Thoughts on Orthodox Christianity?

https://youtu.be/_dP4ppvQZpU?si=fSsqVHG20AHVwluG

hey

I enjoy the aesthetic value it presents but am not religious myself.

Out of all the denominations, Orthodox seems to be more 'correct' in a sense with its approach to divinity and God. However, any sort of organized religion is silly: It's effectively handing over moral authority back into the hands of humans. Sure, they're guided scripture, but it's impossible not to have some sort of hierarchy of people or specific individuals not go wrong and have that influence those under the doctrine. As we've seen all throughout history.

>>4

effectively handing over moral authority back into the hands of humans

This is what happens with 'disorganized' religion, too, but on an even worse level. You are effectively putting all the pressure on the individual to apply a spiritually higher moral authority on themselves which is almost impossible without outside guidance. Thus, there is no social pressure to adhere to the truths set out by the religion. This is like saying organized society is silly while completely omitting the fact that the individuals that form that society would still form a group to inform their own decisions. Religion is a very personal thing, but if you want any sort of semi-strict adherence to doctrine to become normalized and widespread in society you have to actively make it organized. People will misuse that power, but in every single community there is someone who will (unintentionally or not) misuse their authority.

>>4
any form of christianity where it's acceptable to get baptized in any form of water that isn't a river or a sea is incorrect and not worth bothering with imo. at least the orthodox have real bread instead of wafers for communion, which is at least a step in the right direction.

what's magical about rivers and seas beyond being the literal only water source big enough to immerse someone fully in that a person 2000 years ago on a subsistence wage had access to?

>>3
if we're talkin aesthetics i think catholicism beats orthodox any day

>>5
But that is where the problem lies is it not? Discussing the efficacy of organized religion only serves point to humanity's total inadequacy and ignorance on matters of morality and divinity. Humans are just this inept. The value of divine connection is almost certainly squandered under the weight of social cohesion and dogma. -- Oh, but it's the solution! How else can those monkeys govern each other and form a functioning society? Perhaps things should run their course. Perhaps we should accept that we've been barred entry from whatever divine destination we were promised. Perhaps! Take one look at the world: Do you really think God could save us?

More on denominations of Christianity: How can it be that there are so many offshoots of Christianity stemming from one holy text (this applies to other religions as well). Wouldn't it be that all these variants are of a product of humanity's stupidity? As there could very well be an infinite number of interpretations and subsequent doctrines -- or, as they say, denominations. Doesn't this all just garner skepticism for all religious dogma? Christianity started and ended with the bible.

>>1
I'm a somewhat recent convert to Christianity. After researching, I decided on Catholicism - traditional Catholicism, not the modern (post Vatican II) Catholicism. I like Orthodoxy, I like how they mystify things more than Catholicism. A lot is similar to Catholicism just with a different aesthetic or wording. I dislike some things about it, especially that it has no central authority, but overall it's nice. I'd rank types of Christianity based on preference like this

Traditional Catholicism 100%
Post Vatican II Catholicism 75%
Orthodox Christianity 65%
Traditionalist protestants (Anglicans, Lutherans, etc.) 45%
Faith-based denominations that eschew traditions 30%
Good vibes denominations 5%

They're still Christians but sad they broke off.

>>7
the entire point of religion is the ritual of it all. dunking someone into a bowl is a very shitty ritual compared to biblical baptism.

Very shocked to see the famous bishop Emmanuel fucking stabbed during Mass ???

>>12
I just looked it up. Genuinely disgusting.

I just know about this Telosbound kid who says Zizek's subject is like hell in Eastern Orthodoxy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWTszRtatFE

How do you view Gnosticism (mentioned, but not expanded upon in the OP's link to a video)

I was known before I retired from tthatt board a while back as that orthodox repper, in years past I named myself briefly in a certain phrasing as the chief coordinating officer of AGP. Stay strong if you being persecuted, know you are not alone in that other men are undergoing similar, and even if that isn't true God is always present sustaining you during every agony and affliction, in such instances Jesus Christ abides within you. "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Even those who I only know of para-socially; I especially feel bad for the polish 'truth about agp' tranny who I never got his real name, he asked me on that board if I knew it and I responded with his pseudonyms. Truly I wanted to pray for him for years but I threw away the opportunity to. I suspect he is dead due to despair and if so there is nothing I can do even spiritually at this point, only those that know his name can help him. Hopefully this person alive and well, he or she. Also that little anime philosopher dude who I watched for a couple years, it is amazing he is doing as well as he is, dealing with all that chaos would crush most anyone else. If I ever become a monk I will pray for anyone in these circles that asks every day for the rest of my life, I'll respect your freedom of conscience, only wishing you peace and strength in enduring the hardships of life. The below was meant for a certian website that administrator banned my account (not unlike agprick) within a few minutes of posting the below, I know this place isn't my blog but this is the best place I can think to put this, although it is dramatic and sarcastic, the text below is based on a true story although any resemblance to individuals and events in real life are merely coincidental.

