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Even though we're behind Europe in religiosity and far behind the US, Orthodox Christianity was alive and well here after the fall of the SU, and Christmas and
by aasasd 7y ago
Even though we're behind Europe in religiosity and far behind the US, Orthodox Christianity was alive and well here after the fall of the SU, and Christmas and Easter are variously observed. It's rather notable that despite the Bolsheviks' no-nonsense and literal approach to eradicating religion, Christianity and the church have survived the Soviet era pretty well. One reason for this is said to be that in the ramp-up to the Great Patriotic War, the government dropped the anti-religious rhetoric and adopted instead the position of ‘unite and defend your motherland and the people’.
Add to this the fact that in the 70s and likely later, people were still migrating from rural villages to the cities, with the whole baggage of inherited religiosity and mishmash of folk beliefs. My grandmother put in plenty of time in prayer each day. Icons or whole arrangements of them are a feature in many homes, cars and sometimes, more rarely, offices. And I still receive messages from my parents each year, commemorating birth and then the resurrection of Christ. Folk culture doesn't tend to follow an official doctrine, as exemplified by troves of Soviet jokes—and is also not big on ideological clarity, so many didn't see a problem in subscribing to both socialism and Christianity, along with crystal healing, magical powers of thought and a bouquet of other fringe beliefs.
In the 90s, my home city already had a bunch of churches including at least one large temple, and one or two monasteries—and I don't think they popped up recently.
Notably also, even Bolsheviks preserved old and unassuming Karelian wooden churches, recognizing them as architectural and cultural monuments—while demolishing some huge temples in Moscow. Like the Kondopoga church, built in 1774 and which somebody burned down in August of 2018: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Church_of_the_Dormition_of_the_Theotokos_(Kondopoga) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Church_of_the_Do...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormition_Church,_Kondopoga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormition_Church,_Kondopoga
- RickJWagner 7y agoIt's just my opinion, but it's not uncommon. I believe Blaise Pascal (the brilliant French mathematician) got it right when he said "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing....." For this reason, I doubt religion will ever die. It will be with us always.
- skrebbel 7y agoI'd wager that most atheists assume that God is very much a "created thing", which makes that quote feel pretty awkward.
- aasasd 7y agoI vaguely heard some theories that in the absence of better explanations, humans gravitate to attributing weird phenomenons to divine will. Not sure if this is in any way scientific. Inventing forest spirits seems to come pretty naturally by anthropomorphizing a variety of things, but I guess it gets complicated when dealing with lightning and such, and the deities evolve accordingly. Afaik neuroscience also can induce ‘divine’ experience by applying current in a proper place.
- LessDmesg 7y agoNo, some atheists may allow for existence of an uncreated creator God. It's just that this hypothesis is so inconclusive, unprovable and uninteresting that most atheists don't opt to pursue it (or disprove it for that matter). Assume there is a God or even The God - then what? We've no way of knowing anything about it.
- LessDmesg 7y agoYes, religion will never die because it's primitive paleolithic thinking embedded in all of us. With education and development of critical thinking, however, anyone can get free of religion and become intelligent (though it IS a lot of work that most are too lazy for).
- RickJWagner 7y agoI don't think it's 'intelligent' to be anti-religious. Numerous studies have shown that religious people tend to be healthier, live longer, and have higher levels of subjective well-being. I'm not saying it's for everybody, or that everybody should follow one flavor of religion. But it's definitely wrong to look down upon those who choose to be religious, as there are several advantages (in the here and now). Here's a Harvard paper and another, for good measure. The internet is chock full of papers like these. https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/December-2016/The-Mental-Health-Benefits-of-Religion-Spiritual https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/December-2016/The-Menta... https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=40219 https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=40219