When Reason goes against Faith

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The video 'When Reason goes against Faith' was recorded by Fr Seraphim (Aldea) at Iona Monastery (The Orthodox Monastery of the Mother of God and All Saints of Iona), on the Isle of Iona.

[@mullmonastery]

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[@lilililiana8988]

Blagosloviți!Sărut mâna!

[@landreeall]

@mullmonastery I have a question, if im allowed, can ppl watch movies? They have violence and kissing and all this, but what can we watch then? All the great movies have that. Can we watch it and skip or not at all? We are still humans and need some relaxation.. We pray, we go to church, but what about movies? Also why when i say the jesus prayer that night the evil ones give me nightmares, or make my blanker move, and i feel verry scared and a cold sensation. I go to church sunday, i try to pray often with the jesus prayer, i confess etc, but why this happens. Ill wait for your response. Thank you!

[@spidermiddleagedman]

I realize that christ helped me more with my schizophrenia than science and medicine ever has ever done. Schizophrenia is unhealable with current medicine and science. But staying close to church has given me a meaning in my pain.

[@irene1234]

That's awesome.

[@FirstnameLastname-py3bc]

How and what happened?

[@CAKirk]

I believe, help Thou my unbelief. Thank you for sharing.

[@deanaburnham9571]

Thanks be to God! Stay on the path following Jesus and Orthodoxy! I'm praying for you right now. I have precious family afflicted and I've had depression. It is humbling isn't it? We lean into our cross my Abbot says, we do not run. Indeed we surrender to it and Christ tends us perfectly. Perfectly. We're here to take care of each other. Even when we take care of ourselves we do it with love for Christ. Sending you holy hugs from my heart.

[@reaperanon979]

I'm glad to hear that, brother. Same with my autism, it has helped greatly. Plus, even where it "hasn't", it still settles my doubts regarding the correct way to go about many things in the world.

[@dschmid8845]

As a microbiologist and scientist who has studied evolution, and as a Christian, I would respond to Tyler by saying that evolution is only a THEORY, not an absolute fact! A common misunderstanding. I realize some scientists like Richard Dawkins push the idea that evolution is a fact, because of all the evidence they cite. Regardless, evolution remains a theory! The theory is only _accepted_ by the scientific community as the _best explanation_ of how new species appear, etc. Theories are eventually replaced by new theories with time, when things don’t fit the puzzle. Besides, people like Dawkins were not around when God created man, so how can they actually know? And while I understand the concept of evolution, I don’t believe it is an absolute fact. So, I don’t worry. I personally believe God created the universe and man. Be like Peter walking on water!

[@Amandaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Love this. As a Christian in America I feel like sometimes I engage and struggle so much about national and political problems as a escape from facing the internal struggle to love more, to surrender to God, to make my heart pure. We often find easier to fight about something it's further from us then the inner man . Bless us Father

[@JamesMasterPlaster]

Dear father I missed you all has well thank you ☦️

[@diannes8592]

I needed this right now. I'm stuck in a hotel room with two people who just want to argue and fight about faith/religion etc. All I can do is stay silent and bow my head and pray...

[@mckeojasortho]

Fr. Seraphim, Thank you. All to often we walk in darkness, stumbling attempting to perceive with our created eyes what can only be revealed through the light of Christ. O Lord heal my blindness, that I may know in my heart that which only You can illumine. Amen, Amen, Amen.

[@richardnewall4109]

As you said, "Faith is to walk on water, like St. Peter." Amen.

[@kevinmckay6815]

Think I speak for all watching that "crazy monk" we love you father and thank you for your words of wisdom and truth. God Bless you.

