Your year, week by week

Science says the universe began about 13.7 billion years ago. Everything was packed into a tiny, hot, dense mass. It expanded, the Big Bang, and over billions of years stars, planets and Earth were formed. The man who first suggested the theory, Georges Lemaître, was a Catholic priest. He never thought it disproved God.

Christians disagree about it. Some take Genesis literally: God made the world in six days, so the Big Bang must be wrong. Others read Genesis as a picture of a truth, it tells you THAT God created, not HOW, so God could have created through the Big Bang. They also disagree about what the world is for. A minority read 'subdue it' as permission to use it however we like. Most call it stewardship: looking after it for God.

Evolution is the leading scientific explanation of how life developed. It began billions of years ago with single-celled creatures in the sea. Over millions of years, simple life forms slowly changed into different species. It means humans share a distant ancestor with apes.

Some Christians reject this and read Genesis literally. God made humans separately and on purpose. Many accept it: the Church of England's General Synod said evolution and faith can sit together. Genesis 2:7 says God breathed the breath of life into the first human, so however life developed, Christians believe the source is God. That is also why most say humans are special: they are made in the image of God.

Christians believe death is not the end. They give three reasons. The Bible promises an afterlife. God gave life purpose, so he would want it to continue. And Jesus rose from the dead, which Christians believe did not just suggest an afterlife but guaranteed one. Ephesians 2:6 says God 'raised us up with Christ'.

Some non-religious people also believe in an afterlife, but for different reasons: remembered past lives (reincarnation), the paranormal, near-death experiences, and the feeling that there must be a reward for a good life. Christians answer that the resurrection is their evidence and that God judges each life fairly. The exam argument is whether those non-religious reasons are convincing.

The natural world is under threat: polluted air, water and land, waste, deforestation, global warming, overuse of resources and cruelty to animals. These harm people alive now and the generations that come next, so Christians treat it as a religious issue, not only a political one.

A minority of Christians read Genesis 1:28 as authority to use the Earth's resources as they wish. Most believe in stewardship: God gave humans responsibility to care for the world on his behalf, and the power to make a real difference. Genesis 2:15 says humans were placed in the garden to 'work it and take care of it'. Use it, but protect it. Use without care is exploitation.

Peace is at the centre of Islam. The word Islam is related to salam, meaning peace. Peace means being in harmony with yourself and with others, the opposite of war. Muslims greet each other with 'As-salaamu alaykum', peace be upon you.

One of Allah's characteristics is 'a Source of Peace', and remembering Allah is an important way of finding peace. The aim is a harmonious society, locally and globally. Surah 25:63 teaches Muslims to walk humbly and answer aggressive people with words of peace, so peace is not just a feeling, it is how you are expected to behave when someone provokes you.

A conflict is a serious disagreement that can split people apart and, on a large scale, lead to war. The main causes are politics and ideology, nationalism and ethnicity, economics and greed, and sometimes religion itself.

Muslims aim to avoid conflict and to settle it peacefully. If every effort at peace has failed, fighting is permitted, but only under strict conditions set out in Surah 2:190-193: only against those who attack first, never overstepping the limits, and only until the persecution stops. Many non-religious people, including Humanists, take a similar line, war only as a last resort. The exam argument is whether religion really causes conflict, or gets blamed for it.

Pacifism is the belief that war and violence are wrong and that disagreements should be settled peacefully. There are four types: absolute (always wrong, even in self-defence), conditional (usually wrong, but fighting may be the lesser evil), selective (only some wars are wrong) and active (working publicly for peace). Passive resistance means non-violent protest.

Muslims hold different views. The earliest example of pacifism in Islam is Habil, who told his brother, 'If you raise your hand to kill me, I will not raise mine to kill you.' Others argue that Islam clearly permits fighting when Muslims are attacked, so absolute pacifism does not fit. The debate is whether you can be a Muslim and a pacifist at the same time.

Because of groups like IS and the way they are reported, many people wrongly assume Muslims support terrorism. Militant groups pick particular verses about war and use them to justify violence.

The vast majority of Muslims reject this and can show extremists ignore Islam's own rules. Fighting is only permitted after being attacked. Forced conversion is banned. Abu Bakr's ten rules of war forbid killing women, children and the elderly, cutting down fruit trees or destroying homes. Knowing those rules is what lets you answer the question properly rather than just disagreeing with it.

Families come in many forms: nuclear (parents and children), extended (with grandparents and relatives), single-parent, blended and same-sex parent families. Christians value three purposes across all of them: having children, safety, and bringing children up in the faith.

Some traditions especially uphold the married, nuclear home, but the Church welcomes and supports every kind of family. Proverbs 22:6 says to start children off on the way they should go. Christians see the family as the first school of faith: prayers, Bible stories and right and wrong are learned at home years before church or school.

