just done story time with you today.

I've also got quotation on screen for you from the creation of Adam.

"He breathed life giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live." So in your answer, see if you can use this quotation and see if you can use one of the stories or part of one of the stories I've told you today as evidence.

So before we finish this lesson just well done for everything that you've done today, when you were doing your feedback, just remember that question was really really open.

So the examples I gave you are not only answers you could have talked about.

Just being asked about creation means you can talk about pretty much anything really from the creation narrative, you can include The Fall of illiterately as well, just make sure you always linked to the wording of the questions and maybe say that, you know, creation was good, but then it was damaged by fall.

I really hope to see for the next lesson.

I hope you've learned lots today, you can share your work with Oak National Academy, which would be really lovely.

You would get a parent or carer to share it, as it says on that slide.

Thanks very much, and I'll see you next time.