5. Philosophy in Ancient Japan The Japanese imprint of Zen Buddhism in samurai life. One day, a monk came to the master to find out where the entrance to the path of truth is ... The master asked him: do you hear the murmuring of the stream? “I hear,” the monk replied. “The entrance is here,” he said.

The history of ancient Greece The emergence of maritime civilizations marks a new stage in the evolution of mankind.

Philosophy of Ancient Greece Several hearths ignited almost simultaneously and, apparently, independently of each other, but only in one of them did the flame of reason and creative burning achieve what deserved the name of philosophy. In addition to the general reasons that took place in all

The Art of Ancient Greece BC e. The fundamental difference from all previous alphabets is that letters appeared in it to denote vowel sounds, that is, it was the Greeks who created

§ 3. The Genesis of the Legal Culture of Ancient Greece Starting from the 10th century BC. the ancient Greeks formed a single nationality - the Hellenes, and the entire sum of the inhabited places in the form of policies - acquires a single name Hellas. A fairly homogeneous public consciousness is being formed on the basis of

abstract

The place and role of ancient Greek philosophy in world religion

Introduction

Religious ideas and philosophical views of the ancient Greeks played a key role in their public and private life and thus had a huge impact on the formation of all ancient and subsequent world culture. Therefore, the study of the religious traditions and philosophical thought of Ancient Greece is of great importance - it allows us to understand much better both the past and the present of mankind.

It is not advisable to separate ancient religion from philosophy, since already in the earliest beliefs of the ancient Hellenes, the rudiments of philosophical thinking, prototypes of ideas about the universal laws of nature, society and thinking, are visible. And, on the other hand, many prominent philosophers of Hellas not only paid great attention to theological issues, but created teachings that differed little from religious ones. Moreover, their students often placed their Teachers on a par with other Gods (as did the students of Anaxagoras, Plato, Epicurus and some others) or even above all the Deities (as the Pythagoreans did, arguing "Reasonable beings are divided into humanoid, godlike and Pythagorean". Apparently, it was no coincidence that B. Russell called philosophy something in between religion and science.

Naturally, in addition to the achievements that have become the "golden fund" of human civilization, the ancient culture of Hellas had its own unique features that distinguish ancient Greek religion and philosophy from similar worldviews of other times and peoples. However, the "universal and particular" were very closely intertwined in reality, and therefore this report is also considered in a comprehensive manner.

And the biggest difficulty facing the speaker is the huge number of ancient and modern sources that reflect the religion and philosophy of Ancient Greece. Unfortunately, any report on this topic has to be limited to only the most general characteristics and a very small number of striking examples.

The purpose of the work is to study the place and role of ancient Greek philosophy in world religion

Examining Philosophers' Views on Religion

Studying the Essence of World Religions

Analysis of the role of ancient Greek philosophy in the formation of religions.

1. Prerequisites for the emergence of religion in human culture

culture religion philosophy greek

Turning to the consideration of religion, it is necessary to be aware of the specifics of its philosophical analysis, which differs from the approaches of specific religious disciplines. Religion is interested in philosophy as one of the forms of value attitude to the world, which has deep roots in the generic nature of man and satisfies his existential needs. The significance of religion for humanity has been and remains enormous, and no philosopher has the right to ignore it.

One of the most difficult problems of the philosophy of religion is to determine the essence of the phenomenon of religion and the place of religious consciousness among other forms of a person's spiritual orientation in the world. Let's start our consideration of this problem with an analysis of the similarities and differences between religion and science, religion and art, religion and morality.

Many of the experts are convinced of the impossibility of such a universal definition of religion, which would cover the whole variety of specific forms and types of religious beliefs. For example, the “epistemological” approach to religion, which considers its main feature to be faith, which is not subject to rational analysis and verification for truth, faces considerable difficulties when trying to distinguish religious beliefs proper from similar ideological phenomena (such as uncritical belief in communism, national superiority and etc.). Similar difficulties are caused by the widespread idea of ​​religion as a system of worldview (and institutional behavior associated with it), based on the belief in the existence of God (or gods) - the highest otherworldly supernatural force that created the world and man in it. Many scholars believe that this approach does not take into account the experience of religious movements (for example, Confucianism or Buddhism), which completely “get along” without a god in the Christian or Muslim sense of it.

