Scientists have different opinions about the essence of religion and its origin. For example, the American philosopher and psychologist W. James considered religious beliefs to be innate, the source of which is something supernatural. The French sociologist E. Durkheim attributed to religion social ideas, ideas and beliefs that are mandatory for all members of society and thereby bind members of society and subordinate individuals to society. The German philosopher L. Feuerbach viewed religion as a reflection of being. He believed that it was not God who created man, but man who created God in his own image and likeness. Austrian psychologist 3. Freud defined religion as a collective obsessional neurosis, as a mass illusion, which is based on the unsatisfied repression of unconscious drives. Marxist philosophy believes that religion is a fantastic reflection in the minds of people of those external forces that dominate them in their daily life. The root of religion is the real practical powerlessness of a person, first before natural, then before social phenomena, expressed in the fact that he cannot independently ensure the success of his activities. There are also other views of philosophers and scientists on the problem of the origin and existence of religion.
Theologians, however, in the question of the origin of religion, rely on the Holy Scriptures. So, in the Bible, the holy book of Christians, in the second book of Moses "Exodus" in chapter 20 it is said that on Mount Sinai God gave the Israelites "prescriptions and laws" of the future life:
- 1. And God spoke [to Moses] all these words, saying:
- 2. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
- 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
- 4. Do not make yourself an idol and no image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth;
- 5. Do not worship them and do not serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing children for the guilt of fathers up to the third and fourth generation who hate Me,
- 6. And he who shows mercy to a thousand generations to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
- 7. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who utters His name in vain.
- 8. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy;
- 9. Work for six days and do [in them] all thy works,
- 10. And the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God: do not do any work on this, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your handmaid, nor [your ox, nor your donkey, nor any] cattle. yours, nor the stranger who is in your dwellings;
- 11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it.
- 12. Honor your father and your mother, [so that it may be well with you and] that your days may be prolonged on the land which the Lord your God gives you.
- 13. Don't kill.
- 14. Do not commit adultery.
- 15. Don't steal.
- 16. Do not bear false testimony against your neighbor.
- 17. Do not covet your neighbor's house; do not covet your neighbor's wife, [not his field,] nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, [nor any of his livestock,] anything that is with your neighbor.
- 18. All the people saw thunders and flames, and the sound of a trumpet, and a steaming mountain; and when they saw it, [all] the people departed and stood afar off.
- 19. And they said to Moses: Speak with us, and we will listen, but lest God speak with us, so that we do not die.
- 20. And Moses said to the people: Do not be afraid; God [to you] has come to test you and to have His fear in your face, so that you do not sin.
The holy book of Muslims, the Koran, says: “O people! Fear the Lord, who created you out of one soul and made her a pair for her, and from them he spread many men and women. And fear Allah, with whom you beg each other, and family ties. Indeed, Allah is the overseer over you! " ...
In Buddhism, Buddha is not the creator and ruler of the world. He only enlightens the believer and points out the way to go.
- Bible. Old Testament. The second book of Moses. Exodus. Chapter 20.
Religion, like any other forms of social consciousness, having arisen in ancient times in the course of history, developed, replenished with new content, acquired myths, legends and traditions, and ultimately transformed into developed and widely ramified religious systems.
Numerous tribes and peoples of the world, in accordance with the level of their cultural and intellectual development, social, natural - geographical and other living conditions, developed and formed a certain set of ideas and ideas about the world around, natural and social phenomena and processes. However, in the primitive era, due to the limited cognitive capabilities and primitiveness of abstract thinking, this process proceeded in a complex and contradictory manner.
Being in captivity of the natural elements, especially in the Paleolithic and Early Neolithic, characterized by especially terrible natural disasters and a constant threat from the now extinct large predatory animals, people experienced constant, insurmountable psychological tension in its negative emotional expression. Not understanding the true causes of the phenomena and processes taking place, being almost completely dependent on hostile natural forces, primitive man, by analogy with himself, in accordance with his own nature, endowed them with supernatural qualities and properties. Imagining and thinking behind every manifestation of spirits hostile to him, but more powerful than themselves, people, trying to appease them, to please them, have developed a whole complex of appropriate rituals, accompanying them with verbal prayers and incantations. At the same time, concrete images of these spirits, personifying various natural forces and phenomena, were formed in the imagination of people. They were overgrown with myths and legends that took root in the mind, were invariably reproduced and passed on from generation to generation. This is how mythology arises.
