The article The Backside of History by Ed Wallace discusses the role of religion in general and of the Bible, in particular in our society from a very unusual point of view. “The Bible unquestionably has been the single most important book in human history; it
is the authoritative moral guideline for half of the people on the planet, including Christians, Jews, and Muslims” – the article says and at the same time it proves the idea that most of us do not know even the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God in Exodus in other words we are all the Pharisees trying to convince each other that we live and act according to the Holy Bible while doing quite the opposite.
Religion has been and remains today an important factor in the development of any civilization. Its place in the life of a society is determined by various factors: the level of social development, social consciousness, culture, traditions, and the influence of related socio-political structures. In the modern world, the role of religion is quite significant, although it must be borne in mind that much depends on the ability of a particular religion to adapt to the new realities in the fast-moving modern world.
Processes of secularization and sacralization are dialectically interrelated. Modernization of creeds and cults in modern religions gives every reason to believe that religion in one form or another continues to influence all spheres of public life, the process of socialization, science, culture and the like. The history of civilization teaches that the most religions have considerable adaptive capacity, i.e. the ability to adapt to the changing conditions of the world, to respond to changes in various spheres of public life - economic, social, political, cultural areas. This is the reason why it continues to play a significant role in the life of contemporary society even when most of its members do not have a deep and real faith in God. Numerous religious wars have demonstrated that optimal for the development of society and its stability is the establishment in the public mind of the principles of religious tolerance, freedom of conscience, the desire for a dialogue between different religions, believers and atheists.
It should be emphasized that a balanced and correct attitude of the state to different faiths and churches is a condition of inter-religious harmony and social stability.
As it has been already noted, religion is a social phenomenon. It is seamlessly woven into the structure of the society, is one of its most important components, is in close relation and interaction with other elements of society architectonics.
Freedom of religion is a composite structure of freedom of conscience and freedom of choice and acts as a religious worldview (religion). It manifests itself as the internal ability of the individual to the religious self-determination as the right to the choice of a religious paradigm, as well as the right to self-fulfillment in a "force field" of action of this paradigm.
Implementation of the principles of freedom of religion …