Arguments against religion: the epidemic of distrust of faith

We publish article of the candidate of philosophical sciences, leading researcher of the Institute Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Roman Lunkin on the situation of representatives of Protestant organizations and new religious movements, as well as the situation around the liquidation of the Church of Scientology in Moscow. The article was published in the journal "Religion and Law", No. 4 for 2015  

In Russia a paradoxical situation is emerging - in a country that has overcome the Soviet atheism and kept the faith, decisions are made that are directed against religious movements. Even more than that, the next amendments to the Law on Freedom of conscience, adopted in July 2015, establishes a de facto system of control for religious groups. Even after 2009, when the Law on non-profit organizations, at first it became more complicated, then the reporting became simpler NGOs, many religious associations have decided to refuse to register their affiliates, as well as public initiatives as organizations. And this, Considering that existence as a religious group without registration in The 2000s began to seem like the best way out to avoid hidden and obvious the claims of the authorities.

After this under attack was the creed of religious organizations. For example, in In 2014, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation issued a warning to the Union of Evangelical Christian Missions Tyumen region, where, in addition to other claims, he suddenly indicated that Evangelical Christians and Evangelical Christians (Pentecostals)" are different faiths. In fact, the Union needs more to prove that he is Christian, since Christianity is another thing - third confession. The Salvation Army is also experiencing similar problems - Ministry of Justice RF refuses to recognize it as a separate Christian denomination. Churches of Scientology denied the right to be a religion and therefore a religious organization (on based on the expertise of the Expert Council under the Department of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in Moscow).

Not past fears have time to forget, more and more new ones arise - phobias bureaucracy before the public initiative and religious diversity of the country. It is logically difficult to explain many of the actions of the state and those attracted by it. experts, including why the state itself determines which a particular church belongs to a religious direction. Absurd situations where experts, commissioned by government officials, prove to the church that it is not a church, but believers that they are not believers and do not belong to a religion. It is this kind of characteristic situation that has developed around the Church of Scientology.

In July 2015, the Izmailovsky Court of Moscow recognized the refusal of the Ministry of Justice as legal Russian Federation to register the Church of Scientology in Moscow as a religious organizations. One of the grounds for the decision to refuse registration was conclusion of the Expert Council for the State Religious Studies expertise at the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of Russia for Moscow (dated July 22, 2013 year No. 35338). The examination was made in 2013 and signed by the chairman Council V.A. Burkovskaya and executive secretary T.V. Zheleznov, that is people who are not recognized experts in religious studies.

First the point of examination begins with the most unexpected words for the researcher: “Get an idea of ​​the dogma professed by the representatives Church of Scientology of Moscow, is not possible . Experts fully ignored the fact that church members gather for joint confession beliefs, conduct divine services and rituals, study religious philosophy. Absolutely arbitrary in this examination is to recognize the distinction between "belief" and "beliefs, knowledge in the field of spiritual phenomena" in fact on the basis that in the foundations of the doctrine of the church, much is said about faith and philosophy, and also by virtue of the fact that in Scientology there is no dogma that is mandatory for all parishioners regarding God." It turns out that V.A. Burkovskaya sees a contradiction between concepts of "faith", "religion" and "religious philosophy", although the latter in everything wealth is present in Orthodoxy and in other historical religions. If for traditional Orthodox or Muslim, such as Orthodoxy or Islam are more of a religious philosophy, this does not mean at all automatically that this person is not a believer and has no religion.

IN the expertise of the Moscow Expert Council notes “rather commercial than Religious Orientation of the Church of Scientology" . As reasons experts call the fact that the name of the church, the concepts used in training ("Dianetics", "auditing") are registered as trademarks signs. At the same time, registration of exclusive rights to certain trademarks protects property rights and is not a violation of the law, does not violates the provisions of the law on freedom of conscience, that is, the church can do this, just as do the divisions of the Russian Orthodox Church. find fault to the church in this case is difficult, and therefore rather strange both from the point of view of law and from the point of view of religious studies, the conclusions are: “A trademark as legal instrument, by its very nature, cannot serve as a means of preventing distortions of dogma and religious tradition. It is also important to note that if some kind of ritual performed under the guise of a religious rite is protected by a trademark sign, then here they already come into effect and have priority (over the rules on freedom of religion) trademark and rights laws consumers" .

However in this case, one can accuse of "commercialization" any religious an association that sells something - books, CDs, newspapers with its own emblem, with a special form of a cross, for example. The point is that the law does not contrary to the protection of property rights to the book or concept. And every whoever comes to the temple determines for himself how much or how little commerce is in churches. This does not stop the church from being a religious organization. It is amazing that the capital's expert council, headed by Burkovskaya, did not even motivated most of his findings. Scientology literature members Apparently they didn't read the advice.