Identifying the causes and origins of these ideas, representations and actions in the primitive public consciousness, which have transformed into modern, developed religious systems, is one of the most difficult problems of the science of religious studies. Meanwhile, modern religious studies have identified four most important sources or reasons for the emergence of religion, which are commonly called the roots of religion, these are:
Social roots - the conditions of social life of people;
Cognitive or epistemological roots - the process of a person's cognition of the surrounding world of things, phenomena and processes;
Psychological roots - emotional and psychological states of a person, their dynamics, conditioned by living conditions;
Historical roots - the transmission of ready-made religious ideas and representation and their reproduction in the minds of subsequent generations.
Based on the obvious fact that a person's consciousness determines and shapes his social being, that is, the process of cognition, awareness and understanding by him of the essence of the objects around him, phenomena and processes of relations and interaction of people in society, in other words, the development of nature, rules and laws of social life, the most important factors, causes or roots of religion should be recognized as social roots. In accordance with this, the social roots of religion are those objective factors of social life that necessarily generate and reproduce religious beliefs. At the same time, some beliefs are determined by the relationship of people to nature, others - by the relationship between people themselves or social relations. Of course, it should be borne in mind that not every kind of relationship can give rise to religion, or be reflected in consciousness in religious images, actions, forms.
In an ancient primitive society, with a low level of productive forces, weak human equipment and limited knowledge about the world around him, the most important factors of religious reflection are the elemental forces of nature that dominate people in their daily life, and on whose actions they are in absolute dependence. These are: floods, droughts, epidemics, earthquakes, etc. These and other, causally unconscious, phenomena found a fantastic reflection in the minds of primitive man, as a result of which the whole world was spiritualized, filled with spirits - patrons of natural phenomena and, at the same time, the stronger and more formidable the phenomenon of nature, the higher in rank the corresponding spirit stood. Later, these spirits began to be called gods (the god of thunder, the god of the ocean, the god of the sun, etc.) and the result is polytheism.
With the emergence of a class society, social forces, no less hostile to man, come into the arena - class oppression, the exploitation of man by man. An important element is also the spontaneous nature of social development, when it is impossible to foresee its social consequences. Numerous uprisings of slaves, peasants and hired workers were suppressed with incredible cruelty, as a result of which they lost all hope of emancipation on their own, fell into a state of despair and hopelessness, as a result of which the oppressed masses transferred more and more hopes to a supernatural divine savior. It should be emphasized that the oppressed classes and estates, in full agreement with the scriptures, were taught that class inequality and domination were predetermined by God for eternity and, as a result, is an immutable law of life, and any discontent and protest movements are considered as a protest against the will god.
The real expression of the social roots of religion is found in the social consciousness formed as a result of cognitive activity. It should be noted that outside of cognitive activity, no ideas and ideas, including religious beliefs, can arise.
The cognitive or epistemological roots of religion are the conditions, prerequisites and opportunities for the formation of religious beliefs, ideas, ideas, concepts that arise as a result of cognitive activity. Cognition is a process of transition from ignorance to knowledge. A person cognizes the surrounding objects, phenomena, processes, their properties and connections, himself, the social conditions of life, in aggregate, that make up the social life of people. At the same time, the process of cognition proceeds in a complex and contradictory manner. Since ancient times, the difficult conditions of existence forced a person to delve into and understand what was happening around, to look for and find methods and methods of protection from the forces of nature hostile to him. As a result of such searches and observations, he found answers to many questions. However, due to the limited thinking, cognitive capabilities, the bulk of more complex phenomena remained inaccessible to his understanding. Attempts to understand and explain them by means of heightened imagination and primitive abstraction led to a departure from reality, to false results and, ultimately, found inadequate reflection in consciousness, on the basis of which religious beliefs arose.
Along with the social conditions of life and cognitive activity, psychological or emotional components play an important role in the emergence and reproduction of religion: feelings, moods, and experiences of people. There are two types of human emotional states: positive and negative, while the main role is played by negative emotions arising from fear, despair, grief, grief, loneliness, a state of hopelessness, etc. Fear plays the most important role. The role of fear in the sphere of religious reflection of reality was noted by ancient thinkers. Roman poet of the 1st century. AD Station is credited with the catchphrase "Fear created the gods", which has a deep and real meaning. This, of course, is not about any experience of this feeling (for example, an isolated incident with an individual person), but as a constant, repetitive, stable and everyday experience. At the same time, the constant accumulation and strengthening of negative experiences should be combined with the lack of real opportunities, forces and means to overcome them. Finding himself in such a desperate situation, a person seeks salvation in religion, especially since religion and the church convince and form in people a belief in liberation from suffering through faith in God, opposing this, supposedly predetermined by God himself, and therefore inevitable suffering in real life on earth, eternal luxurious life in the other world.
