Religious «Nones», secularity and virtuality: philosophical analysis

Abstract

The processes of political transformation of modern society and socio-economic vicissitudes and crises have had a significant impact on the change in religiosity of the postmodern era. Secular trends and research are being replaced by the theory of post-secularism, based not only on an assessment of the significance of religion, but also on the search for criteria for studying changes in the content of religious consciousness.

The article presents an overview and assessment of the main provisions of the classical theory of secularism, which, according to the authors, are the basis for the development of approaches to understanding the processes of transformation of religion under the influence of virtualization. Modern societies are characterized by a significant change in the structure of individual religious consciousness, which becomes segmental, pluralistic and syncretic, combining elements of religious beliefs, scientific ideas, everyday and mythological consciousness and much more. Unambiguous forms of religious identity are, according to researchers, quite rare, especially in Western societies. The combination of elements of traditional religion, modern mythology, and mysticism provides, first of all, the various social needs of the “user”. The article reveals questions about the specifics of post-secularism in the context of the expanding capabilities of the modern information environment and trends in changes in religion as a social institution. These questions generally lead to the question of so-called “non-religion studies”, as research areas that seek to go beyond the conceptual binary of religion and non-religion to reflect new forms of religious consciousness.