Saturday, June 26, 2021

Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaia Responds to Questions Regarding Coronovirus Vaccination (Chips, Embryos, Trusting Scientists, Side Effects, etc.)


His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaia, who has become a trusted ecclesiastical voice in matters related to the coronovirus due to his extensive scientific and Athonite background, ruled out the possibility of creating a "nanosphere" which could enter with the coronavirus vaccine in the body.

Speaking on behalf of the Bioethics Committee of the Church of Greece in an online meeting on "Pandemic Covid-19" organized by the Metropolis of Neapolis and Stavroupolis on January 21st, he clarified that there is no such technology that is being tested, regarding the infamous claim of "chip" implantation through the vaccine.

The Metropolitan of Mesogaia, Nicholas, in an online meeting on the issue of vaccines, added, however, that the "biggest threat from a 'chip' would be our mobile phone; everything is done better through applications than it could be done with a nanosphere that could possibly to get into my body with the vaccine."

Friday, June 18, 2021

"Glorify the Name of God Through Science" (St. Paisios the Athonite)


 By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The quote I placed in the title of this article are words of Saint Paisios the Athonite from a letter he wrote, which is in fact handwritten.

I say this because some people transmit words Saint Paisios delivered to them orally, which may not be preserved in their authentic expression. If even one word is changed or missing or added it can take on an entirely different meaning.

Reading the book of Hieromonk Paisios, who was a novice under Saint Paisios, titled Perfume Emptied (Μύρον ἐκκενωθέν, published by the Monastery of Saint Hilarion in Promachoi Aridaía), I noticed that he has preserved many incidents from the many years of communication with him, on various matters, and I also read towards the end that he also published two letters Saint Paisios addressed to him.

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Orthodoxy and the Theory of Evolution (St. Justin Popovich)

 
A complete human anthropology cannot be discovered through scientific observation alone. For Orthodox Christians, a theological anthropology exists as well, which science must not contradict, but take into account for a true human anthropology to exist in light of divine revelation. For Orthodox Christians, human evolution as observed through science should not obscure this divine revelation. The anthropology of the Church in light of divine revelation is all that is necessary to contemplate for salvation, which means the Church should not trouble itself with scientific debates and theories, but leave those matters to the scientists alone, just as scientists should not trouble itself with matters of divine revelation as if science can ever contradict what is beyond its comprehension and observation.
 
The God-Man Evolution

By St. Justin Popovich

You ask me to answer the question, whether the scientific understanding of the evolution of the world and man can coexist with the traditional Orthodox experience and knowledge. Also, you ask, what is the position of the Fathers on this issue, and whether there is a general need for such a coexistence. In a short summary, I write the following:

The anthropology of the New Testament stands or falls on the anthropology of the Old. The entire Gospel of the Old Testament: Man - the image of God! The entire Gospel of the New Testament: the God-man - image of man! Whatever is heavenly, divine, eternal, immortal and unchangeable in humans is the image of God, the godlikeness of man.

This godlikeness of man was assaulted by the voluntary sin of the same, in partnership with the devil, by means of sin and death which stems from the transgression. That is why God became man, in order to restore His corrupt image from sin. That is why He incarnated and lived in the world of man as the God-man, as the Church, to offer the image of God - man - all the necessary means so that this deformed God-formed man can be able in the God-man body of the Church, with the help of Sacred Mysteries and virtues, to mature "to a perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). This is the God-man anthropology. The purpose of godlike beings known as humans is one: to become gradually perfect as God the Father, to become a god by grace, to attain theosis, deification, Christification, Trinitification. According to the Holy Fathers, "God became man, that man may become a god" (Athanasius the Great).

But the so-called "scientific" anthropology does not recognize the godlikeness of human existence. With this, they deny the advancement of the God-man evolution of the human being.

If man is not the image of God, then the God-man and His Gospel is something unnatural for such a man, something mechanical and unattainable. Then the God-man Jesus is a robot built by other robots. The God-man becomes a bully because He wants from people, forcibly, to become a perfect being like God. In essence we are talking about a forensic utopia, an illusion and an unattainable "ideal". In the end, it is reduced to a myth, a narrative.

If man, therefore, is not a godlike being, then the God-man Himself is unnecessary because the scientific theories of evolution do not accept sin, nor the Savior from sin. In the secular world of "evolution" everything is natural and there is no room for sin to exist. That is why it is a joke to speak of a Savior and salvation from sin. In the final analysis everything is natural: sin, evil and death. For, if everything in man occurs and is the result of evolution, then there is nothing that needs to be saved in him since nothing is immortal and unchangeable within him, but all is earthly and clay and as such are transient, perishable and perceptible.

In such a world of "evolution" there is no place for the Church, which is the body of the God-man Christ. The theology which again bases itself on the anthropology of the "scientific" theory of evolution is nothing more than a self-negation. In essence it is a theology without God and an anthropology without man. If man is not immortal, eternal and a God-man image of God, then all theologies and all anthropologies are nothing but a silly joke, a tragic comedy.

Orthodox theology and the relationship we have with the Holy Fathers is the way for our ascent to the God-man, the Orthodox All-truth. This is something in need of analysis, and is for those dealing with issues of the gospel on the planet. All the problems of the gospel are essentially focused on the problem of man. And all the problems of man are focused on one issue, that of the God-man. Only the God-man is the universal solution to the enigma called man. Without the God-man and outside of the God-man, man is always - consciously or not - transformed into something sub-human, a human effigy, a superman, a devil-man. Proof and evidence for this? The entire history of mankind.

Source: Translation by John Sanidopoulos.