As for the historical background, it is the continuity of the transmission from generation to generation, the knowledge and experience developed and accumulated by mankind, customs, traditions, myths, legends, traditions, including religious beliefs, rituals and traditions.
Introduction
Taking as the starting point of view that culture is everything that is created by man, his “second nature”, we must determine for ourselves whether religion is an element of culture, or, as theologians say, is the result of “revelation”? Religion as a system of beliefs, cult and religious institutions implementing it, of course, is a product of the human mind and human activity, therefore, in this essay, it will be considered as a cultural phenomenon inherent in all peoples, unfolding in different cultural environments, which determines the diversity of religions.
Religion arises in the history of mankind together with a person's awareness of himself and opposing himself to the surrounding reality. Traditionally, the emergence of religious ideas about the world is associated with the process of deification of nature, which acts in relation to man as an omnipotent, higher, uncontrollable principle, which requires worship.
The question of religion in our time is very relevant not only among the older generation, but also among my peers. For example, in the university where I study, you can meet students who adhere to any religion. Among my acquaintances there are students who preach Islam or Christianity, some would like to preach Buddhism, and some are just atheists.
The purpose of my essay is to find out what place religion occupies in the cultural system.
The objectives of my essay are to consider the essence and origin of religion, as well as its main directions. Also, an important task is to consider the essence and functions of culture. Study the architecture, painting and literature of the world religions: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
In this work, I used various Internet sources, where I found a lot of interesting things related to the topic of my abstract. Of course, I found a lot about Buddhism and Islam, but I did not find anything specific about Christianity, only bare facts that are not interesting to everyone, but I would like to study in more detail the art of Christianity
Chapter 1. The concept of religion
Objective: to consider the essence, origin and main directions of religion, the essence and functions of culture.
The essence and origin of religion
Objective: to consider the essence and origin of religion.
Religion is a special form of understanding the world, conditioned by belief in the supernatural, which includes a set of moral norms and types of behavior, rituals, cult actions and uniting people in an organization (church, religious community).
Other definitions of religion:
One of the forms of social consciousness; a set of spiritual ideas based on belief in supernatural forces and beings (gods, spirits) that are the subject of worship.
Organized worship of higher powers. Religion not only represents a belief in the existence of higher forces, but establishes a special relationship to these forces: it is, therefore, a certain activity of the will directed towards these.
The religious system of representing the world (worldview) is based on faith or mystical experience and is associated with the relationship to unknowable and immaterial entities. Of particular importance for religion are concepts such as good and evil, morality, the purpose and meaning of life, etc.
The basics of religious concepts of most world religions are written by people in sacred texts, which, according to believers, are either dictated or inspired directly by God or gods, or written by people who have reached the highest level of spiritual development from the point of view of this religion, great teachers, especially enlightened or initiated, saints, etc.
Religion as a phenomenon inherent in human society throughout a significant part of its history, and religious beliefs are still characteristic of the vast majority of the world's population.
In religion, two sides can be considered: the external, as it appears to an outside observer, and the internal, which is revealed to the believer who lives in accordance with the spiritual and moral principles of the given religion.
From the outside, religion is, first of all, a worldview that includes a number of provisions (truths), without which (at least without one of them) it loses itself, degenerating or into witchcraft, occultism and similar pseudo-religious forms, which are only products of its decay, perversion, or into a religious-philosophical system of thought that has little effect on the practical life of a person. The religious worldview always has a social character and expresses itself in a more or less developed organization (church) with a certain structure, morality, rules of life for its followers, cult, etc.
From the point of view of the famous evolutionist and popularizer of scientific atheism R. Dawkins, described in the book "God as an illusion", religion is presented as a by-product of some socially useful phenomenon that has the characteristics of a "mental virus" - a meme.
In Marxism, it is believed that the root of religion is the real practical powerlessness of a person, manifested in his daily life, expressed in the fact that he cannot independently ensure the success of his activities. There is a well-known expression of the Marxists that "religion is the opium of the people."