[@amirasaad630]

So true father Seraphim ´´ I believe lord help my unbelief’´ seems to be the best solution to doubts. You go to Christ himself . In this feminist world, I struggled in the past when it came to different practices or ways to the women’s role in the Orthodox Church .. but when u go to HIM and make HIM the focus .. everything else disappears Thx for the reminder God bless you 🙏

[@rolandtoth-lormann8381]

Dear brother. You provide us such a pure down to earth teaching. No political motiv. No fanatic supporter of a specific religion. I feel you care brother. Thanks for God, that you are reaching out to us with this videos. God bless you! Thank you

[@viravirakti]

I recommend the paper: "The irrelevance of creationism vs. evolutionism controversy for the Orthodox Church tradition. A logical and theological deconstruction of a modern myth“ by Fr. Dumitru Costache " The essay undertakes to prove that the relationship between science and theology cannot be reduced to the creationism vs. evolutionism controversy. Although this controversy is contemporaneous with the history of modern science, its background is neither scientific nor theological. From a theological-apophatic and transdisciplinary viewpoint, the controversy depends on a reductionist and exclusive logic. The conflict stems therefore from an ideological background, in which are discernible features of a dualistic framework. Theologically assessed, the creationism vs. evolutionism controversy seems to be a later manifestation of the naturalism vs. supernaturalism scholastic controversy and even of a dualistic Christology. This dualistic background, specific to western Christianity, makes the creationism vs. evolutionism debate irrelevant to Orthodox theology. For a fruitful relationship between science and theology, beyond the myth of antagonism, it is necessary that both domains recognise their own possibilities and limits.“ I would also say that we can see at the biblical genesis account, that even there God uses a process of creation, He doesn't just simply creates everything at once, although maybe He could have done that. But, instead, He creates in a logical order, in logical steps like earth and water first, then plant life, sea animals, land animals , which are even similar and compatible with the process of evolution (the celestial bodies are another story, as they were mentioned later in order to tell people, who had the tendency to worship them, that they don't have a special, or first place in the universe, and are not some primordial gods). What does than mean? Maybe it means that God creates the world according to the very natural, physical laws that He instituted. He humbles himself in the process of creation by using and obeying to the natural laws he created, and following the natural steps. He creates both supernaturally, by bringing the world into existence from nothing, and naturally, by using the natural laws.

[@aurelius1964]

Thanks for this helpful word Father; as a (new) priest I find I am often in conversations with people, newcomers and cradle Orthodox alike, who want difficult questions about the world and/or the Faith answered before they will commit themselves - Lord have mercy on me because I'm the same, so I do understand! I think the ascesis lies somehow in not getting into conversations with myself, actively noticing the troubling thoughts and sacrificing my addiction to 'tidiness' and order, a day at a time or a minute at a time - the prayer of the heart or a verse from a psalm helps. Pouring out my heart to Christ instead, in all my fear and doubt and pain is a slow process full of the shame and discomfort of my broken communion with God. Mostly it involves me muttering incoherently and begging for help and hoping God doesn't get bored! //My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.// - at least that is my aim! Your prayers!

[@JakeDanczyk]

Humbly as a recent convert from Atheism I would like to share some thoughts. Christ tells us that he speaks in parables in order that they who have ears to hear may hear. For our ancestors, it was enough that they knew that God created the Universe and the Earth. For us in these latter days, inheritors of so much accumulated knowledge and technology from our ancestors, our context is different. So new interpretations of the Word can be revealed. We can hear the same words and know new things. Psalm 19 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

[@Aleksandr-Herman]

Аминь! Thank you Father Seraphim

[@TinaICXCNIKA]

Dear Fr. Seraphim, I do believe this reply to "Tyler" has great value and application to most of us, no matter what we might be struggling with...it certainly does for me. Therefore, may God BLESS you, Tyler, your subscribers, as well as all Monastics at Iona and Mull (including my friend Aaron M, who has been with you these past several days). The only way I know to truly thank you apart from prayer, is to make a donation and this I will do now, to the Glory and Praise of God as you use it to continue out the good works you all do daily. In Christ, Tina.