Most experts associate the phenomenon of religion with a special form of human experience, the same for all varieties of religion - faith in the sacred, sacred. Ideas about the sacred differ among different peoples. In the early stages of the development of religion, they coincide with the idea of ​​the unusual, which does not fit into the normal course of things, and only later acquire ethical characteristics and become ideas of the absolute good, truth, and beauty.

Whatever the differences in the definition of the concept of religion, all researchers agree that it performs the most important functions in public life. For individual human individuals, according to M. Yinger, religion becomes a means of solving the "last, final" problems of life, acts as a "refusal to capitulate before death." “Religious existence includes a person’s belief that evil, pain, destruction and death, injustice and lack of rights are not accidental, but fundamental conditions of life and that there are still forces and actions (sacred) thanks to which a person is able to overcome evil in in all his guises."

For a society taken as a whole, religion acts as a powerful means of social integration, rallying people, since common beliefs give the highest meaning to their activities. In social terms, religion is realized as a special public institution - the church; at the first stages - simply as an association of believers, later (in almost all religions) - as a clerical structure that unites persons who are especially initiated into sacred secrets and act as a kind of "intermediary" between the object of faith and people.

Of course, not all philosophers and sociologists positively assessed the role of religion in human culture. K. Marx's attitude to religion is known as a distorted form of consciousness, which contributes to the exploitation of the masses. He characterized it as "the opium of the people" and "the sigh of the oppressed creature." 3. Freud also had a negative attitude towards religion, considering it as a peculiar disease of society, as a form of drug intoxication. Many thinkers, guided primarily by the ideals of the Enlightenment, were convinced of the temporary nature of religious beliefs, believing that religion would certainly fall under the blows of developing science. The decline of religion in the XIX-XX centuries. seemed to many a symptom of her impending doom. The 20th century, however, reaffirmed the stability of the religious value system. The main thing was realized - religion cannot be considered as an alternative to science and a "relic" of social consciousness.

Consider the causes of religion and the specifics of its early forms.

Animism is a system of views based on the personification of natural phenomena and endowing them with the properties and abilities of a person. “Considering the character and essence of the great polytheistic gods, to whom the most extensive activity in the universe is attributed, we will see that these powerful beings are formed after the model of the human soul. We will see that their feelings and sympathies, their character and habits, their will and actions, even their very image and material structure, despite all exaggerations and adaptations, contain features that are largely borrowed from the human soul. belief independent life liberated from the body shell of the soul gives rise to faith in the possibility of contact with dead souls. This is based on the peculiarity of primitive thinking, associated with the indistinguishability of the objective, that which is outside of man, and the subjective, that which is the product of his mind. So, for example, the images seen by a person in a dream were perceived as real as the world around him, and both were equally significant. Therefore, communication in a dream with dead or absent people was perceived in the same way as meeting with the living. At the same time, the fear of ghosts, i.e. disembodied shadows of the souls of dead people, gives rise to a whole system of protective rites (during the funeral rite - a special procedure for taking the body out of the house, the position of the body during burial, the very fact of compulsory burial, funeral rites, etc.). It was believed that especially often and unbidden are the ghosts of those souls whose bodies were not buried according to custom, as well as the souls of suicides or those who were forcibly killed. Animistic ideas in one form or another are present in all religions.

Totemism is a system of primitive ideas based on the belief in a supernatural relationship between a group of people (genus) and totems, which can be any animals or plants, less often natural phenomena and inanimate objects. In addition to common totems for the whole family, primitive people had individual totems. Totemistic representations underlie all myths and fairy tales, and totems as special ritual objects are present in developed religions.

Fetishism - belief in the supernatural properties of certain objects (fetishes), which could be anything - from a stone unusual shape, a piece of wood or part of an animal, to an image in the form of a statuette (idol). S.A. Tokarev notes that fetishism, apparently, arises as a form of "individualization of religion" and is associated with the collapse of old tribal ties. “An individual, feeling insufficiently protected by the tribal team and its patrons, seeks support for himself in the world of mysterious forces.” It is no coincidence that talismans and amulets appear among fetishes - items to be worn on the body. They were supposed to perform protective functions. The use of these items was often accompanied by various spells. Gradually, the original meaning of the talisman is forgotten and it turns into an ornament.