Family planning means deciding how many children to have and when. Christians agree children are a gift from God. They disagree about how far couples should control it.

The Catholic Church taught in Humanae Vitae (1968) that every act of sex must stay open to new life, so only natural methods, planning around timing, are permitted. Most Protestant churches accept artificial contraception within marriage as part of responsible, loving parenthood. Both sides claim to be protecting the same thing: the purpose God gave to sex and family.

Jesus taught that marriage is permanent: 'What God has joined together, let no one separate.' He said Moses only allowed divorce because people's hearts were hard. Divorce ends a marriage in law, but Christians disagree about whether it ends it in God's eyes.

The Catholic Church does not recognise divorce. Only an annulment, a declaration that the marriage was never valid in the first place, allows someone to remarry in church. The Church of England and most Protestants regretfully accept divorce as the lesser of two evils and may allow remarriage. Both are trying to hold together two things: the seriousness of a vow, and mercy when a marriage has broken.

Prejudice is judging someone because of their gender. Discrimination is acting on it: unequal pay, blocked opportunities, everyday disrespect. Christians believe both insult the image of God in every person, so this is not simply about unfairness.

Jesus did the opposite of what his society expected: he taught women, defended them, and appeared first to women after the resurrection. Today Christians campaign against discrimination, and the Church of England has ordained women as priests since 1994 and as bishops since 2014. The sharpest exam argument is whether a church can preach equality while its own leadership is still unequal.

The sanctity of life is the belief that life is created by God and made holy by him. Human life is sacred. People have value simply because they exist, not because of what they can do, because they are made in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 is the verse to learn.

The Bible builds the idea up: God breathed life into humans, planned each person before they were born, and designed the body as a dwelling for the Holy Spirit. Notice that Genesis 1:27 mentions humans and not animals, which is why most Christians apply sanctity of life to people. This belief is the reason decisions about abortion and euthanasia are taken so seriously.

Abortion is the deliberate ending of a pregnancy. In England, Scotland and Wales it is legal if two doctors agree there is a risk to the physical or mental health of the mother, the baby, or the children she already has.

The Catholic Church and most evangelical Protestants are pro-life. Life is sacred from the moment of conception, God has a plan for every life, and Humanae Vitae ruled out abortion completely. Other Christians accept it in some situations, where the mother's life is in danger, or after rape, arguing that the most loving thing to do is what matters. Both sides use the sanctity of life; they just apply it differently.

Most non-religious people say there is not enough evidence for an afterlife. Four arguments come up again and again: it was invented for comfort, there is no proof, mediums have been caught faking, and the idea of heaven and hell is used to control how people behave.

Christians answer each one. Comfort does not mean invention: the Bible teaches it is real. Science cannot prove everything, so faith is required. Frauds prove nothing about the truth itself. And some Christians argue warning people about hell is a loving act, not a controlling one. Above all they point to the resurrection: for them, that is the evidence.

Euthanasia is when someone else deliberately gives a person medication to end their life. It is illegal in the UK. Voluntary euthanasia is at the person's own request. Non-voluntary is when the person cannot ask, for example if they are in a coma and the family decide.

Most Christians oppose it. It breaks the sanctity of life, only God has the right to end a life, and the Bible forbids murder. Job refused to end his life even in terrible suffering. Some Christians accept it in extreme cases, saying a loving God would not want pointless pain. Both sides usually agree on one thing: hospices, which give good care to the dying, are part of the answer.

Peacemaking means actively building peace rather than just avoiding trouble. It works in three ways: justice, doing what is right and fair under the law; forgiveness, pardoning someone for a wrong they have done; and reconciliation, restoring a relationship after it has broken down.

Surah 41:34 says to repel evil with what is better, and your enemy will become as close as an old and valued friend. So peacemaking is not passive: evil is answered, but with something better than evil. The Muslim Peace Fellowship is a named example. The exam argument is usually whether Muslims should be doing more.

The Just War theory is a list of conditions a war must meet before it can be called justified: a just cause, a better situation afterwards, a proper authority declaring it, the right intention, war as a last resort, proportionate force, and a reasonable chance of success.

Every condition has to be met, not just some. No innocent people should be killed and prisoners must be treated fairly. The conditions are close to the rules of lesser jihad in Islam, which is why the two are often compared. Surah 4:75 asks why Muslims would not fight for the oppressed who cry out for rescue. The argument is whether any modern war could really meet all of it.

Holy war in Arabic is Harb al-Maqadis. It is allowed only when strict conditions are met: persecution has become intense, freedom of worship is being taken away, Muslims have been attacked first, or the war is authorised by a prophet, a khalifah for Sunni Muslims, or one of the twelve Imams for Shi'a Muslims.

