GCSE short course Religous education coursework

a ii.)

Word development is helping to create a world where everyone has access to the essentials needed to survive/live like: food, shelter, free/affordable education healthcare and social care. 4.4 billion people live in developing countries of these 3/5’s lack basics sanitation, almost 1/3 have no access to clean water, ¼ do not have access to adequate housing, 1/5 do not have no access to modern health services, 1/5 can not attend primary school, 1/5 do not have adequate protein and energy from their food supplies. This totally conflicts with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of him/her self and his/her family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social medical care and necessary social services and . . . everyone has the right to education’. For each cow a European farmer owns he receives approximately £1.40 a day in support. Mean while 2.8 billion people live on less than £1.25 a day. This means cows are better of than 2.8 billion people by 15 pence. This problem needs solving quickly and efficiently this adds to why there is a need for world development. 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 dollar a day which is equivalent to 60 pence.  The MEDC countries have a responsibility to help the poor because the world needs LEDC countries to develop so that goods can be bought from the developed countries, otherwise no one’s life will improve. Poverty is ‘not having the minimum income level to get the necessities of life’. Poverty at its most extreme levels occurs in some of the African countries. Poverty is caused by things like natural disasters, disease, unfair trade agreements, lack of technology investment and war.  Approximately 1.2 billion people in the world live on less the $1 a day and 115 millions have no access to primary education and hundreds of millions suffer from malnutrition whilst the two richest countries the USA and the UK have an obesity problem.

a iii.)

Christian aid is an agency based in the United Kingdom and Ireland that funds projects in some of the world’s poorest countries. It helps people to improve their own lives and to tackle the causes of poverty. Christian aid was set up in 1945 at the end of World War 2. This was to help refugees who were suffering from this disaster. There are now over 40 churches in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the Christian aid charity have an annual income of £40 million. Christian Aid helps all people from the general public not just Christians. For example Four water projects was completed by one of Christian aid partners in the district of Basra they provided piping and clean drinking water to around 139,386 citizens – a total of 11,793 households.

Access to potable water is of utmost importance in Iraq as water sources are either heavily polluted or too saline. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers have been contaminated by waste water and sewage. Christian aid also does projects in Iraq to help these problems.

Christian Aid helps to improve world development. Christian Aid is involved in many aspects of development such as: helping the refugees and churches recovers from war, fundraising activities , helping people to help themselves through sustainable development, improving health sanitation, rights of refugees democracy, freedom, improved  standards of literacy and education in poor areas like Sierra Leone, helping others to fulfil religious duties.

Helping the poor links to religious teaching because in the Bible it tells people to share their wealth also it helps Christians fulfil their duties from God and also because it is a more effective way of giving. Christians give money to support the agency, their own voluntary time collecting money and sorting money and they use skills such as fundraising activity skills to support Christian aid.

b.)
In this part of coursework I am going to outline the arguments for having rich people in the world and the arguments against there being rich people. The Bible and the Quran have many teachings on wealth and poverty and it is an issue that has influenced all great religions E.g. the bible has more teachings on wealth than any other issue.

”Their should be no rich people as long as there is poverty in the world”

I do not agree with this statement because if people work hard to earn their money, then why shouldn’t they be able to keep their money that they worked hard for? John Templeton is a rich man an uses his wealth to help the poor there are many other wealthy charitable people like John Templeton that use their money for good causes and if they wasn’t allowed to have this wealth then how would they be able to use their wealth to benefit the poor? However I can understand why people would not want to have rich people in world as long as there is poverty because of the amount music/film stars spend on plastic surgery, cars and other unnecessary accessories when children in Africa are starving and are facing extreme poverty. Most Christians believe it is acceptable to be rich if they use their wealth wisely and well like to help the poor. However a small group of Christians named the Iona community believe all wealth should be shared and would agree with the statement above because they believe in no one being too rich and no one enduring in poverty.

Arguments for rich people in the world.

If God gave us free will and we all have talents then why is it not allowed for someone’s talent to be making/investing money? Because every one has varied talents and some people’s talent may be making money and it is unfair to take this away from someone if they have earned their money honestly it should be up to the person if they wish to share their money with the poor because religious people believe god gave us free will, so why cant a person who earns their money honestly use their free will to decide if they want to share their wealth with the poor or not?

Sir John Templeton made $400 million and used these profits for helping people. The same is true of the jack Petchey award scheme for schools which helped children in the East End. People may use their wealth to help the poor like John Templeton if he was not rich he wouldn’t of been enabled to do so. Also people like Jack Petchey use their wealth for good uses, if he was not rich he would not have been able to do so either.

If Muslims are expected to give Zakah, Sadaquh and Zakat-ul-fitr, the richer the Muslim is the more they have to donate so if they are allowed to be rich there will be more donated to the poor. Also Allah or God may of made a in particular person rich for a reason that no one is aware of yet.

Arguments against having rich people:

Money made tends to be squandered E.g. rap star P.diddy’s bar bill for one night amounted to £50,000. Other rich people own cars that cost more than houses. Money used for one night in a bar, or on a car could be used to feed starving children in extreme poverty. Money is also wasted on accessories like plastic surgery, drug abuse ect. These things are not essential when u consider starving children in extreme poverty.

The rich become role models for ordinary people to look up to. This goes against teachings in the Quran and Bible. This causes confusion on which the true role models should be especially for young children.

Businesses based in rich countries do little to help poorer countries and their only motive is to make profits. Poverty will continually increase and the situation will become worse. There needs to be fair trade rate. Also many rich people use their money to become richer. If rich people think selfishly like this more and more poverty will be caused.