The history of the twentieth century highlighted a number of specific aspects of the relations of the phenomena of religion and atheism, the roots of which can be traced back to antiquity. Cicero distances the normative piety of “religio” from the deviant “superstitio” of the people and “atheos” of the elites, introducing a new term in Latin literature as a transliteration of the Greek word ἄθεος, which had two main meanings: “denying the gods” (godless) and “abandoned by the gods” (unhappy). These alternative forms of personal and group identification have gone through a number of historical stages of their relationship, retaining their significance up to the present, often being interpreted as the relationship of absolute “good” to absolute “evil”, in this case, religion acts as “good” and atheism as “evil”. Since the end of the 20th century, paradoxical identities of “Orthodox atheism”, “evangelical atheism”, etc., have been affirmed in Russian society, striving to combine the existing alternatives.
Keywords: religion, atheism, superstition, philosophy, identity, self-identification
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662.2020.2.77-90
About the author
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Evgeniy I. Arinin – Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Vladimir State University; 87 Gorkogo str., Vladimir, Russia, 600000; еThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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Vladimir S. Glagolev – Doctor of Philosophy, Professor at the Department of Philosophy, MGIMO University; 76 Vernadskogo prosp., Moscow, Russia, 119454; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |