Can Freedom of Conscience be Sacrificed for Security?

The article considers the situation with the restriction of freedom of conscience in Russia. One of the factors of this restriction is that the legal consciousness of many law enforcement officers was laid down back in Soviet times, when the attitude towards religion was based on the phrase “religion is opium for the people.” However, this idea was formulated and published by C. Marx in 1844, when opium was considered as a pain killer rather than a drug. This allows us to reveal the true meaning of K. Marx’s statement, which later received a completely different - extremely distorted content and formed a negative attitude towards religion with reference to the greatest authority of K. Marx in society, where the doctrine of Marxism-Leninism was recognized as an official and mandatory ideology for all. The article substantiates that religion is important for the spiritual life of society and an individual, and religious freedom was the ancestor of all “natural rights”. On the basis of recognition of complete religious freedom, separation of church from state, American “declarations of rights” - individual states and the entire union - declarations have grown, which served as a model for the famous act of the French national assembly - the Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights of 1789. The spiritual content of religious freedoms is the enduring value of modern society. On this basis, the article concludes that religious freedom is of enduring value and cannot be sacrificed to the safety of society.