According to the concept of the "pre-religious period", in the history of mankind there was a period when there were no religious ideas. Subsequently, for one reason or another, people developed religious beliefs. But the idea of a “pre-religious period” still does not explain how religious ideas emerged among people. From antiquity to the present day, some atheistically inclined thinkers have expressed the opinion that a person's belief in supernatural forces arose as a result of fear of natural elements, or as a result of deception of some people by others, or the deification of real kings and heroes of antiquity. But these ideas have not received real scientific substantiation.
Some researchers completely reject the concept of a "pre-religious period" and argue that modern ethnography does not know a single people, not a single tribe that does not have a religious tradition, is pre-religious.
From the point of view of the theory of Pramonotheism, religion existed in human society from the very beginning, that is, from the moment of the appearance of man. For the first time as a scientifically grounded concept of pramonotheism was formulated by the Scottish scientist and writer E. Lang. According to this theory, in all the variety of existing and existed religions, one can find echoes of the ancient, original belief in the One God-Creator, which preceded all known religions.
Conclusion: in this way, I considered the concept of religion. The bottom line is that since ancient times, people have believed in and worshiped supernatural forces. Perhaps this is due to the fact that at that time people could not explain many incomprehensible, inexplicable things, and therefore they referred to supernatural forces. And worship is driven by fear of the unknown. Also in this sub-chapter there are several theories about how the religion originated. Each scientist has his own view on this issue, they are all equally interesting and each scientist is to some extent right in some way.
2.1. Chance and superstition. Neurosis and religion
Having postulated the determinism of any psychic phenomena and the possibility, if correctly interpreted, to foresee their further consequences, Freud could not help but notice that in the role of predictor of the future psychoanalysis is very reminiscent of pseudoscientific superstition.
Freud considered superstition to be the result of projection, i.e. the transfer by a person outside of the unconscious motives of his behavior. Vaguely sensing the inner conditioning of his actions, but not finding a satisfactory explanation for them, a superstitious person, like a paranoid, begins to place their source in the external world. This mechanism, according to Freud, underlies all forms of superstition, including the most massive and stable superstition of mankind - religion.
Freud tries to “find the earthly core” of vague religious ideas, to reduce “heavenly” to “earthly”. He sees in religion a mystified psychology, which science must clear from the burden of "sacred" layers. The productivity of this method was brilliantly proved by Feuerbach in The Origin of Christianity and Lectures on the Essence of Religion. Freud, who saw in religion only a projection of intrapsychic processes, made a mistake - he anthropologized and psychologized religion.
Psychoanalytic supporters often argue that by introducing the concept of the unconscious, Freud revolutionized religion. In fact, the priority in this matter does not belong to Freud. Half a century before him, Feuerbach in his "Lectures on the Essence of Religion" wrote that the subject of religion is not only the external nature, but the internal nature of man. The secret of religion is, in the final analysis, the secret of combining consciousness with the unconscious. A person with his “I” or with consciousness stands on the edge of a bottomless abyss, which, however, is nothing more than his own unconscious being, which seems to be alien to him. A feeling that gripped a person in the face of this abyss and poured out in words of amazement: what am I? where? why? - in fact, there is a religious feeling, a feeling that “I” is nothing without some “Not-I”, before which a person experiences the same dependence and fear, as well as before the uncontrollable elements of nature. Therefore, often among believers there are often people for whom cult, as a habitual form of behavior, is the basis of a connecting thread with religion.
Comparing the ritualism of the neurotic and the believer, Freud wrote that “it is easy to see what the neurotic’s similarity to the sacred ritual of a religious ritual is: in remorse for non-performance in complete isolation (prohibition to interfere) and conscientious fulfillment of trifles”.
2.2. The origin of religion
The blurring of boundaries between individual and social, psychological and social, norm and pathology, health and disease, served as a methodological prerequisite for a wide series of historical and psychological parallels that formed the basis of the psychoanalytic concept of the origin of religion.
In the work "Totem and Taboo" Freud considered, by his own definition, he tried to "develop with the help of psychoanalysis the problem of peoples which led directly to the origin of the most important cultural institutions, state orders, morality and religion, as well as to the prohibitions of incest and the command of conscience."
Freud was well acquainted with contemporary historical, religious and entographic literature on the problem of totemism. True, none of these theories satisfied Freud, for, from his point of view, they were all too rational. Psychological theories linked the emergence of totemism with belief in spirits, with fear of demons, i.e. in essence, they identified totemism with animism.
In criticizing this approach to the problem of totemism, Freud displayed a certain permeability. According to Freud, all existing theories did not reveal the deep origins of totemism, and in order to fill this gap, he takes on a bold attempt to illuminate with the help of the psychoanalytic method what remained dark and doubtful in the psychology of peoples.
Freud's research into the essence and nature of totemism is based on the idea of a fundamental similarity between the phenomena of social and individual psychology. “In the mental life of nations,” he writes, “… similar processes and connections, which were revealed with the help of psychoanalysis in an individual, should be discovered”. In every civilized person, Freud argued, there is a savage. And this statement was not a simple metaphor for the founder of psychoanalysis. Each person, according to Freud, from birth carries the burden of the archaic heritage of mankind, which "includes not only predispositions, but also the ideological content, traces of memories, the experience of previous generations."
According to Freud, the mental heritage of the past deposited in the unconscious sphere does not remain inactive. It constantly makes itself felt, manifesting itself in many disguised forms. This archaic past reveals itself most clearly at moments when control from the side of consciousness weakens. Such a state inherent in all people is sleep. Therefore, Freud considered dreams to be the first place of residence of the past in the spiritual life of man. Freud views sleep as an example of regression, a return to the past, as a form of revival of ancient instinctive impulses, as a restoration of “primitive narcissism”.
Freud considered childhood to be another location of the past. The analogy between the dawn of civilization and human childhood, between a savage and a child, gained wide popularity at the beginning of the twentieth century among representatives of the social sciences, who mechanically transferred the dialectics of the evolution of biological species into the field of social development. Its essence consisted in the fact that a child in the process of growth briefly repeats the path of spiritual development of mankind, consistently moving from prelogical religious-magical forms of world perception to modern scientific thinking. In the period of childhood, a person, according to Freud, must go a long way from the Stone Age to participation in modern civilization.
The third refuge of the past, according to Freud, is disease. The view of mental disorder as a "regression", the return of the psyche to lower stages of development, was not original. This idea was defended by the German idealist psychologist K.G. Carus. Later, other scientists developed a similar point of view. Summing up and bringing these ideas to their logical conclusion, Freud came to a direct identification of abnormality with primitiveness. Freud argued that the main complex of neurosis lies in the attitude towards parents who are in the grip of incestuous desires, i.e. is the very complex that is inherent in any child and must be overcome in the process of his growth and development.
The circle, as you can see, has closed. The purpose of analogies and assimilation led Freud to the following: since the main characteristics of taboo and obsessive compulsive neurosis coincide, and the psychological mechanism of neurosis is known, he decides, by analogy with taboo, to model the mechanism of action of taboo.
The strongholds of Freud's concept of the origin of totemism were the psychoanalytic interpretation of child sexuality, the concept of the origin of meals and the theory of the “cyclopean family”.
According to Freud, taboos are meant to curb sexual, aggressive, selfish drives and impulses. This is where the demarcation line between taboo and neurosis lies.
2.3. Taboo as a form of social regulation
The main reason for Freud's failure in the field of historical religious studies is rooted in the original predestination of his concept, which arose before and independently of the study of concrete historical reality. It was impossible to accomplish this task without violence over facts. The arbitrariness in the selection and interpretation of empirical material makes itself felt already in the first essays of Totem and Taboo, devoted to the analysis of primitive tattooing. This phenomenon was first discovered at the end of the 15th century by the English navigator Cook in Polynesia. Later, similar forms of social regulation were discovered among many peoples of the world. The very concept of "taboo" has a dual meaning (holy; forbidden) and means a categorical prohibition. Freud begins his study of the essence of taboo with the already well-known thesis about the similarity between religion and neurosis, illustrated this time on the material of the primitive taboo.
Looking at the taboo from this angle, Freud comes to the conclusion that the taboo is a very ancient prohibition, imposed by someone from outside by some authority and directed against the strongest desires of people. A strong desire to violate it remains in the unconscious.
But no matter how great the resemblance, taboo is still not a neurosis. Unlike neurosis, it has not sexual, but social origin, i.e. initiated by social instincts that have arisen from the fusion of egoistic and erotic components.
