National 4/5

Welcome to the National Religious Moral and Philosophical Studies Course!


As you will know by now from your BGE courses, in RMPS we study a range of religious, moral and philosophical issues. This means that we will be looking at Buddhism for the world religion unit, Medicine and the Human Body for the morality unit and finally we will look at the existence of God for the philosophical unit.


At the end of the year you will have an exam worth 80 marks.

During class you will also complete an assignment worth 20 marks.


Units:

At National level, whether you are doing National 5,or National 4, we study the following three units.

World Religion: Buddhism

Morality and Belief: Morality, Medicine and the Human Body

Religious and Philosophical Questions: The Existence of God

Unit 1 Buddhism

In this unit we will cover the following:

  • Three Marks of Existence

  • Four Noble Truths

  • Three Poisons

  • Beliefs about the Buddha

  • Three Jewels

  • Kamma

  • Samsara

  • Nibbana

  • Living according to the Eightfold Path

  • Five Precepts

  • Meditation and puja

Unit 2 Morality, Medicine and the Human Body

In this unit we will cover:

  • the value of life: right to life, right to die, sanctity of life, personal autonomy ;

  • use of embryos: reproductive, research, therapeutic;

  • end-of-life care: palliative, hospice;

  • euthanasia and assisted dying: voluntary euthanasia, non-voluntary euthanasia, assisted dying provided by individuals or organisations.

Unit 3 Existence of God

In this unit we will cover:

The nature of God

The cosmological argument

  • Aquinas’ cosmological argument

  • counter-arguments

  • science and the cosmological argument

  • viewpoints supporting the arguments

  • viewpoints criticising the arguments

The teleological argument

  • Paley’s teleological argument

  • counter-arguments

  • science and the teleological argument

  • viewpoints supporting the arguments

  • viewpoints criticising the arguments

Assignment

You will also do an assignment where you will research a religious, moral and philosophical question and then write an essay.

The assignment allows you to demonstrate the following skills, knowledge and understanding within the context of religious, moral and philosophical questions:

identifying an appropriate religious, moral or philosophical issue for study, about which there are alternative or different points of view commenting on the significance or impact of the issue

using sources of information

drawing on knowledge and understanding to explain and analyse the issue and viewpoints, one of which must be religious, moral or philosophical

drawing and presenting a detailed and reasoned conclusion on the issue.

Course progression

If you pass your National 4 units you can go on to do National 5 RMPS or other social subjects offered in Peterhead Academy.

If you pass your National 5 course you can go on to do Higher RMPS where you will cover Christianity, Morality and Justice and Origins.