Magic - primitive ideas about the possibility of supernatural influence of evil or good forces on other people, livestock, housing, etc. At the core of faith in magical powers and means lies the ability of human consciousness to associate, which allows you to combine in thinking things that are incompatible in reality. As a result, a system of fictional connections and patterns is created, with the help of which a person tries to build his relationship with the world of spirits in the same way as he builds his relationship with the real world.

Magical knowledge is secret. Magical action has always been performed only by specially dedicated people. Therefore, the effectiveness of magical actions and spells was determined only by the result, i.e. hindsight, and in the event of a negative result, one could always refer to the strong opposition of the spirits.

Magic as a means of practical impact on the world is associated with specific forms of human life. Usually magic is divided into economic, medical (white) and harmful (black). According to J. Fraser, magic can be imitative. In this case, the impact on the real object is carried out by manipulating its image. Contagious magic is carried out by complicity, and magical manipulation is carried out over parts of a person’s clothing or body.

In its refined, scientific form, magic is a special section of the occult, acting as a means of linking the spiritual and real worlds through appeal to astral forces. Despite the fact that a number of religions do not approve of magic and witchcraft, elements of magical actions and rituals are present in filmed form in all religions.

. World religions and ancient Greek philosophy

World religions represent a higher stage in the development of religious consciousness, when individual religions acquire a supranational character, opening up to representatives of different peoples, different cultures and languages. Fellow believers act as a single whole, in which there is "neither Greek nor Jew."

The oldest world religion is Buddhism, which arose in the IV-V centuries. The number of people practicing this religion today is several hundred million. According to ancient legends, the founder of this religion is the Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in the 5th century BC. BC. and received the name Buddha (enlightened, enlightened).

The basis of Buddhism is a moral teaching, the purpose of which is to make a person perfect. Initially, the moral precepts of Buddhism are built in a negative form (which is typical for all early religions) and are of a prohibitive nature: do not kill, do not take someone else's property, etc. For those striving for perfection, these commandments acquire an absolute character. Thus, the prohibition of murder extends to all living things, and the prohibition of adultery comes to the requirement of complete chastity, and so on. Following the teachings of the Buddha, a person, having passed all the stages of perfection (meditation, yoga), plunges into nirvana - non-existence. He should not count on the gods, but only on himself: even the Buddha does not save anyone personally, but only indicates the path of salvation.

Buddhism is divided into two currents. Theravada (small vehicle) is a more rigid version of Buddhism, based on the strictest observance of prohibitions. There is no concept of God as a being here. Mahayana (great chariot) - classic version world religion with its attributes. If the first variety is available only to a few, the elite, then the second is designed for ordinary people. In this variety there is a god, in it there is also a cult of many buddhas.

In Tibet, Buddhism develops as Tantrism, in which the supreme being Adibuddha stands out and all buddhas are divided into three categories: human, contemplative and formless. Here, special importance is attached to magic and spells, through which you can "shorten" the path to nirvana.

Christianity is one of the most widespread religions today, more than a billion people are its adherents, i.e. approximately 20% of the world's population.

At the center of Christian doctrine is the God-Man Jesus Christ. The main book is the Bible - the Old Testament and New Testament, which presents the life and sufferings of Christ, his sermons and deeds; legends about the deeds of the holy apostles and their messages, as well as

Revelation of St. John the Theologian with his picture of the Last Judgment, which awaits humanity.

Christianity originally emerged as a reformed Judaism, as the religion of the ancient Jews adapted to the wider social context. The elimination of some elements of Judaism that were unpopular among other peoples (ceremonies of circumcision, eating, the idea of ​​the Jewish people chosen by God, the laws of Moses) caused an influx of pagans and converted Jews into Christian communities. Many of these communities, widely spread throughout the territory of the Roman Empire, were united by the idea of ​​a universal church. Early Christianity was characterized by a refusal to participate in political life and government, the preaching of ascetic ethics. The attractive aspects of Christianity were universalism, monotheism, the equality of all believers before God, the idea of ​​the cleansing sacrifice of Christ, faith in retribution in the afterlife, the idea of ​​resurrection.