[@gagirl39]

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

[@Gab_Freire]

Father, God used this person to give me this message, I'm going through the same situation, God be praised🙏🏻

[@remahunt4277]

Thank you for your sage advice and your obvious love for our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ. He deserves all of our love. May God Bless and keep you in your cozy kitchen. Thank you Dear Father. You help more than you know. 💓

[@mritchie85]

My issue now as I get nearer to forty is not that I have lost faith as a Christian, no, I'm losing faith in the world system and society in general. I question how long as a follower of Christ can I live in the "world", I wonder if this is a question monastics visit when the try to determine their vocation too. I have never felt the need so strongly to be around other believers as I do now. Jesus is with us!

[@GimbalLocksOnly]

I understand how you feel. The world is truly bizzare and it just gets worse. I am currently trying to just stay around believers too. Unfortunately, there has always been very little in the world that warrants our attention as christians. Its a poisoned well. Refreshing at first, then the pain settles in.

[@reaperanon979]

Living in the world is an ascetic practice in itself. Remember, in the last days simply having faith will be worthy of a martyr's reward. You should never have faith in the "world system" (it's literally of the antichrist in every possible way) or society in general at all. You should fight to better it in the ways you can through your communion with Christ, but that's really it.

[@interweebs7408]

I feel you and I'm just a little over half your age! This world has gone astray. Sometimes I feel like getting away from everything

[@davidyess1]

Faith is walking on water. This brought a smile to my face. Thank you, Fr. Seraphim; I pray for you daily. When I was a child, I suffered with migraines and could bear no light or sounds. After undergoing many tests it was discovered that I had hypothyroidism. After taking the medication, my thyroid self-regulated, the migraines disappeared and I no longer need the medication. Thank you again for sharing Christ’s wisdom with us .

[@susannemyall7699]

Faith is vast reason is only the little thing man has discovered 🎉🙏🙏🙏🕊⚘

[@aselkiesdream]

Thank you. The temptation and lies are everywhere. Retreat to the heart! The heart is where Christ lives.

[@ioanaradu6106]

Cât ne mângâiați sufletul, Părinte Serafim! Nevoința duhovnicească este adâncă și înaltă. Este grea ,dar are și Har dumnezeiesc! Rugați-vă pentru noi! Știm că o faceți cu Sufletul! Și noi vă purtăm în smeritele noastre rugăciuni! Doamne, ajută!

[@user-hb4iv3vv8n]

Thank you Fr. Seraphim! You are teaching your own experience of following Christ in an apophatic way. It is such a gift for us!

[@user-rq9ip1iv8b]

Thank you father for another great talk. God be with you.

[@gagirl39]

I agree with the teachings here from father Seraphim. The older I get I see that man/science is wrong in a lot and the bible proves itself more accurate. Man is created on the 6th day meaning incomplete. We have incomplete knowledge. We must rely on Jesus who has the complete truth.

[@genobadea2738]

Dumnezeu să te binecuvânteze părinte. Thank you for these posts. 🙏

[@januszblank175]

That is absolutely right to look on what is going on around with strong belief that Christ's teaching should be always prior to my thinking and understanding. I also discovered that this needs really strong faith in Christ's teaching. This faith doesn't come from knowledge, inteligence or any other human skills. This is a gift from God. The only thing what we can do is to be open for presence of God in our lifespan

[@ioanagrancea6091]

In my own spiritual life, I also struggled when the advice I received in confession seemed to be contrary to what psychotherapists said would be the best way to approach a person suffering from a certain disease. But then I followed the spiritual advice and it worked. And then I found deeper studies made by other psychotherapists on the same problem, that confirmed the advice given by my Spiritual Father. Indeed, all science is fallible and evolving, therefore whatever piece of science is today incompatible with the Biblical teachings, may become compatible when it gets to the next level of its own evolution. God's words are always a deeper, much deeper truth, than we assume.

[@ioanagrancea6091]

I feel the Lord Himself behaved in such a way as to always, but always, leave room for that LEAP of FAITH. Never quite offerring a full certainty in this earthly life.

[@mariamehaddad]

Glory to God for your teaching Father Seraphim. We are thankful! The Lord bless and keep you and shine his light on you and give you peace- always. Glory to God in the Highest! Through the prayers of our holy fathers and all the saints, Amin.

