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.