Religion is everyone's personal business. Everyone has the right to free religion. That's what the law says.
However, one often has to deal with a peculiar attitude towards religion. Believers are looked upon as a different sort of people. They are not understood, they laugh at their beliefs, and even openly dislike them. Therefore, it is necessary to raise some burning questions.
Recession in society
As for Christianity, everything is very interesting here. When churches began to open in the early 1990s, people went there en masse. They were baptized, married, performed a funeral service in absentia. Entire families came to the temples.
Now churches are open, services are performed every day. The state is not against faith - go and pray. But few people go to the temple. For a modern person, going to church on Sunday is put on the same level as going to the gym. The hall is needed for he alth, but we go to church for spiritual healing. Both there and here it is necessary to make efforts. Only in the case of the gym it is clear what and howdo. And when a person begins to pray, he encounters a certain attitude towards religion and faith.
Other acquaintances just laugh at him. The posts are confusing. Entertainment restrictions are being laughed at.
And someone starts to attack the believer. Like, where is your God, since there is so much lawlessness in the world? And on this basis, communication is reduced to nothing.
In Russia, 90% of the population are baptized people. And only 3% of them go to church at most. De jure we are Christians, but in fact we know very little about God and we do not live at all as it should be for baptized people.
Social relations
There is no understanding of what religion is. Religion in social relations is a problem with much work to be done. And, in fact, there is no one to lead it.
Godless seventy years have not been in vain. There were only three theological seminaries in the Soviet Union. These are Moscow, Leningrad and Odessa. Among the clergy there was a resolution that was not advertised: to take there only those students who were "particularly" distinguished by their merits. And we are talking about bad differences. Losers and hooligans - the then students of theological seminaries.
And what kind of positive social attitude can we talk about? Although, oddly enough, the Orthodox Church kept afloat. Despite the strong desire of the authorities to destroy her and "show the last priest on TV".
Other religions
If we evaluate the current situation, we can see how thenumber of Muslims in our country. The attitude towards other religions is somewhat different than towards Christianity. Probably because the same Muslims will not allow to laugh at themselves and their faith. Most of them came from other countries. But they managed to put themselves in such a way that the owners are afraid to approach the guests and point out their place in case of incorrect behavior.
Muslims are allowed a lot. The fact that they celebrate their main holiday in Moscow testifies to this.
As for other religions, there are not so many of their representatives in Russia. They are treated with tolerance.
Church and religions
What is the relationship of the church to religions? The Orthodox Church considers them a delusion.
- Catholics are schismatics who fell away from the true doctrine in the 11th century. Replacing just one word in the prayer "Creed".
- Islam appeared 600 years after Christianity. And contrary to his teachings.
- Judaism is a separate issue. There are few of his followers in Russia. They mostly live in Israel.
The Orthodox Church forbids its flock any participation in the life of other confessions. This does not mean a ban on communication with Catholics or Muslims, as with people. But visiting their temples and taking part in the sacraments is unacceptable.
Did you know that…
A believer cannot always get the desired job. And it is true. For example, you want to go to work in the police. In addition to a medical examinationcommission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, yet to be psychological. Almost 400 questions are offered to the candidate. And among them there is a point about attitudes towards matters of faith.
What to write about the attitude towards religion, reaching this question? If you believe, then write the truth. An excellent explanation on this fact was given by one priest: "deny God for work … Like Judas for thirty pieces of silver."
Will the candidate be flunked? The question is moot. It depends on which psychologist will conduct the test. Others say that a policeman should only believe in the law. Others are quite loyal to his faith in God.
Are there "civilian" positions in which sincere faith is not acceptable, where they are asked to indicate their attitude to religion in the questionnaire? Perhaps, in some very large companies, when interviewing for a managerial position, something similar will occur. But in general, the manager is interested in the skills of a potential candidate for a vacancy. Not his religious beliefs.
Relations between religions
Relations between confessions cannot be called kind and good. Christianity is tolerant of certain religions. Does not call on his flock to destroy the "enemy in faith".
Muslims have a different attitude. For them, the Gentiles are enemies. Fortunately, most representatives of Islam restrain their impulses. And do not destroy Christians, Buddhists and other representatives of other faiths. But there are also those among them who will gladly cut the throat of an infidel.
Buddhist monks are indifferent to other religions. For them, the limit of perfection is the achievement of nirvana. That is, completerenunciation of the world.
Religion and law
If we consider the relationship between law and religion in the context of the church, then there is canon law. This is the foundation of church law.
It's no secret that the church and the state in Russia are friends with each other. Friendship is expressed in the fact that the state does not interfere in its issues. But it protects and supports when necessary. At the political level, all confessions legalized in our country play a certain role in some state issues.
