Living in the rule of law, you need to know a lot of nuances. For example, what is freedom of conscience. The Constitution of the Russian Federation has a separate article (No. 28) devoted to this issue.
For quite a long time, the state (and any other) sphere of life in Russia was inextricably linked with religion. The process that made our country a secular state was quite long. The prerequisites for this were observed even under Peter I, and the final picture was formed with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. However, the concept of "freedom of conscience" is related not only to religion. We can talk about the narrow and broad senses of this concept.
Freedom of conscience is the opportunity and right of any citizen to have their own convictions. This is in a broad sense. In the narrow sense, freedom of conscience and religion are, as it were, on the same level. At the same time, it is customary to say that a person has the right to profess any religion or not profess it at all.
What other features does a secular state have?
- in Russia, no faith should be recognized and considered official;
- absolutely all religiousorganizations are separate from the state, as well as equal before it and before the law;
- the same applies to citizens with different views on the world, religion. Any of them (whether Orthodox, Muslim, Buddhist or a representative of another religion) has the same rights and obligations as other people.
It is worth noting that if in 1917 the freedom of conscience in the Constitution assumed the complete separation of the church from the state. And in 1997, the Federal Law noted how important the role played by Orthodoxy in the history of Russia's development. That is why it is customary to celebrate many church holidays today among ordinary citizens as well.
The rapid development of science and the constant stunning discoveries give a person food for thought. They lead to the fact that he begins to demand and seek evidence for his beliefs. It is science that is the root cause of the fact that in all civilized states there is freedom of conscience. It allows you to choose what is closer to each individual person: critical thinking or reliance on higher powers. For the normal development of society, the presence of both groups of people is necessary.
However, today's democratic sentiments often lead to the fact that adherents of freedom of conscience are too zealous to defend their point of view. At the same time, hiding behind scientific arguments, they rarely differ from religious fanatics. And a variety of forms of freethinking (theism, nihilism, atheism, skepticism, and many others) acquire an extremely negative connotation. With anotherOn the other hand, the reaction of the clergy to some antics of representatives of various movements against the church (the case with the Pussy Riot group, for example) can also be too harsh. This provokes other people to fight against established religious traditions.
The perception of religion from a purely philosophical point of view is the most acceptable for humanity. This will allow everyone not only to learn to think, but also to accept and consider a variety of points of view and views of the world.