[@Dadlovesderb]

Fr. I’ll not share my story but to say that the Holy Spirit led me to you this evening. Thank God and you.

[@_MISTY-RAIN_]

God loves us

[@Brian-ko9qy]

Your answer dear Father displays the wisdom and glory of God!! Thank you for your obedience and humility. Brian from the US

[@br.m]

Peter walking on water always makes me think of how we are to believe in Jesus like how Moses lifted the bronze snake. It can be hard to discuss with people about the Genesis creation. For some reason that is part of the Bible I have never become hung up on. There is so much more in the Bible that captures my thinking. The creation story is only a small part of the Bible and there is not much detail there to work with. When I read the Bible I see no way to determine the age of the planet or the universe. For example we could think there is 7 days and so the earth is 6000 years old. Except the problem with that is nobody knows how much "time" passed before those 7 days. How long was the Spirit of God hovering over the water? How long was that water even there before the Spirit of God was hovering over it? Does it even matter? To be caught up on the age of the earth and to worry about the theory of evolution, is to listen to that snake in the tree trying to convince you. Leaning on ones own understandings. Following after ones own heart rather than pursue the heart of God. Forgetting that, like Job, the satan may be permitted to come at us with anything he can muster. I think that protestants can tend to be more in to apologetics. Therefore a lot of protestant apologists do look for and consider evidences for or against biblical truths. That's because they like to get on the front lines and are always engaging with skeptics and non-believers. So the more that they can understand the arguments, science, evidence, then the better equipped they are to make conversation with people.

[@youniahawel8608]

Amen, may Almighty God bless you always

[@fl7210]

Thank you father for this insight

[@betsyandall]

Thank you. God bless us all

[@ioanagrancea6091]

So useful and liberating the advice that we tell God in honesty whatever it is we do not understand, bow before Him and wait. It is true for every aspect of our spiritual life -what we cannot understand, what we cannot yet do...If we pretend we can, we become kitsch Christians, posing as Christians, but keeping lots of poisons deep inside. Also, if we just say we cannot and not bow our head before God's power to help us, we are still un-helpable. Both sincerity and the bow before the Only Saviour and Truth Giver and Healer can help.

[@Archy16]

It's like everytime I see ur blessing vids father seraphim you always guide me no matter where I'm at In life deeply appreciate u with all my soul I can never repay or thank u enough father seraphim❤‍🔥

[@ancientofdayslionofjudah2427]

Bless you, and thank you🌸 May GOD bless your mind with stillness and calm, and give you an understanding heart. May you know his peace, and may you be honest with one another. I love the honesty and vulnerability of the questioners here, beautiful souls.

[@TByronK]

Thank you once again Fr. Seraphim for sharing this truth, what a blessing your videos have been. 🌠

[@studiophantomofficial]

The style of that icon is absolutely stunning 🕯️bless you father Seraphim

[@danielwoldu1855]

Science doesn't stop someone from being old and death but some saints passed oldness and death

[@5cope5]

Please pray for me even once, it will be enough

[@bhante1345]

Thank you.

[@didihrpro3499]

The Lord Jesus Christ is the TRUTH 🙏🏼☦️🕊️❤️ God bless you Fr. Seraphim.

[@PaulaMiddleton-un8wr]

Thank you Father Seraphim. 🙏🙏

[@amybastock8370]

Thank you, Father. I have struggled with this very issue myself. My Science teacher sister and I have had many (thankfully adult and civil) conversations about this. Your advice has given me much peace. God bless you!! ❤️❤️☦️☦️

[@dismaspickman773]

It all starts with humility

[@stephaniedegange2737]

Thank you Father. Thank you for your wisdom...

[@inezvasquez8104]

Thank you! Fr. May you also be blessed 🕊️

[@feeble_stirrings]

Glory to God. Thank you for sharing this counsel. It occurs to me that it applies to so many things beyond the specific question at hand. Needed to hear this.