Before the beginning of the 4th c. there is a sharp controversy with Greek philosophers - Epicureans, Stoics, Neoplatonists, Gnostics. Christianity is opposed by a state worldview based on the dominant pagan religion and on a picture of the world developed within the framework of philosophy. At this time, the apostles, representatives of the Alexandrian school and the first apologists come out in defense of the Christian doctrine: Philo of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Clement, Origen. An acute struggle unfolded over many philosophical and theological problems. The key question was the relationship between philosophy and Christianity, or reason and faith.

Logically, three points of view are possible here: 1) identification of philosophy and faith, 2) philosophy outside of faith and against it, 3) philosophy within the framework of faith. A philosophy that does not notice the two thousand year history of Christianity or deliberately ignores it is theoretically impossible, doomed to failure in advance. It is impossible at the present time to determine morality, justice, good, evil, the development and formation of European statehood and culture without taking into account the historical influence of Christianity on the life of human society.

As for Greek philosophy, possible models its relationship with Christianity is as follows: 1) the Bible both historically and logically precedes Greek philosophy, the Bible contains all the philosophical ideas of the Greeks; 2) Christian teaching inherits Greek philosophy and 3) a synthetic point of view, “according to which the Jews were enlightened through the Law and the prophets, while the Greeks were enlightened, albeit to a lesser extent, through philosophy. The law and the prophets, on the one hand, and philosophy, on the other, anticipated the gospel”; Greek philosophy paved the way for the perception of Christian truths, provided a categorical and logical apparatus for interpreting and substantiating a new religious faith.

The first point of view is theoretically untenable. It is no coincidence that the reaction of the Stoics and Epicureans to Paul's speeches in the Areopagus (the highest body of judicial and political power) in Athens was more than eloquent. While he was talking about God, they listened to him, but as soon as he started talking about the resurrection from the dead, he was interrupted. In the "Acts of the Apostles" we read that, having heard about the resurrection from the dead, some began to mock, others said: "We will listen to you about these arguments another time." So Paul had to leave the meeting

According to the second point of view, we will give an interpretation of the famous Orthodox theologian V.V. Zenkovsky. According to him, Christianity inherits the Greek philosophy in the Plotinian interpretation, which is a kind of theology.

In general, there is no pure philosophy independent of the Logos interpreted in the Christian sense - reason, creative human spirit and integral being. The emergence of the epistemological dualism of faith and knowledge is explained by the need to substantiate Christian teaching. Western Christianity could not, for example, fully accept Aristotle because he denied individual immortality and recognized the infinity of the Cosmos, which contradicted the Christian idea of ​​creation, which presupposes an initial moment of time. In the East, the Aristotelian doctrine was accepted with the inclusion of elements of Platonism and Neoplatonism in it. In theology, the idea arises to separate purely philosophical concepts from theological ones - an idea that turned out to be fatal for the fate of Christian culture. This can be illustrated by the following examples.

Thomas Aquinas divided faith and knowledge, allocating to knowledge the entire area subject to natural reason. But this is, as it were, the lowest sphere of knowledge. Above it is the sphere of religious knowledge, based on the highest source - Revelation. Harmonious cooperation is established between the designated two spheres of knowledge. What is taken from the sphere of natural reason and does not correspond to religious postulates must be explained from the point of view of religious faith. The consistent implementation of the concept of Aquinas leads to a complete separation of philosophy from faith. The expressions "Christian philosophy" or "philosophy of religion" are meaningless from this position (as well as the concept of "Christian mathematics").

According to some (usually Orthodox) modern theologians, after Aquinas in the 13th-16th centuries. there was a "tragic" separation from the Church (secularization) of various spheres of culture: law, philosophy, science. The Church is losing authority and, most importantly, power. Luther and Calvin completely separated the Church from culture. The dualism proclaimed in theory has been embodied in practice in independent institutions of public life, relations between which are established in a similar way. diplomatic relations between different states.

