Do not blaspheme, it's punishable!

Clever people, even if they are atheists (and this combination is rare enough), still refrain from blasphemy. So, just in case. And it's not just fear of the possible punishment of the Supreme. Any cultural person strives to avoid harming others as much as possible, among which there are sincere believers.

Laws are written not for smart people who already know in most cases how to act, so as not to cause moral or material damage to others. It is quite natural for the morally healthy member of society to live honestly, not steal, kill, or blaspheme. This is inherent in the very nature of human communication. However, there are, unfortunately, examples of a different attitude to public morality, when interference by law enforcement is simply necessary.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, Orthodoxy was a state religion, but at the same time a tolerant attitude was created toward the Gentiles, who constituted a significant part of the population of the empire. Cases of aggressive xenophobia took place, but the authorities did everything they could to stop them. At the same time, no one, regardless of the confessional confession, was allowed to blaspheme. This meant the inadmissibility of disrespectful use of God's name and public expression of disrespect for religious dogmas.

In the period of large-scale social transformations that followed the October revolution of 1917, the age-old values that were developed over the years were actively trampled upon. Children were forced to renounce their parents, his brother went against his brother, and people were forced to blaspheme. This was done in order to create a new religion, which had its holy relics in the mausoleum on Red Square, its "Red Easter" - May Day, and the analog of Christmas - the Anniversary of the Great Revolution on November 7. An insult, albeit unintentionally, of new relics attracted punishment much more severe than the punishment for blasphemy in times past. A newspaper used for hygiene purposes could have become a snake (there were also problems with pipifax), if a portrait of one of the leaders was printed on it.

After 1991, freedom of conscience in Russia became a reality. The people, unaccustomed to grace, massively churched. Moreover, it was fashionable to visit the church, and politicians, actively propagating atheism in Soviet times, began to swing boldly and ineptly in front of the camera lenses. Such shows did not add to them authority, and their bad result was the attitude to the church as a state body serving the government, which is fundamentally wrong.

Freedom of a man of low culture and underdeveloped is understood as permissiveness. The organizers of unauthorized rallies and other protests, portraying an unyielding determination to resist the "arbitrariness of the authorities", are somewhat disingenuous. They know perfectly well that there will be no severe punishment, except for a fine that they can afford. At least, until some serious article of the Criminal Code has been violated.

Participants in the pop group "Pussy Riot" apparently did not originally intend to blaspheme. It turned out somehow by itself, by thoughtlessness. However, believers who gathered at the church service, took their scandalous dancing and indistinct cries near the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior as an insult to their religious feelings. And not only they, but the Orthodox around the world reacted to this act, to the surprise of the "liberal public", quite sharply.

For "Pussy Riot" interceded by many public organizations and individual celebrities. They were asked to be released immediately. In the verdict handed down by the court, champions of Western values saw the violation of human rights to protest.

Obviously, in this case there is a typical for our time one-sided view of the situation. Taking care of the rights of protesters, the champions of freedoms somehow forget that there are other people, believers, and their majority. And they have their own ideas about what is good, and what is bad.

The blasphemy law in Russia is designed to protect the rights of those who profess the values traditional for our multinational and polyconfessional society. First of all, it concerns the Orthodox community, which, despite its large number, shows a rare tolerance in our time to vandalism. Would try to "Pussy Riot" sing-dance in the mosque ...