Freud devotes two essays to the analysis of the psychological mechanisms of the emergence of the functioning of the institution of primitive “taboo”: “Fear of incest” and “Taboo and ambivalence of feelings”. Understanding "taboo", according to Freud, is the result of assimilating it to obsessions. Both are inherent in:
• lack of motivation - their origin is unknown, there is no rational justification;
• compulsion - their observance occurs as if against the will and desire of the individual;
Ability to shift - taboo objects can transfer their dangerous properties to other objects and persons:
· Ritualism - observance and especially violation of the prohibition is usually accompanied by a complex magical action of the ceremonial.
Gradually, various types of taboos became ever more closely intertwined with religion and, in the end, dissolved in the system of religious and moral precepts and prohibitions. The apparent arbitrariness and irrationality of the taboo is explained not by the dominant role of the unconscious, but by the conditions and prerequisites that gave rise to this form of social regulation.
Freud's point about the unconscious, ambivalent nature of the taboo certainly deserves attention, although these properties do not have the universal meaning that psychoanalysis attaches to them.
2.4. The theory of atheism
Concluding the review of Freud's religious conception, it should be said about his understanding of the psychological nature of atheism. In his works, he proceeded from the ideas of parallelism of individual and historical development. If religion grows out of the difficulties of going through the Oedipus complex, then atheism, according to Freud, is rooted in overcoming them productively. “Psychoanalysis,” Freud wrote, “taught us to see the intimate connection between the paternal complex and belief in God, he showed us that a personal God is psychologically nothing more than an idealized father, and we observe every day that young people lose their religious faith as soon as the authority of the father is crumbling ”. So, for example, categorically denying the idea of the inspiration of religion, Freud at the same time inclined to the conclusion about the innate nature of the religious need, conditioned by the Oedipus complex. Branding religion as a “collective obsessional neurosis”, as a “mass illusion,” he simultaneously saw in it a salvation from individual forms of neurotization. But in psychoanalysis, theologians found for themselves not only a scientific foundation of religious irrationalism and pessimism, but also a powerful help in their practical activities. There are many examples in the history of science that show that personal rejection of religion, not based on scientific foundations, either remains a private factor in biography, or degenerates into nihilistic rebellion that does not have any serious social consequences. Moreover, devoid of positive content, religious nihilism is itself a kind of "perverse consciousness" and therefore sooner or later turns into a kind of sexual religion, from which theologians willingly draw new ideas and arguments for their systems. It was this fate that was prepared for Freud, who, against his will, over time, from a convinced defender of reason, turned into an apostle of faith, trampling on reason, from a social reformer who liberated mankind from age-old illusions and delusions, into the creator of a pseudoscientific myth that has become the mainstay of ideological reaction today. ...
Among the factors that led to the emergence of religion, one can single out social prerequisites. Some of them are associated with the relationship of people to nature, others - with the relationship between people.
Attitude of people to nature mediated by the available means "instruments of labor. The less they are developed, the weaker a person is in front of nature, the greater the dominance of natural forces over him. The primitive man possessed too limited means to influence the world around him. Unable to obtain the desired result by real means, he resorted to imaginary means.
The English ethnographer B. Malinovsky, who studied the tribes of Melanesia (islands located in Oceania), noticed that magic precedes and accompanies those types of islanders where there is no confidence in the results and chance plays a big role. Magic in such cases acted as a substitute for the real impact of man on nature.
In later eras relationship between people continued to take shape spontaneously. In this case, the laws of the development of society appear as unknown spontaneous forces that determine the fate of people. Causes about material phenomena in the minds of people seem to be mysterious, supernatural and are mystified. All this served as a prerequisite for the phenomenon of religion.
Epistemological reasons- these are prerequisites, opportunities for the formation of religious beliefs that arise in the process of human cognition of the laws of natural phenomena. The emergence of a person's ability to think abstractly, that is, to isolate the general essential and the necessary in thinking, abstracting from the singular, insignificant and accidental, contributed to the development of theoretical knowledge. The ability to isolate the general and essential in thinking and fix them in language allows you to know the world deeper, more precisely, more fully. She alone also creates the possibility of transforming general concepts into some "independent entities", which are considered as existing outside and independently of the material world.