The list of what is never permitted is just as important: starting a war, harming civilians, attacking the leaders or places of worship of other faiths, forcing conversion, killing fellow Muslims, or attacking by surprise at night. Surah 8:61 commands that if the enemy leans towards peace, Muslims must lean with them, which most read as proof that fighting is only ever defence.

Weapons of mass destruction are nuclear, biological or chemical weapons that kill and destroy on a huge scale. Nuclear weapons were first used in the Second World War on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the effects lasted for generations.

The problems are enormous: the destruction cannot be measured, civilian deaths are certain, and health problems continue for decades. The argument in their favour is deterrence, countries are less likely to attack a country that has them. Surah 5:32 says killing one person is like killing all mankind, revealed fourteen centuries before such weapons existed. Most Muslims read that as ruling them out completely.

Christians believe marriage is a lifelong union made in front of God. Genesis 2:24 says the two 'become one flesh', a new unit joined by God. Its purposes are company, the right place for a sexual relationship, and raising children.

Many Christians, especially Catholics, call marriage a sacrament, a way God's grace reaches the couple. Cohabitation, living together without marrying, divides opinion: some liberal Christians accept it, while others say it falls short of God's plan. That divergence is exactly what examiners are looking for.

Adultery is sex with someone other than your husband or wife, and it is forbidden by the Ten Commandments. Jesus went further, teaching that even looking at someone lustfully is adultery in the heart. Faithfulness, for Christians, starts in the mind.

Christians diverge on sex before marriage. Catholics and many evangelicals teach chastity until marriage. Some liberal Christians accept a faithful, loving relationship outside it. Humanists judge it differently again: what matters is protection from harm, genuine consent, and a stable committed relationship, happiness and the good of the people involved rather than religious rules. Learn one religious and one non-religious view.

The local church supports families in practical ways as well as spiritual ones. Baptisms and dedications welcome children. Marriage preparation classes get couples ready for their vows. Family services and Sunday schools teach the faith. Counselling, food banks and parent-and-toddler groups carry families through hard weeks.

Jesus said, 'Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.' Christians believe the church is itself a family, there to carry each other's burdens, so no family should struggle alone. A common exam argument is whether real support now comes from the state instead.

Christians agree that men and women are equally valuable to God, both are made in his image, as Genesis 1:27 says. What they disagree about is whether equal value means identical roles inside the family.

Complementarian Christians read Ephesians 5 as giving husbands loving leadership and wives support: different roles, equal worth. Egalitarian Christians point to Galatians 3:28, 'neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus', and share every role equally. Naming both positions, and the verse each one rests on, is what lifts an answer.

There are four aims of punishment. Protection keeps society safe. Retribution makes criminals pay for what they did. Deterrence puts other people off offending. Reformation changes the criminal so they do not do it again.

Muslims diverge over which matters most. Some argue for retribution: in some Muslim countries offenders are punished publicly as payback for crimes such as theft. Others emphasise reformation, because Allah is merciful and forgiving, so people should be given the chance to change. Surah 4:26-31 speaks of God wishing to turn towards people in mercy. Retribution against reformation is the argument to be ready for.

Forgiveness means pardoning someone for a wrong they have done, and mercy sits at the very heart of Islam. Muslims begin 113 Surahs, and almost everything else, with 'In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy'. The Prophet Muhammad is the model: he forgave his persecutors when he returned to Makkah.

Islam puts forgiveness to work through restorative justice, in three steps: repentance from the offender, forgiveness from the victim or their family, and reconciliation between the two. Surah 64:14 promises that God is forgiving to those who forgive others. The hard question, and the usual debate, is whether some crimes are simply unforgivable.

Islam teaches that criminals must be treated humanely. Before the Prophet Muhammad, prisoners often had to work or beg for food. The Qur'an made feeding captives an act of charity. Surah 76:8 praises those who give food to the poor, the orphan and the captive.

Most Muslims believe the accused deserve a fair trial: public, timely, before an independent court, with a jury for serious crimes. On torture they diverge: groups such as IS have used it, but the majority reject it outright, because the Prophet never did. Two non-religious views are useful here: situation ethics, which asks what the most loving action is, and utilitarianism, which asks what brings the greatest good to the greatest number.

Capital punishment is the legal killing of a person for a crime. The Qur'an permits it for some offences, including murder, on the grounds that it protects society. A Hadith records the Prophet allowing it in three cases: a married adulterer, a murderer, and an apostate.

Muslims disagree sharply. Sunni and Twelver Shi'a Muslims accept that Hadith as binding. The Ahmadiyya reject it, arguing the Qur'an is the highest authority and it sets a different punishment for adultery and none at all for apostasy. Many non-religious people oppose the death penalty because mistakes cannot be undone. Naming which group holds which view is what separates a strong answer.