Religion and science in the modern world: a look at the problem from the side of religious denominations.

Abstract

The subject of the study is the attitude of representatives of the main religious denominations of modern Russia to science. The purpose of the study is to determine the presence and degree of conflict between religious organizations and the scientific community, as well as to study the possibilities of their interaction. The research method is an expert survey, which was conducted in the form of an in-depth interview. The interviewed experts, who have ordained, as well as secular and religious education, represented the main religious organizations registered in Russian Federation: the Russian Orthodox Church, Evangelical Christians, the Roman Catholic Church, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in Moscow, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, etc. The novelty of the research consists in clarifying the attitude of representatives of religious denominations to the relationship between religion and science, designated as positions of conflict, independence, dialogue and synthesis. The definition of these positions shows how ready religious organizations are to cooperate with science, which forms of it are acceptable to them, as well as which factors contribute to this and which ones hinder it. The analysis of the results showed that the most common positions in assessing the relationship between religion and science are the positions of independence and dialogue. From the point of view of most experts, these independent spheres of knowledge and human activity can complement each other, including in the field of worldview ideas. The positions of conflict and synthesis are less popular, but about a quarter of respondents are supporters of both conflict confrontation and, conversely, the unity of science and religion. At the same time, there was no pronounced ideological conflict, since the majority of respondents is not only familiar with, but also agrees with a number of scientific ideas about the world.