The Crisis of World Religions

The tragedy of the Chechen war is a tragedy for both Chechnya and Russia as a whole. It is a tragedy of an immoral, unprincipled, and internally weak center. Everyone saw and understood that with such leadership, the state was doomed, and it could not survive.

Each region prepared for independent survival, which was the main trump card in the Chechen people's struggle for their autonomy. In the Caucasus, a child was never the top priority in the family. There was always unconditional respect not only for parents but for elders in general, especially the father.

This respect was connected not so much with religion as with an intuitive desire to survive. It is much harder for a small nation to preserve itself and its integrity. Where the physical aspect is weak, the moral aspect must be strengthened.

The mountain peoples compensated for their small numbers with strict discipline and an intuitive adherence to universal laws. Respect for parents and laws of hospitality were strictly upheld. Theft and debauchery were severely punished. Protecting morality was always more important than protecting the physical body. Life was never the top priority.

That is why, in the nineteenth century, something happened in one of the Adyghe villages that a Western person can never understand. Here is what happened.

One of the villagers killed his guest because he was tempted by his money and the rich horse harness. When the residents of the neighboring villages found out, they gathered and killed all the residents of that village, including the criminal.

Facts are stubborn things and indicate one thing: as soon as spiritual and moral concepts are set aside for a person or society, and the body and materialistic psychology prevail, the question of such a person's or state's disappearance from the face of the earth is only a matter of time.

Moreover, it is a relatively short time. The main energy necessary for existence, development, and securing the future is the energy of the spirit, not the body.

Interestingly, in the Caucasus, pagan traditions were always strong, and the main moral factor was not so much Christianity or Islam but local customs.

These customs had the greatest influence on the tribal and clan consciousness of the highlanders. But their moral foundations were much higher than those of civilized Europe. Christ told a parable about two sons whom the father asked to complete a certain task.

One agreed but did nothing, while the other refused but later went and did everything his father asked. Modern Western civilization has become like the first son. Outwardly, everything is decent and civilized. But what happens inside, in the soul, concerns very few.

So, the French Minister of Culture attends the opening of a TV channel for homosexuals—and no one is surprised anymore! And the slightest economic problems lead to furious public outrage. Strikes shake France with demands to raise wages.

So, if a person consciously or unconsciously violates the higher laws reflected in the commandments, in the end, they pay for it with the loss of spiritual energy.

It would seem that for several thousand years people have known that an immoral person or society is not viable. So why do they still slide into this? It turns out that even strict adherence to the commandments does not guarantee that the soul will be saved from sins. Why have Catholicism and Orthodoxy begun to slide into paganism? Why is the same tendency strengthening in Islamic countries? Maybe there are unconscious violations that we do not suspect?

S.N. Lazarev, «The Man of the Future. Parenting Education, part 1»