[@stvn0378]

5:00 excellent advice! so rare these days!

[@ArchangelIcon]

Another very wonderful video, Fr Seraphim. One thing to keep in mind when considering 'time' is to be aware that God's time is not our time. A day for us can be millennia to God. Yet we cannot know. A lifetime for us could be a second for God. A day in the story of creation can be a length of time well beyond our comprehension. We cannot know. There is no conflict between the ideas of evolution or those of Christianity, for we do not know what is truly meant. We simply know that God created all in His own time... in 6 days, whatever that may mean for God. What matters is God's love for us and our love for Him. Our belief is the details and timescale of how everything came about is not fundemental to our salvation. We simply trust.

[@genewood9062]

Jacob said, "I crossed this Jordan with only my staff, and now I have become two camps" --Genesis 32:10 (in my own words). [Took Jacob 20 years.] Two monasteries! Quite parallel. Your teaching here is excellent. The evolution controversy does not affect our salvation one little bit. And as you say, it does not touch our walk with Christ at all, either. The Big Bang is, indeed, found in Genesis 1: "Let there be light". But evolution is not: "After its kind". Paul resolves this in Romans 14: "Do not get on your brother's case because of disputable matters: to his Lord (Jesus) he stands or falls." Yet on key teaching, Paul was rigid and militant: "Do not even eat with them"; "Let him be anathema". I would add one other idea for Tyler, though. Read right through the Bible once a year! Bless you greatly! (I have no Greek font--) Kurios Iesous Xristos! :--}>

[@anamaria-pe2050]

Doamne ajută, părinte! Mulțumesc pentru toate postările!🙏❤️

[@terryphillips3548]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@curjcircelli733]

Bless you father, God has a way with timing on what needs to be said and I thank you for being a brilliant messenger. It has been a tough week. - How could Jacob be called Israel if he did not wrestle with God? Amen

[@gretagarbo1119]

Love,Patience,Compassion!Striking,Fr.!It s all one needs nowadays!I m so glad You always give us Hope,Fr.!I Thank You!🥰🤗🙏

[@patriciaschneider-zioga2500]

Thank you, holy Father Seraphim!

[@deanaburnham9571]

Tears. "Christ knows before we do." Yes. Thank you Father Seraphim. My experience has been that there are some questions, wondering about things....but I still live as if....following the Lord, the Holy fathers, Saints and Holy Scripture, a well formed conscience. It's so much more important to follow Christ. I'm such a mess in so many ways. I work on that or struggle to serve better minute to minute. I don't have to understand everything. Please excuse me if i repeated anything you said Fr S. without quotation marks. Trying to integrate your words into my being. Ty!!

[@alicebeshay6124]

:Thank you, my dear father Seraphim 🙏❤️

[@michaelfalsetto4428]

Thank you Fr. I needed the reminder to bow down today.

[@Iloveyoujesus111]

Tyler’s words indicate what his heart and soul believe and that is ~ in God. Sometimes we are fooled into not knowing how much we actually believe in God. Faith is a bridal veil. I have no doubt that in this process and as long as Tyler keeps a warm heart, that God will draw him closer. God knows the noise we are subjected to and will not spurn a warm heart. Thanks to you Fr for the video and Tyler for his question. Your advice is great and it’s clear God is using you for good. ❤

[@behindenemylines9033]

Good morning Father, watching from Southern Calif. Thank you for this video topic, I too struggle with the same. God bless you!

[@has25252]

Thank you for this. Be blessed in your work.

[@ruthshivani]

Heartfull blessings and appreciation 🙏🏽

[@jimsmith1549]

Beautiful and much needed. Thank you Father.

