Social and Religious Studies

Key unit competence: A learner will be able to differentiate and protect God’s

creatures and environment.

                                                            Learning objectives

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

    • Identify different names of God and those of creatures.

   • Outline their importance in daily life.

   • State positive measures taken for protection of environment and creature.

Skills

     • Illustrate different creatures

    • Explain how God created creatures.

Attitudes and values

   • Appreciate the importance of each God’s creatures.

   • Respect and protect Creatures and environment.

   • Take a positive attitude of helping others and caring for domestic animals found in

his/her home environment.

Introductory activity

Look at the picture and answer the questions.

   1. Do you know the difference between a wild animal and a domesticated animal?

   2. What are the names of some domesticated animals?

  3. How do the domesticated animals benefit us? 

  4. What happens if we do not take care of our animals and farms?

1.1 The names and attributes of God

Elohim to refer to God. Other religions have different names, for example,

Islam uses the name Allah.

Activity

Make a list of all the names you use to refer to God.

The attributes of God

The word attributes means qualities or characteristics.

The attributes of God help us to understand who He really is. In the Bible we

are told that the attributes of God are

love, being almighty, omnipotent, omnipresent, transcendent and omniscient.

God is love

God loves us so much that He gave us His only son Jesus. If we believe in

Him we can have eternal life.

God is Almighty

When we say God is almighty, it means he can do anything. He has power

and authority over all the creation.

God is omnipresent

Omnipresence means that God is everywhere at the same time.

God is omnipotent

Omnipotent means all-powerful. God is omnipotent because He is allpowerful

in the universe.

God is omniscient

Omniscient means all knowing.

God is all-knowing

We cannot hide anything from Him.

God is transcendent

Transcendent means going beyond our human experience.

God is greater than all of creation.

Activity 1.2

 Match the Bible references in the left-hand column of the table with the correct 

description in the right-hand column.

Exercise 

   1. List two names that are used by Christians for God.

   2. What is the name given to God in Islam?

   3. Describe six attributes of God.

   4. What is the difference between being omnipotent and omniscient?

Homework

Draw a picture showing how you imagine God and write a short description about each of the six attributes of God.

1.2 God created and named every creature for a pur-pose

  God created the universe and everything in it.

All the plants, animals, birds and fish, as well as human beings, were created by  God. 

The Bible tells us that God created the universe in six days and on the seventh day He rested. 

First He created Earth, which was covered with water. Then He separated day from night and the oceans from the land.

 After this He created the plants, then the birds and fish. Next came the animals and, finally, human beings. 

At the same time, God blessed all the creatures and plants and told them to reproduce and fill the earth.

Activity

Do this activity.

1. Read the story of creation in Genesis 1: 1–31.

2. Draw a picture showing a timeline of how God created the world in six days. 

     Draw what happend on each day.

1.2.1 All creatures are important

Everything was created for a purpose and all living things, no matter how big or small, depend on each other. 

This is why it is important that we respect and take care of all living things.

eat. Some wild animals hunt and eat other animals for food. Some wild animals eat plants. 

Everything has a purpose and a use. Did you know that cattle benefit from birds called cattle-egrets

 to pick the ticks off them? Everything has a purpose.

Activity

1.3 God expects us to take care of His creation

In Genesis 1:28 God said: “I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds and all the wild animals.” 

This means that we are expected to take care of the Earth and everything that lives on it.

God wants us to care for His creation and look after it. This also means that we must not spoil or damage the environment.

If we pollute the land, it cannot be used for farming and animals have nowhere to live. 

If we chop down all the trees for firewood, then the soil can be swept away because there is nothing to hold it down.

Water is the home of many animals such as fish, hippopotamus and crocodiles. 

When we pollute the seas and rivers, we poison aquatic animals.

Mammals, such as dolphins, can choke on plastic that they swallow, or they can get caught up in old fishing lines and drown.

                  You can help to take care of the environment.

If we pollute the atmosphere with smoke from factories and cars, then it is no longer healthy to breathe in.

Did you know that in some cities the pollution from cars and factories is so 

 bad that people wear masks when they are outside?

Did you know that in some cities the pollution from cars and factories is so bad that 

people wear masks when they are outside?

We can all help to take care of the environment

Every small thing that we do to protect our environment is important. We can:

•  plant more trees
•  pick up rubbish and broken glass
•  try to save water.

Activity

Protecting your school is a very important part of caring for the environment. 

Make a plan of how you can help maintain your school. For example, you can collect waste paper,

 clean up rubbish or make a vegetable garden. Share your ideas with the rest of the class

                            We can all help by picking up rubbish.

Checklist of learning

In this unit, I have learnt that:

End unit assessment

Make sure you are able to do the following on your own.

1. Explain how you can show love to your peers in class.

2. Look at the following words and pick out the ones that describe the attributes of God:

•  love
•  dominating
•  unreachable
•  almighty
•  omnipotent
•  impatient
•  omnipresent
•  uncaring
•  transcendent
•  weak
•  omniscient.

3. Draw a picture of a house and garden that has been looked after and cared for.