And the more superstitions there are in society, the greater the need for theological rationalism and scientific sobriety. By the beginning of the 21st century, the conditions for a strategic alliance between the Church and science had again emerged. After all, the easiest way to unite is to find a common enemy. Such a common enemy of scientists and priests is occultism (it is difficult to calculate who gets more abusive words from the lips of H. P. Blavatsky - the first or the second) [138].

To my regret, the word that frightened me so much in my student years has disappeared from our everyday life. Imagine, a second-year student speaks at a seminar. In preparation for the report, he read one and a half articles on a given topic, supplemented them with all the incredible stock of his erudition – and bursts into a nightingale, and discovers new patterns of the universe and history, and puts forward ideas so staggeringly new that even Niels Bohr (with his aphorism "This idea is not crazy enough to be true") would not doubt their two hundred percent truth. If the student had been given two more minutes, he would undoubtedly have discovered the "general theory of everything"... And then this bald associate professor looks at you boredly over his glasses and says in a sad voice: "Justify it, colleague."

What kind of "justify"! – "And that's how I feel!", "And yesterday I had a voice!", "But that's what the Teacher himself said!", "Do you want to check? As soon as you go out into the astral, immediately to the right!"

In a world characterized by all-belief, the preaching of faith only Christian is a call to discernment, limitation, and discipline. That is, a call to responsibility and intellectual work. At a time when the fate of reason is expressed in the proverb: "The roof moves slowly, quietly rustling with slate," the scholasticism, rigor and logic of theology are the buttress that strengthens the wall of rational tradition. Without this buttress, demolished at the beginning of the twentieth century, the entire edifice of European rationalism began to creep apart.

It is not "freethinking" that replaces Christian dogmatics in the mass consciousness, but the most banal thoughtlessness. If you leave your religious instinct homeless, if you feed it whatever you can and let it feed on scraps of fashion, gossip and "esotericism", then it will grow into something strange, incoherent and pagan. From disbelief, fashion rushes into all-belief, bypassing the sober middle of tradition.

Aesthetic taste is brought up in a person. They are accustomed to logically consistent and balanced thinking. The skills of scientific thinking are taught. So why do modern intellectuals leave religious feeling unattended, without systematic education and upbringing? Those who do not make an effort to study Orthodox thought (they say, I do not need dogmas) find themselves captive to thoughtlessness. He subordinates himself to the elusive, vague and logically incoherent "feelings" of his own and the generally accepted "opinions". Refusing to study the centuries-old tradition of Christian thought, he, with his feeble knowledge of "scientific atheism," finds himself alone against legions of neo-pagan and sectarian preachers.

And how do you order to conduct a scientific dialogue with people who do not listen to your arguments, but are simply engaged in the "diagnosis of karma": "When you spoke, it was possible to clearly trace the following from your aura: when you spoke about the Truth in your speech, it flashed with bright lights, but when you talked about dogmas, the aura was, as they say, at zero" [139]?

Gone are the days when a Christian had to peer cautiously into the scientific spheres. Today, both the Church and science are being squeezed by a common ailment of our national existence: militant occultism. Thus we were united by the hostility of the popular occult preacher V. Nalimov: "So, our task is to open the way to cosmic consciousness. This is hindered by our culture, in particular, by such of its components as the outdated dogmatization of religion, the excessive logization (and therefore the mechanicality) of science... In other works, I have already written about the expectation of cosmic interference in earthly affairs. In the current planetary situation, we can hope for the intervention of cosmic forces... Marxist-Leninist Orthodoxy will not change the social situation."[140]

For me, the Strastnaya Square area became a symbol of what happened to us. Once upon a time, the Strastnoy Monastery stood here. It was blown up as a "citadel of obscurantism and ignorance". Religion has been replaced by culture. Instead of Strastnaya Square, Pushkinskaya Square became Pushkinskaya Square. Instead of the monastery, the Rossiya cinema was installed. Opposite it, the largest store of scientific literature in Moscow was opened - "Akademkniga".

But the democratic 90s began. Since culture is elitist, it was expelled from these squares. The station (in fact) McDonald's eatery has become the main point of attraction for the entire district. The cinema became a nightclub with a strip show. At the monument to Pushkin, an advertising beer bottle of equal size stood up. And even earlier, the bookstore was closed for perestroika.

When I entered it at the end of the repair, I was struck by the smell that met me at the door. No, it wasn't the smell of fresh paint. It was the smell of burning cow dung (from which the "incense sticks" of Indian cults are made). "Akademkniga" turned into a center for the sale of amulets, books on magic, witchcraft and "esotericism"...

So even non-religious people should respect theology as the representative of reason in the alien world of religious beliefs.

– Father Andrei, many people cannot cross some inner barrier in order to open their souls to God. Isn't the fear of being deceived once again – of being disappointed sooner or later in faith in the same way as, for example, in the communist idea of a bright future – such an obstacle?

– I don't think that anyone stays away from the Church precisely out of fear of disappointment. There is no shortage of people in society who are ready to respond and trust. On the contrary, in various areas of life, we daily come across evidence that people's credulity is beyond any reasonable level – people become enthusiastic about financial pyramids, from the next saviors of Russia, from world democracy and from new pills. What can we say about religion! Therefore, today it is more important to preach distrust as a virtue: "Wait, stop, cool your enthusiasm, think about it!" Even when it comes to church life proper, one sometimes has to say: "Fullness, are you sure that the spiritual adviser you have chosen is spiritually and mentally healthy?" And when it comes to non-church mystical circles, then it is even more appropriate to ask: "What makes you think that the voice that your acquaintance heard yesterday is evidence of the preacher's high spiritual gifts, and not a disorder of the mind?"