[@isawthelight]

Be blessed Father always

[@DigitalLogos]

Amen 🙏

[@cristinadragaescu1459]

❤

[@jeffbarnes4280]

Yes dear Brother...discoverys like Noah's Ark etc are only coming forth to reaffirm God's Word..our faith is not dependent on them but Only on God's Holy Word..dnt be to quick to down protestant people..remember that no one interpretation is the soul owner of God's Truth..Jesus is the Only Way ..not orthodoxy or protestatism..but He..Our Saviour..I like to hear your zeal n love for God's People..keep on sharing.. I'm Blessed to hear messages❤

[@reaperanon979]

Jesus is the only way but He has a church that is His body, which is the Orthodox church. It's not putting others down to state that, it's done out of love so that they too might find the Truth. To put it in an example for you, it would be as if you said there are other ways to find peace and love too, not just Christ. It's simply misleading and to conceal it is damaging to everyone.

[@Graggle-fp3xs]

Bow in love, in trust, in obedience to Christ's teaching. Not my understanding. This is something very difficult for a man to do. Edit: it is correct, however. It is not my understanding which saves me, nothing but His grace.

[@mkeenan1955]

God bless you Father. Thank you for your encouraging words. I am 67 years old and still struggle between faith and reason. It is so hard to be patient and hear Christ in my heart and see Him manifest in others who I often take for granted. Please pray for me as I will pray for you.

[@katedevoy]

Fr Seraphin, may I say how much I appreciate and LOVE your teaching! I have just found you as of yesterday and have by now watched 5 or 6 of your talks which are full of sincerity, love, compassion and kindness. I have been a Catechumen for just over one year now, to be baptised just before Easter or therabouts. May I share my experience with the same issue as Tyler? I also was equivocating between the scientific teaching on creation and I just didnt know what to think, and it was kind of bothering me a little. Not too much, just enough to break through into my awareness. One day it just came to me that I had a choice. I could follow the worldly teaching or follow God's teaching in the Bible. I realised that my opinions on this were of no account, were worthless and were a roadblock to my spiritual development. I now have no regard for what the world is telling me and my belief on a whole range of subjects like everything(!) is situated firmly in the Bible and the teachings of Orthodoxy. This means I am seen as some kind of Bible bashing weirdo and I simply do not care. God's word is the only word. Full stop. I pray for discernment, courage, humility and an end to my pride. I Praise God and thank Him for everything and especially for leading me home to Orthodoxy at 74 years of age. God is truly good.

[@craigmclean9062]

The Holy Spirit is the ladder to heaven therefore when humanity lost it they could no longer enter into heaven after physical death. The banishment from Eden therefore represents the loss of the Holy Spirit and the loss of heaven. Every descendant of Adam and Eve are born outside Eden meaning they are born without the seal of the Holy Spirit. Remember what Jesus said “You must be born again of water and of the Spirit”

[@siewtohong7138]

I definitely have many struggles and yes, one of which is often is religion valid in today’s society and how do we reconcile that with the scientific claims of evolution?! If anything I often reason that God is the scientist of all scientists and the artist of all artists. Just look around us and I am in awe of the creation around us! No one can be that awesome but the only Almighty One to be able to create such an incredible world as this one.

[@mariaspinu9989]

Slava Lui Dumnezeu!ma bucur ca sunteti bine!

[@richardgreiner9264]

Amen !

[@hyremcycles]

wow

[@viravirakti]

8:00 Father Seraphim, I don't think that this analogy with the discoveries on the island of St Brandon can be used to doubt about the science of evolution, but it rather supports the scientific discoveries, because it is about something that the researchers discovered and now know, which they didn't knew before: just as the archaeologists discovered and dated the monastery of saint Brandon, the scientists discovered and confirmed, through paleontological, geological and genetical data and evidence, the process of evolution.

[@ihalseide]

Thank you for this video

[@thehulk7629]

I had the same struggles when I started my journey in faith. I prayed and searched and I discovered that Darwin was an atheist and Freemason and his so called theory of evolution is based on his pagan/ ancient Egyptian mystic and religious beliefs and most of the evidence is not really true evidence to support the theory of evolution. This has fooled us Christians for so long and undermined our faith. Psychology is a “religion” that has replaced our Christian faith. I pray that Tyler will pray and come to the truth. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and we are created in the image of God our Father. Thank you father Seraphim for this wonderful video.