Psychological reasons the emergence and reproduction of religion is due to the dependence of religious beliefs on the emotional state of people, their moods, experiences, etc. Constant and persistent negative emotions, including uncertainty and fear, repeated experiences can create a fertile ground for an individual's introduction to religion. In addition to fear and uncertainty, other negative emotions, feelings of grief, grief, loneliness, create the same soil for religion. The constant accumulation of negative emotions in the absence of real opportunities to eliminate their source leads to the fact that a person is looking for a means of getting rid of negative experiences, including in religion.
Functions of religion
Religion performs a number of functions in society. One of the most important functions is illusory compensatory. Religion plays the role of an illusory compensator due to the weakness of a person, his impotence. Unable to solve life's problems, a person transfers their solution to the world of illusions. The problems that are not solved in this world, religion promises to compensate, to make up for their solution in the illusory other world. To do this, it is enough decent behavior in relation to her, the fulfillment of the ordinances prescribed by religion.
Is important ideological function of religion. Specifically reflecting reality, it creates its own picture of the world order and, accordingly, motivates the behavior of the believer, his orientation in the world.
No less important is regulatory the function of religion, consisting in establishing norms of behavior that determine the behavior of believers in the family, everyday life, society on the basis of the developed prescriptions.
Forms of belief
The development of religions took place along with the evolution of society, in the process of which primitive beliefs were replaced by more perfect ones.
The primitive beliefs were fetishism, totemism, magic, animism:
fetishism - reverence for various objects of reality, which were prescribed supernatural properties, the ability to help, heal, protect from enemies. Any object can be a fetish; totemism - belief in the existence of a supernatural connection, a relationship between a group of people and some kind of animal or plant. Totemism is associated with hunting and gathering;
magic - a set of beliefs and rituals, which are based on the belief in the possibility of influencing people, as well as objects and phenomena of the surrounding world in a supernatural way, using a variety of techniques: spells, ritual dances, prayers, bewitching, etc .;
animism- belief in spiritual essences enclosed in objects or existing separately from them.
Primitive man had not yet separated himself from nature and endowed all objects and phenomena with the same properties that he himself possessed.
In 325, in the city of Nicaea, under the chairmanship of Emperor Constantine, First Ecumenical Council Christian churches, where Christianity was proclaimed the official religion of the Roman Empire. Since at that time the Roman Empire was a complex organism striving for decentralization, accordingly, Christianity was forced to adapt to the prevailing social relations and traditions of each province. The result of these conditions was the appearance of the first 4 autocephalous (independent) churches: Constantinople, Alexandria, Anti-Ohian and Jerusalem. Currently, there are 15 autocephalous churches, which indicates that Christianity has never been a single monolithic trend.
In 1054, there was a split in Christianity between the Eastern Church, which began to be called Orthodox, and Western, which is called Roman Catholic. In the XVI century. a new branch in Christianity is separated from Catholicism - Protestantism in its varieties: Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, etc.
In Russia, Orthodoxy was introduced by the Kiev prince Vladimir in 988. The Russian Orthodox Church received its final form under Yaroslav the Wise (1019 - 1054), when the Kiev Metropolis was established in | led by Metropolitan Leonty. Under Yaroslav, the Cathedral of St. Sophia was laid in Kiev and the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery was founded (1051).
The church was divided into dioceses(Kiev, Novgorod, Chernigov, Rostov, Vladimir, etc.) - church areas led by bishops. The boundaries of the dioceses coincided with the boundaries of the principalities. In Kiev, the center of government of the church was located, headed by metropolitan, which was appointed and approved on the proposal of the Russians by the Patriarch of Constantinople. And only the Novgorod metropolitan was chosen by the veche in dignity archbishop.
After the devastation of Kiev by the Tatar-Mongols, the Kiev metropolitan went to live in the city of Vladimir. Under Ivan Kalita (1325-1340), the church center headed by Metropolitan Peter was transferred to Moscow.
In 1448, the Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich summoned to Moscow for a<] бор епископов Русской земли. Главой церкви был избран митрополит» рязанский Иона с титулом "митрополит Московский и всея Руси". С этого времени Русская Православная Церковь обрела независимость от константинопольского патриарха и значительно укрепилось Русское государство: оно освободилось от татаро-монгольского ига, ушла в прошлое сия тема удельных княжеств, покорились царства Казанское и Астраханское В 1589 г. по инициативе царе Федора Иоанновича и с согласия константинопольского патриарха и восточных патриархов главе Русской Православной Церкви был присвоен титул Patriarch of Moscow and in Russia. Metropolitan Job of Moscow became the first patriarch.
