Abstract: the subject of the study is secular and religious society; the object of the study is the processes of interaction between religious and secular societies at the present stage. The author considers in detail such aspects of the topic as the legislative basis for freedom of conscience in Russia and abroad; the diversity of forms of religiosity in modern society; peculiarities of interaction between secular and religious societies. Particular attention is paid to the study of religious diversity, as it leads to religious extremism in various forms of its manifestation. Therefore, it is important today to study religious diversity not only in a single country, but also in the world. As a method of research, the author used an analytical review of the regulatory framework, Russian and foreign publications on the interaction of secular and religious societies. The work presents data from surveys of leading sociological centers of the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, the analytical center of Yuri Levada and the European Social Research – Europe Social Survey. The scientific novelty of the work is associated with the generalization of foreign and domestic practices of the relationship between the religious and secular parts of society. The main conclusions of the study are that the role of religion in society and the state will increase, inevitably lead to a change in the existing legislation, which should not solve the issues that have arisen, but work to prevent them ahead of or predicting global threats to the state, society and religion. Freedom of choice is the condition for ensuring freedom of conscience and religious association in the state; the possibility of worldview, religious self-determination of citizens.
Keywords: church, state, local self-government bodies, society, diversity, legal support, atheism, believers, dialogue