Living in a state of law, you need to know many nuances. For example, what freedom of conscience is. The Constitution of the Russian Federation has a separate article (No. 28) dedicated 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 lengthy. 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 meanings of this concept.
Freedom of conscience is an opportunity and the right of any citizen to have his own convictions. It is in a broad sense. In the narrow, freedom of conscience and religion stand, as it were, on the same level. Moreover, it is customary to say that a person has the right to profess any religion or not to profess it at all.
What other signs does a secular state have?
- in Russia, no faith should be recognized and considered official;
- absolutely all religious organizations are separated from the state, and are equal before it and before the law;
- the same applies to citizens with different views of 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 freedom of conscience in the Constitution assumed a complete separation of the church from the state. And in 1997, the Federal Law noted how important the role Orthodoxy played in the history of Russia's development. That is why it is customary to celebrate many church holidays today among ordinary citizens.
The rapid development of science and constant overwhelming discoveries give people food for thought. They lead to the fact that he begins to demand and seek evidence for his beliefs. That science 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 trust in 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 too zealously begin to defend their point of view. At the same time, hiding behind scientific arguments, they rarely differ from religious fanatics. And the most different forms of free thought (the struggle against God, nihilism, atheism, skepticism and many others) acquire an extremely negative connotation. On the other hand, the reaction of the clergy to some antics of representatives of various movements against the church (the case of the Pussy Riot group, for example) may also be too harsh. This also provokes other people to struggle with 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 the most diverse points of view and worldviews.