After the separation of philosophy from religion and the church, numerous attempts to build “new” religions on philosophical principles arise: “the system of reasonable Christianity” (purified from irrational moments; everything tragic, bloody and terrible that was associated with Christianity is sent to the past under the name “old Christianity"); religion within the boundaries of reason (Kant); religion as a function of the human spirit, purifying and morally elevating it (Schleiermacher), etc. These attempts come from the camp of philosophers and are aimed at restoring the religious and moral principle in human life. This is the path from secularized philosophy to "authentic" religion as the basis of moral feeling. On the other hand, there is a reverse movement from religion to its philosophical principles.

By the 4th century Christianity ideologically strengthened, and after the decree of Emperor Constantine in 311 on the freedom of Christian religion and the cessation of persecution of Christians, theological disputes are transferred into Christianity, the most significant philosophical concepts and ideas (Aristotle, Plato, Neoplatonists) are adapted to the needs of substantiating Christian doctrine. Christianity becomes the officially recognized religion of the Roman Empire. A little more time will pass and the Nicene Council in 325 will adopt the final formulation of the main dogma of Christianity - the creed - the Trinity: God is one in essence, but trinity in persons (hypostases). This is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit - all three persons are attributed the same divine properties (wisdom, eternity, goodness, holiness, etc.), but they have individual differences. God the Father is not born and does not come from other persons of the trinity (absolute origin), God the Son (Logos, the Word - the semantic principle) is eternally born from God the Father, God the Spirit (the life-giving principle) comes from God the Father.

Closely connected with the trinity is another fundamental issue of Christian doctrine: the Christological problem, i.e. the problem of understanding the nature of Jesus Christ, namely, how the divine and human principles are combined in him. One of the influential Christian currents - Nestorianism - distinguishes between the divine and human natures of Christ and does not allow them to merge. Jesus, in the understanding of the Nestorians, is neither God nor a god-man, but a mortal into whom the Holy Spirit has entered. Another trend - the Monophysites - considers Jesus to be God, rejecting the presence of human nature in him. In 431, the Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorianism, and in 451, the Council of Chalcedon established the formulation of the unity of two equal principles in Christ - divine and human. Now each person must bear his own cross. Through suffering, humility and humility, he must overcome evil (the concept of non-resistance to evil by force). The ideas of the Last Judgment, heavenly retribution and the Kingdom of God formed the basis of Christian morality, Christian utopian socialism. Christian rites directly introduce the divine principles into human life.

The influence of Platonism on Christian thought is most clearly manifested by Dionysius the Areopagite (approximately the 5th-6th centuries). He formulated the foundations of apophatic (negative) theology. Affirmative judgments about God, and hence his knowledge, are only a reflection of the divine light in creations. The hierarchy and harmony of the earthly structure corresponds to the divine plan. We can say a lot about the visible and intelligible, we can express a lot in thought and word. But since God surpasses everything created by him and is the highest being, it is better to keep silent about him. “In Mystical Theology we read: “The Good Cause of all things can be expressed in words by many and few, but also by the total and absolute absence of words. In fact, there are no words or understanding to express it, for it is placed above all, and if it is, it is the one who has overcome everything impure and pure, having surpassed the sacred peaks in the ascent, leaving behind all the divine luminaries and invocative sounds, all words and reasoning, penetrating through all the foggy veils to where, as the Scripture says, He who is above all reigns.

The justification of the Christian worldview from a rational position using elements of logic was given by John Scotus Eriugena (c. 810 - c. 877). He was greatly influenced by the writings of pseudo-Dionysius, which he first translated into Latin. Following pseudo-Dionysius, Eriugena believes that the simultaneous acceptance of affirmative and negative judgments about the divine essence is only an apparent contradiction, which is removed in the divine essence itself. If someone claims that "God exists" - this is just an expression of admiration for the Creator of a being hierarchically lower in relation to him. The judgment "God does not exist" can also be accepted, but in a different sense: we make such a judgment because God is rationally incomprehensible to us, and his attributes cannot be expressed in words.

The modern historian of medieval philosophy F. Copleston points out the discrepancy between the Christian teaching and its philosophical interpretation.