No, I'm not part of the club but I want to be - Blocked indefinitely by the rector for being too honest

A while back I stirred much controversy with the prelates of a certain branch of orthodoxy for my candor which they mistook for peevishness. Their understandable disgust at my wretchedness urged me to uphold my honor, which although a vain pursuit, nevertheless ended in true repentance. My spiritual physician, clad with the armor of considerable esteem bestowed upon him by the circles of orthobros, provided me with much needed medicine of advising me to avoid social media altogether, and if it is used, to never use anonymity and using one's legal name. In strict adherence heeding his recommendation, I found that the veneer of social interaction afforded through the internet was just a trickle compared to the depth of soul gathered by growing my real life social circle. This served me well, bringing me from the most pathetic vegetative state to a work-ethic typical of the average college student. To my dismay, I saw quite the opposite occur to the very healer God appointed for my correction.

In his hubris, he thought himself a prophet, in that his musings could steer the vehicle of the 'orthosphere' namely by capturing the precise character of the worst of the orthobros who: are lacking in self-awareness, not so secretly believe in works-only salvation, overlook the simple for the complex out of arrogance, use orthodoxy namely as window dressings to bring to life a now over century-old unamerican pipedream that is the 'social concept' manifesto, use social media to whitewash and revise the true orthodoxy.

If I were to claim that I was the only single male convert under him in real life, that would mean I would have used this priest in a quite literal sense as a propagator of my genes. His observations published over the course of over two years would paint the epitome of the insufferable terminally-online young male converts as someone eerily reminiscent of my character, in effect making me the true prophet if you can really say that of anyone.

When first encountering him, he was your typical well-adjusted orthodox priest, perhaps a little unhealthily obsessed with ritual and routine than most. But my dealings with him as his online ministry blossomed, pushed him into choosing to become more stringent and reactionary. Being ashamed of myself for faking schizophrenia to collect a pittance and nursing a shameful vice best described as classical narcissism proved a tricky situation to navigate, as admitting to all that isn't really easy for anyone. With much free time on my hands, and nothing to do except read theology, listen to chants on the internet, and perhaps do some house chores. I was in despair that he said I could never undertake the monastic vocation. With hesitancy I accepted his judgement, but deep down felt it quite superficial, as if it were calculated on a spreadsheet based on a conditional formula from a decades' old tax code.

As I learned better to malinger schizophrenia, I, like the fallen Eve, proceeded to fan his hubris, while I mediated on his posting patterns to better predict his mental state so that any hypnotic suggestion employed would be as effective as possible. Throughout the first year of knowing him, I was able to tune myself to his mind, and encapsulate it as a musician his instrument.

All well and good, like a virgin queen bee, I started to make myself at home in the corner of this section of a hive that is part of orthodoxy, in hopes to secure a livelihood as an ambitious yet workshy catechumen. Unfortunately, I could not evade the sense organs of the established queen of the hive, which I lack. Most sane persons would call these individuals bishops. Their workers carried my pheromones to them which prompted a solicitation to me for a weekend of meetings. Well, it turns out that they do what I was trying to do but they are better at it; They somehow knew I was viper more than I did. So, they proceeded to psychologically violate me as per holy tradition, apparently. All this induced a over year's long painful episode of lunacy, or in modern language, narcissistic mortification. I felt as if my soul were clubbed to within an inch of death.

In vain, I tried everything to reinstate myself as actually schizophrenic, and not some deranged psychopathic masochist in the eyes of the synod of this jurisdiction. Upping my game, I read lightly into jewish mysticism, and looked upon all the other religions of the world to inspire my methodology in sorcery. I honed in on talismans, with custom symbols and designs intended to stun the victim psychologically so that upon my meditation on these symbols I could noetically pull them back into submission. A good metaphor is to capture and constrain a demon to take a form of a spider so that it can weave a pattern to which only I fully understand into the victim's mind. For other methods, like using a philosopher's gemstone to interpret lisp scripts with gemetria and a special recursive combinator to siphon and destroy demons polluting my lower soul: all this done within the gemstone's lattice, albeit in vain for cases like me. For the easiest yet riskiest tactic in practical essence magic is giving so called 'prophecy' which can serve to give one's words weight. One must be careful as a grammatical mistake can, in the worst cases, serve to hurt them thus ruining their reputation forever.

