THE SEARCH FOR RELIGION AS AN EXISTENTIAL NEED OF A HUMAN

Abstract

In today's world, on the one hand, there are negative and positive aspects of globalisation processes that affect the crisis of culture, traditional values, national identity, and on the other hand, there is a search for identity, attempts to form a new identity based on national and religious identity. The substantive aspect of the concept of ‘religious search’ is considered, which may mean the creation of associations of believers beyond the framework of religious tradition, and the functional aspect, which includes the search for religious identity in collective or individual forms. It is shown that religious search is based on an existential need and a deep individualisation of religious meanings. The gnoseological status of the religious phenomenon can be determined for an individual in different ways, although these ways are largely determined by the personal characteristics of the subject and the sociocultural context of religious search. It has been established that the driving force behind the search for a worldview is not the need for meaning in life itself, but the frustration of the need that arises from the lack of knowledge, without which an individual cannot function normally. Internal conflict exhausts and enslaves a person, pushing them to seek certainty through the search for information that can lead to knowledge, in which they find new meanings necessary for themselves. The existential need to seek religion is preceded by a more or less profound and prolonged crisis associated with the experience of one's own imperfection and the imperfection of the surrounding world, when a person encounters the impossibility of continuing to perceive the world within the horizon of previous horizons, of adapting existing ideas to what has unexpectedly opened up through an extraordinary event or realisation. It is argued that the time of the emergence of worldview crises is determined by the logic of the development of an individual's consciousness in ontogenesis. In general terms, the mechanisms of cognition and awareness of oneself as a single whole capable of striving for active self-expression are analysed. The dominance of the need for meaning in life is aimed at social inclusion, social realisation and ‘social service’. Accordingly, a worldview crisis associated with an individual's loss of meaning in life most often develops on the basis of frustration of the need to be in demand by society. A worldview crisis and disappointment in the social world can lead to the most dramatic mental states and even suicidal behaviour. It is emphasised that, in addition to an individual's predisposition to faith, the search for religion is influenced by sociocultural factors and the existential needs of the individual.