But most of all, Anselm of Canterbury became famous for his a priori proof of the existence of God, which was based on the famous ontological argument: "God surpasses everything conceivable in greatness and wisdom." Therefore, any attempt to talk about the non-existence of God implies that the speaker has already imagined in his mind a being superior to God, which contradicts the original argument, i.e. the statement "God does not exist" is false, so we have to admit the truth of the statement "God exists". Such a proof deduces from the idea of ​​God his existence, initially identifying the idea of ​​God with its real existence. Of course, if the premises are true, then the course of the proof itself does not raise any objections. Later such a proof was rejected by Thomas Aquinas (and therefore not accepted by most theologians), but revived by Descartes and Leibniz, further refuted by Kant and discussed to this day. “It is clear that evidence with such a glorious history is worthy of respect, whether it is valid or not,” notes Bertrand Russell, and further explains: “The crux of the matter is this. Is there something of which we can form a mental representation, for which (this something), the mere fact that we can form a mental representation of it, is proof of existence outside our thoughts? Every philosopher would like to answer such a question in the affirmative, for it is the business of the philosopher to attain knowledge of facts about the world not so much by observation as by thought. If such an answer is correct, then we can build a bridge from pure thought to facts;

if it's wrong, we can't. In this general form, Plato uses a kind of ontological proof to confirm the objective reality of ideas. But before Anselm, no one formulated this proof in its naked logical purity. After the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, the role of Christianity in public life is growing more and more, it is slowly but steadily turning from the officially recognized into the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. But hard times are coming for internal church life, because in fact the decisions of these councils prepared the ground for the gradual (V-VII centuries) dissociation from the Roman church of Eastern Christians (Nestorians, Monophysites) and at a later time (1054) led to a split of Christianity into the western and eastern churches, however, here political reasons were already added to the doctrinal differences (the reform of Gregory VII and, in this regard, the unwillingness of the East, and in particular Holy Russia, to submit to the one-man command of the Pope). The doctrinal differences were as follows:

the dogma of the descent of the Holy Spirit (in the Roman Catholic Church, the descent of the Spirit from God the Father and God the Son is recognized, in the Greek Orthodox Church - only from God the Father);

the refusal of the Eastern Church from the practice of indulgences - the paid liberation of a person from his sins;

the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, into which the souls of dead Christians fall, who can then go to heaven, including thanks to prayers offered for them on earth; a vow of celibacy for priests in Catholicism; the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith; recognition as a source of faith for Catholics, in addition to the Holy Scriptures, also Tradition - the totality of the decrees of all councils, sayings, decrees of the popes and the works of the church fathers.

In addition, some ritual differences were established, including the use of the Latin language in Catholic worship. After the 8th century The Orthodox Church no longer participated in the Ecumenical Councils. She invariably adheres to the doctrinal provisions that were adopted at the first two Ecumenical Councils - Nicaea and Chalcedon. These provisions include ideas about divine creation, about the trinity, the Christological problem, the dogma of baptism and the doctrine of the afterlife. Believers are required to know by heart the Creed and the ability to perform it in chorus. Recently, much attention has been paid in Orthodoxy to rational proofs of the main provisions of the dogma, the idea of ​​a connection between faith and knowledge, science and religion has been promoted.

In most countries, the Orthodox Church is separated from the state. Catholicism has always sought to become the state religion, therefore it combined the desire to unite the spiritual and secular authorities. The main Catholic church hierarchs are appointed by the Pope, who has great authority.

In the XVI century. as a result of the powerful movement of the Reformation, a split of Catholicism occurs, Protestantism arises. He recognizes the Holy Scriptures as the only source of faith, declares the principle of the priesthood of all believers (the church is preserved for the performance of the cult and especially important rites), introduces worship on mother tongue believers (the Bible is translated into national languages). Protestantism defended the principle of salvation by personal faith, regardless of specific (good or evil) deeds and recognized the independence of the state in relation to the church. By reducing the importance of rituals, Protestantism increased the importance of intrapersonal spiritual communication with God and gave believers freedom in interpreting the Bible.

