Religious Studies

Course summary

Religious Studies at A Level seeks to challenge students’ preconceptions and ways of thinking. From the outset, in Epistemology – the philosophy of knowledge, questions such as “how do I know what is true?” or “can we be certain of existence?” are explored by considering our responses to the great thinkers such as Descartes. In moral philosophy, we seek to understand what makes actions or people good or virtuous – ideas that underpin our sociological, psychological and political understanding. Building on some ideas from Religious Studies GCSE, in Year 13 we consider the existence and nature of the God of Abraham in the metaphysics of God by asking whether religiousbelief could be valid or meaningful. Lastly, in the metaphysics of the mind we consider what is known as the ‘hard problem’ – what is consciousness?