Year 11 - Religious education
Divergent funeral rites
Memory: what happens to us and our memories when we die?
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit invites pupils to consider religious and non-religious responses to death. They will examine differing views. They will consider how the dead may be remembered through ritual or legacy. They will consider how attitudes are changing and the possibilities technology may offer in the future.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to compare some of the key decisions made about funerals and some of the beliefs that may influence these.
Key Notes
- How a body is treated after death varies widely between religions, worldviews and cultures.
- For many people it is important to honour and mourn loved ones.
- One decision to be made is between burial or cremation.
- Some religions believe a burial is preferable due to the physical body being required for resurrection.
- Followers of Dharmic traditions are typically cremated and ashes scattered in water.
Vocabulary To Learn
- buried / burial: the act or ceremony of putting a dead body into a grave in the ground
- cremated / cremation: the act or process of burning something
- funeral: a ceremony that is held when the body of someone who has died is buried or cremated
- memorial: a statue or structure established to remind people of a person or event
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- More people are buried in the UK than cremated.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
How a body is treated after death varies widely between religions, worldviews and cultures. For many people it is important to honour and mourn loved ones.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'buried / burial'
the act or ceremony of putting a dead body into a grave in the ground.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: More people are buried in the UK than cremated. Correction: Data from 2024 shows that 80% of UK funerals were cremations.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 11 Religious education guide library.