Already in the XVI century. such varieties of Protestantism as Lutheranism, Calvinism and Anglicanism are formed. Lutheranism was originally mainly spread in Germany, Austria and Scandinavian countries, Calvinism - in Switzerland, France and Hungary, Anglicanism - in England and Scotland.

Islam, the third world religion, originated in the 7th century and was founded by Muhammad. This religion is practiced by Arabic-speaking peoples, as well as residents of North Africa and most of Asia. The main book of Islam is the Koran, which is a collection of sayings and teachings of Muhammad.

The system of dogmas of Islam is built on the absolute faith in Allah as the only god, whose prophet was Muhammad. It is recognized that God sent other prophets to people, but Mohammed is higher than them. The main rites of Islam include daily prayer five times, washing before it, paying a tax for the poor, an annual fast, and making a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. Like other religions, Islam is a certain system of moral norms. The Qur'an formulates the moral commandments that a person must follow in his life.

Conclusion

Religion is one of the most common forms of social consciousness, that is, such a spiritual formation that reflects social life, the existing world - nature and society. Religion can be defined as a system of views of a person and actions arising from these views in relation to what seems to a person to be supernatural, going beyond the usual. As a rule, religion is the belief in the existence of supernatural forces and beings embodied in the images of gods, spirits, etc.

The word "religion" itself comes from the Latin language and is derived from the verb "religare" - "to bind", "to unite". There are many definitions of religion. They can be divided into two groups: theological and secular (philosophical and scientific). In most cases, theologians define religion as a person's experience of the presence of the divine principle in the world and the desire to unite with this principle. According to the Protestant theologian Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), religion is the perception of the sacred, "numinous" existing in the world. The study of religion by philosophy begins in antiquity.

Throughout the existence of philosophy, many attempts have been made to define the phenomenon of religion. Moreover, philosophers tried to connect such a definition with the philosophical systems put forward by them. So, I. Kant (1724-1804) in his work "The Dispute of the Faculties" argued that religion has the same functions as morality. From the point of view of I. Kant, religion is “the totality of all our duties in general as the commands of God ... Religion is no different from morality in its content, i.e. object, because it concerns duty in general... Religion is the legislation of reason, designed to give morality influence on the human will for the fulfillment by man of his every duty with the help of the idea of ​​​​God created by reason itself. The difference between religion and morality is, according to Kant, only formal. Kant concludes that "there are no different religions, there are only different kinds faith in divine revelation. Indeed, religion is very important as a regulator of people's behavior, it was within the framework of religious doctrines that the first ethical codes were drawn up (10 commandments of Moses, etc.), which set moral guidelines for people and brought order to the functioning of society and building relationships between people. From the point of view of G. Hegel (1770-1831), religion is one of the forms of the absolute spirit, more perfect than art, but less perfect than philosophy. Hegel argued that religion and philosophy are extremely close to each other.

In religion and philosophy, Hegel recognizes the existence of a common content - thinking about the world, the absolute beginning, the destiny of man. Religion and philosophy are two languages ​​that speak about the same subjects. Religion, according to Hegel, speaks in the language of feelings and ideas, while philosophy operates in the language of specific concepts. In religion, the world spirit that has reached the stage of human consciousness represents itself, and in philosophy it cognizes itself. In philosophy, especially in its materialistic teachings, the "enlightenment" point of view on religion has been popular for many centuries. According to her, religion is the result of people's lack of correct knowledge about the world, their ignorance. As a result, people explain everything they do not understand in a fantastic way, inventing supernatural beings that supposedly control the entire universe and influence people's lives. According to the supporters of the "enlightenment" point of view, progress scientific knowledge will be able to dispel the darkness of ignorance, and freed from superstitions and delusions, the minds of people will not need religion. Representatives of this point of view include thinkers of different historical eras: from Epicurus and Lucretius in antiquity to Bertrand Russell in the 20th century. This point of view became especially widespread in the 18th century - the century of the Enlightenment (F. Voltaire, D. Diderot, P. Holbach, etc.). Also in philosophy, a point of view is quite seriously presented, stating that religion (primarily in the images of the gods) reflects the essential features of a person. Let us recall the thought put forward as early as the 6th century. BC. Xenophanes: people create gods in their own image and likeness, endowing them with the features of their physical appearance and character.

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