Why does an education in Religion and Worldviews (R&W) matter? – Nancy (KS2)

Nancy, aged 10, has given a wealth of reasons why an education in Religion and Worldviews matters including developing knowledge of different views, as well as understanding historical perspectives which impact on our world today.

Learning RE helps us respect other people’s beliefs and accept that they’re different, it also helps promote peace. As well as that, it helps us learn that there are lots of diverse religious beliefs all around the world.

Different religions have different gods and we learn that a lot of religions have more than one. God. Christians only have one God, and he covers all subjects, but Hindus have three gods Brahma who creates the universe, Vishnu who preserves the universe and Shiva who destroys the universe. Ancient Egyptians had over 2000 gods each of them covering different subjects, for example Cyrus is the god of the underworld, Sekhmet is the god of war and healing and Mart is the god of truth justice wisdom stars and Law. Even though there are lots of different gods, the subjects are all ones we know about.

If we didn’t understand each other’s beliefs then the world would be full of mayhem, chaos and there may even be a third World War with people of different religions and beliefs fighting each other. If we didn’t study religion and world views we might lose friends that have different ideas. That would be really sad because it is exciting meeting people from different places with different religions.

When we understand other people and their beliefs, then it helps us to be selfless and generous because we care more about them. This is also kind and you should always treat others how you want to be treated. Giving makes other people feel happy and loved. It helps us to feel good when we are considerate however we can feel mean when we judge someone by their beliefs. Learning about the world helps us to develop greater understanding that even though we are different we can still be loving and caring. Everyone should behave like this regardless of their beliefs.

Religion has shaped the course of history where people have invaded other countries and created wars to make other people have the same religion. After Jesus was born, the Romans became Christians and they had an empire that spread across lots of Europe. They wanted people to be Christians like the Romans. Lots of other religions have also tried to spread their beliefs by force. Today, people still try to spread their beliefs and as we’ll as going into other countries that can use the internet.

When we are at school, we are taught that even though we have different beliefs we can still be friends. We are all different in lots of ways and religion and beliefs can be some of them.

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For a list of all winning and highly commended blogs see here