[@narekmelkonyan5017]

Pray for me, Father.

[@gagirl39]

Proverbs 14:12 New King James Version 12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

[@jaroslavkyprianpolak]

Thank you for your words, Father Seraphim. It's a topic of mine as well, although I personally have always been rather annoyed by the fact that some people don't understand what evolutionary biology is all about and criticize something that evolutionary biologists don't claim or think at all. It still bothers me a bit, I can feel it as I write this comment, but I realize that from a salvation standpoint it's meaningless, and I certainly have opinions about things I don't really understand myself, so I should be careful about judging others. What bothers me more is that many people claiming Christ ignore the social issues that are then seized upon by various, more or less radical leftists. It's as if we have forgotten the powerful voice of the prophets and have narrowed our issues to LGBT and abortion, which are certainly important issues, but I feel that by narrowing it down to just those, we become a kind of caricature of what we should be...

[@rhahnabunaid]

The adaptation of species (an animal growing an extra fin or a longer neck in order to improve its survivability within its surroundings - a recorded fact) is not the same as the evolution of species (an animal evolving into a completely different animal altogether - never been recorded, still a theory). Think about it: if we, as humans, have supposedly evolved from a single celled organism and were formed piece by piece over millions of years, as opposed to an instantaneous creation act, then how would the heart/blood/blood vessel system have come about when each individual unit serves no purpose of its own and would therefore not have made it through the evolutionary process? Each of these three units are interdependent on the rest and must therefore have come about all together, at once. An organism didn't suddenly start developing a heart with no blood to pump around and no vessels to contain the blood, only to then, millions of years later, start develop blood all inside the organism, followed by, finally, the vessels. We were perfectly designed and created by God with everything we need in place.

[@stevobear4647]

Father, forgive me. I also found it hard when I first heard you teach against Christians owning guns. After being a police officer for almost 20 years, I thought for sure it must be wrong and you meant monastics or clergy. I do not know of any protestant churches that I attended before entering the Orthodox who taught not to take up arms in defense of oneself or others like orphans or widows. It was more of assumed you should defend innocence. Maybe it is we Americans caught up in our rights and resisting authority. It was truly difficult to hear that something you had been Sooo sure of, was completely wrong.

[@adamkirkpatrick7373]

How can we send messages like this one?

[@charlestonscnative9083]

I think there is an email address on the Mull Monastery website.

[@endtimes2028]

I think reasoning increases your faith

[@GrayWithMe]

In the Catholic faith you are allowed to believe in both evolution and God. So I don’t understand why science and faith have to be at odds. Galileo was also considered a heretic but he was a man of faith. Science actually brought me to God and eventually Christ. Good luck brother - sending love

[@GrayWithMe]

Also I didn’t mean this to sound argumentative because maybe the orthodox beliefs are different so please know I do not mean to be disrespectful at all. I only want to encourage this brother in Christ to continue in faith like the father has indicated. We all have doubts-we all struggle. Keep praying.

[@oldboyxanliquidrage]

First one here.

[@FirstnameLastname-py3bc]

Father, to be honest, evolutionary theory is long discussed in academia and deemed easily refutable... Anyone who studied it nows it doesn't stand a chance against critique

[@br.m]

This is true. It can be frustrating to see that so many souls are convinced that evolution is a proven and undisputable fact. The truth is there really is not any evidence for evolution. It can feel impossible to convince anyone of this.

[@reaperanon979]

It also doesn't really affect my salvation to know the exact physical, observable phenomenon that lead to things as they are. Sure, understanding evolutionary mechanisms and genetics is good and helpful and can lead one to better understand people and how they act, why it's a bad idea to have children with certain people and so on. This is a private matter I have not discussed yet with my spiritual father, but I think the natural world has plenty of revelations about God's will, in everything that is beautiful and healthy. Beauty and health are I believe great signifiers of God's will in the world.

[@snackler6102]

then it isn't real reason then... to be reasonable involves having a valid premise