ive done no such thing.
of course I have that right. we all have the right to investigate this issue and try to discern the mind of the Church on the matter. In doing so, I've found not even the slightest deviation among our Saints and liturgical texts. I have the right to say this. and you have the right to disagree. you also have the right to think that a Patristic consensus does not indicate the teachings of the Church and I have the right to tell you that I think you are wrong about that. There's no reason this dialogue cannot be accomplished maturely.
You most certainly have. I'll spell it out for you.
You say that Creationism is the teaching of the Fathers & Saints
You say that Evolution is a teaching against the Fathers.
You say therefore, Creationism is teaching of the Orthodox Church
You say also therefore, Evolution is a teaching against the Orthodox Church.
By definition, Orthodoxy is right-belief (right-glory) and to be Orthodox means you hold to the Orthodox faith.
Therefore, if evolution is a teaching against the Orthodox faith, it must therefore be heterodox.
If Evolution is heterodox, then those who hold to evolution rather than creationism are also heterodox.
Therefore, it concludes that anyone who accepts evolution, according to your idea, are therefore Heterodox, and therefore are not Orthodox.
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I have just illustrated that you indeed have accused us of not being Orthodox even though you have not stated it in a blatant manner.
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I am just as Orthodox as you are. I have the right and the freedom in the Church to accept scientific explanations of God's creation in contradiction to a literal interpretation of Genesis. You don't have a right to tell me that I am not Orthodox.
If you or I wanted to say "well evolution isn't Orthodox", we would be putting hand-cuffs on people that the church doesn't have. We would be judging those people as not really being Orthodox. Not only this, but we would be falling into the very sad error that schismatic, un-Orthodox groups fall into.
Non-Orthodox groups like the "Holy Synod in Resistance", the "Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece", the "Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania", the "Genuine Orthodox Church of America", the "Holy Orthodox Church in North America", the "Holy Synod of Milan", the "Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church", the "Russian True Orthodox Church", the "Russian Church in Exile", the "Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (PSCA)", the "Pomorian Old-Orthodox Church", the "Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church" and the "Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church" all commit the error of committing importance to issues that aren't important. They take minor little traditions, minor little theological ideas, theological opinions and then make them into be big deals. They treat them as though they are essential. They treat them as though they are Church doctrine. They also reject any other theological opinions outside of their own narrow view, and believe that any deviations beyond what they see as "Orthodox" are heretical and heterodox. They are all un-Orthodox groups, and their mindset, and desire to bring non-essential elements up to an essential level led them all to break with the Orthodox Church and become their little isolated, self-righteous entities.
We need to be careful not to follow them. I can't call your views on creationism heterodox because they aren't. You can't call my views on evolution heterodox because they aren't. Our Church says that creation is a mystery, and it doesn't insist on a literal interpretation of Genesis. It doesn't teach that a literal interpretation of Genesis is essential to our faith. It teaches that what matters is that God created all things from nothing, and that man is fallen.
Whether God did it through literal creationism or evolution does not matter. Whether Adam and Eve were literal human beings that literally ate a fruit from a literal tree, does not matter. What matters is that we are fallen, and that God became a human being to save us from our fallen state.
What matters is our salvation, and an absolutely literal interpretation of Genesis has nothing to do with our salvation.