Pursuit to come out with anti-religious positions makes even fundamental expert conclusions on Scientology are extremely controversial. One of the latest findings was written by L.S. Astakhova, religious expert of the Kazan Interregional Center of Expertise, Head of the Department of Religious Studies of the Kazan (Privolzhsky) Federal University (Conclusion on civil case No. 2-5387/14 dated May 19, 2015). In this conclusion, all definitions of religious activity and creed, religion as such. Examined in detail and critically alternative conclusion of a respected religious scholar, Professor Ekaterina Elbakyan. Astakhova, as a professional sociologist, analyzed the activities and the creed of the Church of Scientology in terms of their social functions, the social significance of certain requirements and rituals. According to Astakhova, many rites help socialization, motivate social dominance or promotion in society. At the beginning of the examination, Astakhova relies on how Scientologists identify themselves and their religious ideology, describes rituals and worship. The question arises - how, on the basis of the collected material can we still conclude about the non-religious nature of Scientology?

For in order to do this, in Astakhova's expertise, the social nature of the organization is opposed to the religious, as if sociality and the desire for public development excludes religious motivation and the content of rituals, actions and calls. Finally, following the authorities, the expert refuses Scientologists self-identification, like the state, the scientist ceases to trust believers and leaders of a religious organization (the examination indicated that Astakhova refused to from visiting and contacting Scientology communities). For believers, this certainly unpleasant and humiliating, but there is no other way to prove that they are not religious people, but their organization is religious.

IN within the framework of the conclusions in Astakhova's expertise, a scholastic-speculative reasoning method. For example, according to Astakhova, “at the level of self-determination, Scientology can be described as a philosophy formed on the basis of scientific and religious views, designated as axioms - but not in generally accepted sense, as positions taken on faith. Faith in this case does not have a religious character, and is understood in the sense of "strict scientificity", i.e. the axioms in this construct are offered as a basis for constructing a scientific theory of the foundations of "life and death". Even if abstract from the mass of dictionary definitions of religion and consider that Scientology is not a religion, then how, based on common sense, can religious beliefs taken as axioms should not be considered religion. And what stands for "faith" that is not religious in nature? For creationists - both Orthodox and Protestants - their belief in Noah's Ark and the creation of the world in 7 days is also scientifically proven, but does this automatically mean that is this not a religion?

Expert separates the Scientologists' creed of controlling one's body, emotions, and surrounding from religious philosophy, although all this is part of faith and philosophy of the sentologists: “The reactive mind acts contrary to that ability to management that a person could apply according to  relation to his body and the environment, whether he is able restore the true spiritual abilities given to him by nature. Although at the core a person is considered good, and is considered both aspiring and capable of survival, his loss of his abilities in the past has endangered his species disappearance." It's not entirely clear why these purposes of the church are not considered spiritual by the expert.

Performance Scientologists about God are indeed vague, not the same as in Christianity or in paganism. Astakhov notes that it is impossible to classify Scientology on a mono/polytheistic basis, as Hubbard repeatedly speaks of the gods, while the eighth dynamic mentions only about God, the Creator. But paradoxically, this leads the expert to denial of God in Scientology in general. According to Astakhova, the mention of God or The Supreme Being does not imply the correlation with him of the actions carried out, are only a generally accepted form, not supported by the content. … Analysis of materials, dedicated to the Supreme Being, shows that the reference to God in Scientology is not a question of the need to relate oneself to some personal God, the establishment of some relationship, or even the realization of God as a universal principle.

Availability God and a kind of code of scripture (the works of Ron Hubbard) in Scientology also makes the expert hiccup speculative ways out of current situation: “This conclusion does not exclude the possible presence of elements of religion in the materials themselves, but on activities and everyday the actions of the members of the specified group, these elements do not have a religious motivation. The activities carried out by the organization are social (public) in nature . However, the activity is social any organizations in civil society, and why the mention of God is not is a religious motivation is a mystery.

Expert does not trust the religious feelings of believers and does not believe that his words about spirituality, about God, about self-improvement they can invest something religious: “The above (in response to questions) characteristic features dogma is not confirmed by specific content: the presence of a text, revered as Scripture, is not a creed in content and is not a sufficient basis for obtaining religious status; cult practice and behavior dictated by the existing common worldview formed technology, does not indicate the religious nature of the activity, focusing on social interactions.

So Thus, the originality of the idea of ​​the Absolute in Scientology and about a higher being, which in essence is Ron Hubbard. This kind of image of God, the spiritual hierarchy, the Supreme Being is in many ways characteristic of new religious movements that have arisen and are emerging on basis of the New Age movement, theosophy, Eastern practices, but for a deep the expert was not qualified to analyze the Scientology creed. Finally, the author could not understand from the text of the examination why the registration of trademarks signs could violate the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation.

