I made a thread recently to say hello to everyone in here. I used to frequent this forum for quite awhile back around 2007, 2008 and the early part of 2009. I was a member of the Church at the time. I now no longer consider myself a member.
The reasons why I came to Orthodoxy are very broad. Mainly it was the historical implications of the Orthodox Church from my reading of the early church fathers and the "mystical" aspects of the Orthodox faith as compared to other Christian traditions. Also included would be its therapeutic form of spirituality (again, when compared to other Christian traditions) and its emphasis on personal responsibility not only in your ethics and morality but even in your spiritual life. I've noticed these reasons are pretty consistent across the board for a lot of converts.
Now I consider myself an atheist and a secular humanist. You do more studying into history and philosophy as that intellectual attitude demands of you, you start exploring other forms of spirituality, you start looking at the moral concerns of the Church and how they match up with the morals and ethics in the modern world...and Christianity kind of loses its luster. At least it has for me. It's not to say that I now hate God or hate the Church. I don't believe in God so I can't hate him. As for the Church, I think it's a very respectable institution that's done a lot of good for the world as well as a lot of bad. In a lot of ways I consider myself a "faithful atheist." I'm still respecting of what I've come from, but I can't for the life of me believe in it any more. You might consider it similar to how a lot of Jews are atheists but still practice Judaism.
I'm just wondering if Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans and other people from the "historic" branches of Christianity seem to lose faith more so than our Protestant/evangelical friends? That's the impression I get. Have any of you shared my thoughts?
The reasons why I came to Orthodoxy are very broad. Mainly it was the historical implications of the Orthodox Church from my reading of the early church fathers and the "mystical" aspects of the Orthodox faith as compared to other Christian traditions. Also included would be its therapeutic form of spirituality (again, when compared to other Christian traditions) and its emphasis on personal responsibility not only in your ethics and morality but even in your spiritual life. I've noticed these reasons are pretty consistent across the board for a lot of converts.
Now I consider myself an atheist and a secular humanist. You do more studying into history and philosophy as that intellectual attitude demands of you, you start exploring other forms of spirituality, you start looking at the moral concerns of the Church and how they match up with the morals and ethics in the modern world...and Christianity kind of loses its luster. At least it has for me. It's not to say that I now hate God or hate the Church. I don't believe in God so I can't hate him. As for the Church, I think it's a very respectable institution that's done a lot of good for the world as well as a lot of bad. In a lot of ways I consider myself a "faithful atheist." I'm still respecting of what I've come from, but I can't for the life of me believe in it any more. You might consider it similar to how a lot of Jews are atheists but still practice Judaism.
I'm just wondering if Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans and other people from the "historic" branches of Christianity seem to lose faith more so than our Protestant/evangelical friends? That's the impression I get. Have any of you shared my thoughts?