On the topic of Orthodox Christianity

I was born catholic but i simpatize with the orthdoxs more idk much about the evolution stuff , but i read sometime , some time before that they do not accept the evolution as darwin presented (caotic and with no "engeneer" behind) but they stand for an evolution with a mastermind(God) behind

 

I was once a "faux-pagan" too, are you sure that your pull to orthodoxy is centered on your desire to know Christ, or is it secondary things like their iconography and liturgies? If it's the former by all means you should pursue it but if it's the latter you should consider what you're really looking for. When I considered myself pagan I too was interested more in Orthodoxy than Catholicism, but ultimately when I felt the call to enter Christ's church Catholicism is the only thing that made sense to me.

I should also add that Christ is the head of the Catholic church, but I understand if you have misgivings about the papacy. That was partially my hangup when entering the church. On the other hand though, you will find no other Church more open to science than the Catholic church. You are not compelled to believe that the world creation account in genesis is entirely literal, evolution is on the table, as well as extra terrestrial life even. I understand your concern over the Church's academic side, but that's also what makes all the latter possible. You can also disregard that too if you wish however because Catholicism has a deep history of mystic, and devout practice.

Anyway, hope this helps. God bless.

 

Check out Jonathan Pageau on youtube and his site The Symbolic world and also The Lord of Spirits podcast. It's interesting to hear that allegorical interpretation is heresy. Maybe I don't know what is meant by that exactly or how it would differ from metaphorical interpretation. Saint Maximus the Confessor definitely did not have a materialist interpretation like protestantism does.

 

I read a book called The Language of Creation a few years ago which is also worth picking up. It's by jonathan pageau's brother.

 

The Catholic Church does kind of seem what you're looking for, minus the bureaucracy part. But for me, anti-science sentiments like the account of creation (that God created creation in a series of moments, and that animals were created in their state, as was the world, and trees were created with their age input into them) that appears in many other versions of Christianity is just going to be a struggle at this point. The amount of evidence for evolution is astounding.

Science is not heretical to the Catholic church. The Big Bang was postulated by a Catholic priest, and the bureaucracy of the Church has led to all sorts of developments in physics, astronomy, genetics, biology, chemistry.. you get the picture. As much as I hate the "scientism" of the modern era, I would just personally have an extremely hard time going into a belief system that denied science, and if I'm being perfectly honest I think that will cause a lot of unnecessary hardship down the road for the people that deny it.

Some stances on science in these religions seem legitimate (that scientism is the result of misplaced "pride" in man's accomplishments through science-- something that I think is absolutely true) but then change to outright denying well-documented and non-heretical science like very, very hard to disprove scientific accounts like evolution. This, to me, is entirely to extreme.

 

Just pure christianity is the way, the rest has Devil's hands in, a little here a little there no one will get the message

 

goddamn more spooks than a haunted house in this thread

 

I don't known if you know this but the Catholic Church recognizes 6 Rites and Byzantine is one of those Rites.

It's funny because I never thought the Papacy was that hard to grasp. Anyone who's read the Bible can see God is pretty fond of setting one man as his nation's visible patriarch on earth.

I think for me the biggest issue has been the sex abuse scandal but if I'm honest that's not a dogma issue. Plus If you think about if scandals are my hangup then I would have left after hearing about how they made Sual an apostle! The dude murdered Stephen! Judas sold JC for 33 pieces of silver. Peter flat out denied JC three times.

The Church has been filled with fuck-ups from the beginning!

 

What makes you think you need to follow a specific domination to know God? Thats the question i would pose

 

Id like to engage in debate but its too straining and focused on a big personal isssue right now. This thread is tempting. either way good luck op popping out

 

Well good luck just dont get caught up try to keep your dedication to Gods word and not twist it just to fit into a certain community

 

I've thought about this too but then I thought if the God I want to be close to is the Christian God then didn't He found Judaism first!? A religion!? And then later Christianity!? A religion!?

My conclusion is that a personal God would start a religion because a personal God would have likes and dislikes. Read exodus where God is telling them how to set an altar, what jewels to put on the priests vestments, which direction to worship (east), and to burn incense etc etc etc. God is very particular about His worship so the idea that He doesn't care never really added up when it came to Christianity. If you believe in the Trinity then that God in the OT is the same as in the NT (Do this in memory of me) this meaning offer sacrfice exactly how He did it! How He wants it done.

How are you going to get closer to God by not doing what He wants? How are you going to know what He wants without a Church to reveal it aka religion.

Sure there are some things we can come to through use of natural reason but not when it comes to the specifics.

Heck if you read scripture you acknowledge this reality.

 

Hello bro. Just wanted to chime in and say I am one of those Protestants, a passionate Calvinist, and I assure you I am not Puritanical. I enjoy my whisky, rum, beer, and wine to the glory of Jesus!

 

Orthodox here... perhaps the only one who did reply to your thread.

I search for Orthodox posts on nofap every now and then and this came up.

Even if I am numbered among the Orthodox folks who reject evolution, it isn't true the Church has rejected officially or even unofficially the theory in its entirely. Let's just say that the predominant view used to be the "incompatibilist" one, so called to define the lack of compatibility between Genesis and Evolution (according to supporters of this view). In reality many clergymen are compatibilists too and while a few are kinda modernists in other topics, thereby discrediting their take on Evolution too, others aren't. Also many active and trad preachers within Orthodoxy haven't commented on the issue, so it's really something you're relatively free to investigate and make yourself an idea on. There is no dogma.
But I'd suggest the channel of Gregory Decapolite. It's excellent and has a good video on this subject.