Scientology the church was refused to be recognized as religious on the basis of an examination back in 2002 year when the church did not want to register, including because it has allegedly there was no confirmation of the 15-year period of existence. Due to this On October 2, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Scientologists upon their complaint.

important a milestone in the history of the church was also the fact that on December 11, 2013 the Supreme Court UK recognized Scientology as a religion, and the Church of Scientology as a religious an organization that has the right to conduct marriages. The decision was accepted in connection with the appeal of Louise Hodkin - a 25-year-old girl demanded that British authorities allowed to conduct the ceremony of marriage in the chapel of the Church Scientology London. Formally, young people sought the abolition of the decision 1970, which prevented Churches of Scientology from registering as religious buildings (in accordance with the law "On the registration of religious structures" in 1855, which proceeded from the Christian understanding of God and religious rites in general, and also relied on earlier laws, on on the basis of which religious meetings of Catholics and Protestants were regulated currents that took place only with the permission of the bishop).

Extremely an important point in the course of the trial was the discussion of the understanding of religion and places of worship. British judges in 2013 concluded that the judicial system of the 1970s proceeded from an overly theistic (Judeo-Christian) definition of religion and cult needs and ceremonies. The rulings of the Supreme Court judges on religion can be considered precedent, since in general they concern not only the Church of Scientology, but and the masses of other religious and para-religious movements emerging on the European continent, and are also significant within the framework of the pan-European ideas about religion, which can be used in the future in European Court of Human Rights. In addition, the court referred to the Law on charitable organizations in 2011, which reads: "The concept of "religion" also includes: (1) a religion that provides for belief in more than one god, and (2) a religion that does not include belief in a god (according to this law to charitable organizations  religious purposes included Hindu and Buddhist).

Can treat Scientology differently, independent experts cannot ignore certain facts. The activities of the church are built on the application of what they themselves members of this church are called religious technologies. As emphasized in his articles and expert opinion on the activities of the Moscow Scientology church Professor S.I. Ivanenko, Scientology is distinguished by a large number of own terms, it is a system of religious worship, closely related to the beliefs of that religion. The Church of Scientology has its own priestly hierarchy and an analogue of the monastic order, called the "Marine organizations." There are nearly 800 members of the Church of Scientology in Moscow priests of various levels: about 700 voluntary priests and about 75 ordained priests.

On Based on the previous conclusions of experts Burokvskaya and Astakhova, it seems that this the priests have nothing to do, since supposedly there is nothing religious in this churches. However, it is not. Professor S.I. Ivanenko, who was personally present at services and observed the learning process, describes the structure of the life of the church as follows:

"Sunday service of Scientology consists of a reading of The Creed of the Church of Scientology, sermon based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, or from listening to a recording of L. Ron Hubbard's lecture (during special Sunday services) and group auditing for parishioners. Announcements are made during the Sunday service about upcoming church events and programs. Sunday service concludes with "The Scientology Prayer for Total Freedom." … In ceremony naming, and the funeral service expresses the belief that each person is an immortal spiritual being (thetan) who is not his body, but has a body (one of many bodies in an endless cycle of life and death). … In the time of naming the Scientology priest represents the thetan (i.e. the person himself as a spiritual being) to his new parents and his godfathers parents, tells the thetan what name he has been given, introduces him to the congregation, and reminds parents and godparents of their obligation to assist the child in life" .

Procedure auditing goes like this: the auditor asks to answer a list of questions, analyzing the state of a person, emotional and psychological, as it were, leads a person to balanced state. From a religious perspective, auditing can consider it a kind of form of either confession, or a confidential catechesis conversations with a priest. According to Ivanenko, Scientology is based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard - his personality is not an object of deification for Scientologists or worship, but the sum total of his works is Scripture Scientology religion. Quite difficult after hands-on research this new religious movement of the 20th century to say that it is non-religious, given that modern religions quite often use the concept of "technology" and want to keep up with progress, with science and, of course, with society. Strange blame them for it.

Analysis expert assessments shows how difficult it is for a scientist - a sociologist and a religious scholar – rise above the political situation and assess the situation not only with the help of manipulation of terms, but also based on elementary common sense. It is especially difficult to draw a scientific conclusion when some of the authorities and society views Scientology as a strange religion, inexplicably hostile or unpleasant, "unconventional" for Russia. In the modern world where the globalization of religion already dominates, where a lot of currents have a global character, and national religions are crowded by other movements, the sociologist and the religious scholar is compelled to analyze that which is apparently not religious or on the contrary, fanatically religiously on the verge of extremism, something that is very original and similar to fantasy or computer game. The world is full of religious concepts, ideas and movements based on them, which are far removed from isoic religions familiar to us. They arose and developed on the basis of and completely different logic, which a conscientious researcher. And finally, what is of exceptional importance for the the author, as a field researcher, are feelings, ideas, thoughts of specific believers, communities. In whatever form (certainly appropriate legislation) did not manifest their religiosity, the researcher has no right treats them condescendingly and condescendingly.