Yes, the church has influence over the state. Denying it or closing your eyes is pointless. Though considered separate from him.
As for the state, everything is cunningly arranged here. We have freedom of religion. Anyone has the right to openly express their religious views. Here's the clue. It seems that everyone has equal rights, including people with an atheistic worldview, but everything is not so simple.
In fact, because of freedom of speech, conflicts flare up most often. People bump foreheads, speaking in plain language.
Religion and Philosophy
Another very important question. What is the relationship between philosophy and religion?
There is an opinion that philosophy can understand religion. The latter will never understand. Why so? Yes, because philosophy is built on intellectual considerations. Religion is based on a cult.
This opinion was expressed by Hegel. He believed that philosophy and religion are similar to each other. They have common ideas about the world. But there is alsosignificant difference. According to Hegel, philosophy is based on concepts and ideas. Representation refers specifically to sensory images. And religion is based only on them. That is why philosophy can understand religion. And the latter, in turn, is able to understand only what has the same point of view with her.
Is there a philosophical faith? Oddly enough, yes. The attitude to religion from this point of view is different. Man wants to know what he believes in. Here religion and knowledge go hand in hand. A person strives for understanding, which means that in addition to the emphasis on cult, faith and revelation, there is also an emphasis on thought. The philosophical approach to religion is the understanding of what you believe. Trying to understand what is possible.
Religion as knowledge of the world
The emphasis should be placed here: Christianity. Agree, it is very difficult to believe what is written in the Bible. In ancient times there were pagans. They worshiped their gods, when suddenly they began to preach the Revelation of God. A certain Moses came and said that he spoke with the real God. What He told the prophet is written in the Bible.
Can you imagine, in our time? A man will come and claim to be a prophet. How to treat it? Others will twist a finger at the temple, drive away. And someone will believe and follow him.
But we digress. Do you know that the Bible is one of the proofs that the Christian teaching is true? And now let's talk about this topic.
Creation of the world
Attitude towards Orthodox religion can be different: someonebelieves, some do not. To each his own.
Let's talk about the creation of the world. The Bible says that God spent seven days on this. Only we do not mean our day, in which there are 24 hours. The Lord has a different time.
Take the first day. The universe did not exist before. There was only chaos. Further, God created the heavens and the earth, and separated the light from the darkness. Some scientists identify this period with the pregeological era of the Earth.
Reptiles
When it comes to the creation of the world by God, people love to remember dinosaurs. Like, they lived an entire era, but the Bible speaks of days.
But believers will object that God has a thousand years as one day. And a day is like a thousand years. The era of dinosaurs is consistent with this statement. And the fifth day is understood not as a daily cycle, but as a whole epoch.
After all, by and large, mythical dragons are the same dinosaurs. They have survived to this day. They just don't look as intimidating. For example, a crocodile is a reptile, but is distantly related to fossil ancestors, because dinosaurs inhabited not only land. They flew through the air and lived in the water. And all reptiles, in general, went from them. Only changed over time.
Plants
As we know, before animals were created, plants were created. This is the fourth day.
There is a lot of evidence that the first plants were huge. The earth gave birth to everything in large volumes. So mosses and algae grew so huge that they were many times higher than the height of the current trees.
As in the case of dinosaurs, plants changed their appearance forcertain period. This was facilitated by climate change in the environment.
God was preparing the planet for the appearance of man. And by His order, everything that He considered necessary changed. These are the ideas about the creation of the world, according to Christian beliefs.
Man
Evidence of a negative attitude towards the Christian religion are disputes about the appearance of man. Darwin's theory, which we remember from the school curriculum, says: we are the descendants of monkeys.
There is such an Orthodox lecturer - Khrenova Anna Yurievna. Her lectures talk about the possible origin of man.
It is possible that the Lord took the highest animal (in our case - a monkey), and in its external likeness made a man. Hence the general similarity between us and primates. So the orangutan, gorilla and chimpanzee are our closest "relatives".
Conclusion
We talked about attitudes towards religion in society. Although in a civilized society people are free in religion, but still, sincere faith is not encouraged. And to the question of what to write about your attitude to religion in the questionnaire, you can answer that sometimes it is more appropriate to keep silent about your true views.
Perhaps these are echoes of godless years. Orthodox are considered at least strange. There is no persecution, as such, but there is no special disposition towards believers either.
And it turns out a paradox: on the one hand, temples are being built, the state does not interfere in the affairs of religion. On the other hand, the veiled discontent has not disappeared anywhere, it just looks different.
