Гуманитарные Ведомости. Выпуск 4(8).2013

Гуманитарные ведомости ТГПУ им . Л . Н . Толстого № 4 (8), декабрь 2013 г . 109 general population than for participants younger than college age; it was also stronger for religious beliefs than religious behavior. Three possible interpretations were discussed. First, intelligent people are less likely to conform and, thus, are more likely to resist religious dogma. Second, intelligent people tend to adopt an analytic (as opposed to intuitive) thinking style, which has been shown to undermine religious beliefs. Third, several functions of religiosity, including compensatory control, self-regulation, self-enhancement, and secure attachment, are also conferred by intelligence. Intelligent people may therefore have less need for religious beliefs and practices. (Newsru.com 14 August 2013. A Meta-Analysis and Some Proposed Explanations) But nevertheless, the education system can not avoid taking religious difference into account as Merelin Kiviorg in Estonia chapter notes, religious education is a precondition for protection of freedom of religion or belief. I would add, of freedom of conscience. Religious education helps in order students understand the world, its cultures, and the role of the religious dimensions in human life. As the European Court of Human Rights stated in “Serif v. Greece”: That tension is created in situations where a religious or any other community becomes divided,…this is one of the unavoidable consequences of pluralism. The role of the authorities in such circumstances is not to remove the cause of tension by eliminating pluralism, but to ensure that the competing groups tolerate each other. My understanding is that the education of tolerance is the main task of Religious education. Being an integral part of the general globalization process, religious education, nevertheless, has some particularities. It is not just about the transference of knowledge acquired by the mankind to children, but of their choice of religious and moral education. There are serious problems in realization of religious education in poly-confessional society? what to teach? On religion or about religions? What are the criteria for the choice of religions? How to get the respect of different religious traditions by the education of the moral citizen? How to realize the right to freedom of conscience and religious freedom? What model of religious education in public school is more effective and perspective today? However, there are different opinions as to how religious education should be conveyed. Views have differed regarding the age at which religion needs to be introduced in schools and by whom it should be taught. There are some additional practical and structural problems which relate to the school curriculum and teaching methods as a whole. Regarding religious education specifically, the major concern has been its content and purpose. Concerns have been expressed about how to strike a balance between introducing the main religion (s) and other worldviews