Religion is an integral part of the spiritual life of society. Probably everyone knows what religion is, its definition can be formed as follows: it is faith in divine or supernatural forces, in the power of Providence. Of course, a person can live without religion, there are about 4-5 percent of atheists in the world. However, the religious worldview forms high moral values in a believer,
therefore, religion is one of the factors in reducing crime in modern society. Also, religious communities actively promote a he althy lifestyle, support the institution of the family, condemn deviant behavior, all this also contributes to maintaining order in society.
However, despite the seeming simplicity of the question of religion, the best scientific minds for many centuries have tried to understand the phenomenon of humanity's indestructible faith in forces that are much stronger than us, in something that no one has ever seen. Thus, one of the directions of philosophical thought was formed,called philosophy of religion. She deals with such issues as the study of the phenomenon of religion, the religious worldview, the possibility of knowing the divine essence, as well as attempts to prove or disprove the existence of God.
The philosophy of religion was studied by such prominent scientists as Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Feuerbach, Huxley, Nietzsche, Dewey and many others. The philosophy of religion was born in Ancient Greece in the Hellenistic period, its main question was how to get rid of the problems of being and merge with the Divine. During this period
an epistemological worldview is emerging, however, knowledge was interpreted not as an objective study of the surrounding material world, but as a process of receiving divine revelation. Gradually, all Greek philosophical schools - Platonic, Skinic, Aristotelian, Sketic and many others - begin to be imbued with this idea, this situation persisted until the period of the decline of Greek culture.
In the era of the Middle Ages, when all spheres of society were totally controlled by the Church, religion becomes the only way to know being, the only law - the Holy Scriptures. One of the strongest currents of religious philosophy of that time was patristics (the teaching of the "fathers of the church") and scholasticism, which defended the foundations of Christianity and the institution of the church.
As an independent discipline, the philosophy of religion was born in the era of
Renaissance when philosophers subjecteddoubted many church doctrines and defended the right to independently consider religious issues. The brightest philosophers of that time are Spinoza (the unity of nature and God), Kant (God is a postulate of practical reason, religious requirements should be met only because society needs people with high morals), whose views were also held by his followers: Schleiermacher and Hegel. The philosophy of religion of the era of bourgeois prosperity is characterized by increasing criticism of religion, the desire for atheism, which threatened the very existence of philosophical religion as a research discipline.