Throughout its thousand-year history, the Russian Orthodox Church, as a living organism, has constantly undergone changes associated with upheavals in society. So, Peter I in 1721 replaced the sole administration of the patriarch. A permanent spiritual council was established - Doo the Holy Collegium, which later became known as the Holy Synod. |
The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, held in 1917-1918, coincided with the revolutionary process in Russia. He established a patriarchate. Tikhon was elected patriarch. At present, Metropolitan Alexy II is the Patriarch of All Russia.
The rise of states required new types of religions. Have appeared national-state religions that reflected the social, political and other relationships prevailing in ancient states. With the strengthening of states, many peoples passed from polytheism to monotheism. Usually, monotheism the worship of the main deity is characterized, along with which other supernatural forces act - angels, archangels, demons, etc.
More perfect, and therefore the most widespread were three world religions: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Their main feature, which made it possible to step over the boundaries of one nation, is cosmopolitanism. These religions are addressed to all peoples, their cult is simplified, there is no national specificity.
Modern world religions
In the modern world, according to the American Gallup Institute, 95% of the inhabitants of Africa, 96 - Latin America, 94 - the USA, 89 - Asia, 78% - Western Europe believe in God. They profess world religions - Buddhism, Christianity, Islam.
Buddhism is one of the first world religions. It arose in the 6th - 5th centuries. up to NS. in India. Subsequently, mutating, it spread among the peoples of Central and Southeast Asia, the Far East. Buryats, Kalmyks, Mongols, Tuvans profess Buddhism on the territory of Russia.
The founder of Buddhism is the son of an Indian king named Siddartha from the clan of Gautama, which after death began to be called Buddha(enlightened one who has attained wisdom). The main provisions of this doctrine are set out in the canonical collection "Tipitaka". The Buddhist pantheon numbers thousands of Buddhas, saints, bodhisattvas (beings who achieved salvation, but continue to take part in the salvation of people), "yugas of local old religions, angels, demons, as well as the main god [brahmanism - Brahma. All gods are divided into good and evil.
According to the teachings of Buddhism, everything in the world is the result of endless movement. "dharm", spiritually material particles. Their various combinations create objects, animals, humans, and decay leads to death, after which new combinations are created and rebirth occurs. Rebirth depends on good or bad actions in life. The process of rebirth is called the "wheel of life", or samsara. The ultimate goal of a virtuous life is merging with Buddha, immersion in nirvana (super-being), that is, overcoming all desires and passions, breaking the chain of rebirth, stopping reincarnation, absolute inviolable peace.
Buddhism is spread in the form hinayana- the most ancient form, and mahayana, spread outside India: Hinayana - a narrow chariot, a narrow path of salvation, the principle of which is refusal to participate in worldly life, becoming a monk; Mahayana - a large vehicle, a wide path of salvation, provides salvation to all believers.
Christianity arose in the 1st century. n. NS. in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. From small scattered sects, it was by the beginning of the 4th century. turned into a powerful ideological trend, having won a dominant position first in Rome, then in the Middle East, North Africa and throughout Europe.
Since Christianity arose among slaves, who were mostly Jews, taken out of Palestine, it is quite logical that Judaism influenced the original Christianity. The Old Testament is a holy book for both the Jews.
The third world religion - Islam - originated in Western Arabia in the 7th century) spread to the countries of the Near and Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and other places. The founder of Islam is considered Muhammad, started his preaching work in the city of Mecca and Medina. There is an ancient sanctuary in Mecca Kaaba with the holy "black stone", to which Muslims all over the world have been making pilgrimages for fourteen centuries. Every year, Mecca is visited by 1.5-2 ml of Muslims. A Muslim is obliged to perform 5 prayers daily.
Muhammad preached his sermons orally and only after L death, during the reign of Caliph Osman (644 - 656), from the words of people who knew the sermons of the Prophet Muhammad by heart, was compiled Kept Later, a collection of legends was created - Sunnah - about actions and spoke niyah of the prophet. The main directions in Islam are Sunni Shi'ism. Many sects were formed: Ismailis, Wahhabis, Kaisanites, etc.
Based on the Quran, Shariah - code of Muslim law. The Muslim calendar is based on the phases of the moon, therefore it is 11 days shorter than the Christian one. The main holiday of Muslims is Kypban Bayram(sacrifice). Islam has become widespread in Russia! among the Tatars, Bashkirs, peoples of the North Caucasus.