My second most effective deployment of black magic used all the above, and as true monk wearing his sins on his sleeve, I did a all-night fast and vigil and made sure to be very clean shaven before I performed a reverse-exorcism on this poor clergy member, in retrospect all this was a very strange cry for help from a more knowledgeable sage. After bragging about all this to the rector during coffee hour, I was first blocked. He bid me not to come back for a few weeks until I was to take antipsychotic medications. He thought I couldn't understand this stipulation, but I was amused then that he didn't understand I was fully self-aware from the beginning. It was working, until I boasted in earshot of all that I was proud of my witchcraft.

Despite my megalomania, all that magic seemed to at first do the trick. His musings become very poignant in rebuking the orthobros with their various perceived shortcomings, as their replies thanked him for the privilege of receiving said rebukes. Also, he sometimes made reference to letters I sent him, and replies from secret admirers of mine implied that they were in the know. You see, before that particular instance of witchcraft, I did what he asked of me: to write about orthodoxy. Well I did, and used it as an opportunity to show my personality, and really to confess my sins in writing because for someone like me that is probably necessary. He did not respond, and this angered me. The embarrassment which proceeded after I could not deny that I actually sent it drove me mad enough to decide to perform the aforementioned reverse-exorcism. As you see, under great need I must write this, not only to heal my shame, but because his online ministry and hosting affluent inquirers of the local aristocracy takes priority over ministering to me. It took him months to admit he read it the first message, the suffering for this morsel of appreciation is beyond pathetic as you will see.

I was not done with my antics, I needed to know what he thought about my letter. Alas, he was preoccupied with more important affairs, like his online ministry or discussing crucial matters with vagabond clergy with funny accents during coffee hour. Well my time to shine was approaching, it was a month out from pascha and the coming total solar eclipse provided me the proper liturgical days and major astrological events that I needed to start a movement or cult to spite the synod for humiliating me so ruthlessly. With two month old beard, a flip-phone, a 30 year old laptop, many books and wikipedia prints, as well as my mysticool orthogear toolkit: the prayer rope, many layers of heavy jackets and clothing, a print out of the ladder of ascent with the sins I struggle with highlighted, and a super special icon inside my nametag lanyard to absolve myself of karmic debt as the vipers do since 'it protects us'? I was ready to win the programming competition, spiritually seize a parish during the eclipse's totality, and afterwards to start a tech company with my followers as employees or something. Believe it or not, it took over a day and a half of all this fake-saint nonsense until I was involuntarily hospitalized.

In the beginning, everyone seemed to gravitate around me, like I was some type of famous programmer or hacker, and they thought I was cool because I was very religious but not that annoying, smoked, and knew just enough C to not need stack overflow. You may wonder what was my downfall. While intoxicated, I broke my covenant with God as I was trying to navigate the impoverished outskirts of Appalachia to search for a lighter for my unopened pack of premium long filter cigarettes. You see, I ingested synthetic cannabis in hopes to stay awake for yet another day so I could submit something to the judges. Unfortunately such substances in combination with energy drinks can lead to an increase in the evil inclination which in an area of impurity becomes ever more impossible to resist.

Walking into the event area, I sneered at and tried to hip-check a participant who was an underage smoker. I retorted with crossed arms, barking cruelly, "You shouldn't!", then rolling my eyes contemptuously. In effect, this act exported my trauma caused by a similar event to someone else, which in turn healed me of it. To again make good of what was foolishly given to the evil one, I instructed an attendee with low self-confidence that everyone is a poser and is doing something different, because perfectionism seemed to stop him from enjoying this hobby. I hope I helped him. After that, I was embarrassed about my recent fall and the gravity of it hit me. Like the prodigal coming to himself after grasping at husks unfit even for swine, I admitted to the event supervisor that I was full of it and a scoundrel, my actions being a cry for help in that I am so deluded to think I have a calling for monasticism.

I explained to him my jewish background and how orthodox christianity and judaism are very similar especially in ethical and mystical teachings; my vulnerability earned his trust. After an embrace, I shamefully walked to the elevator where some of the older attendants severely chastised me to instruct others through my abasement in good morals, but somehow the insults just rolled right off of me. Needless to say, the paramedics took me, the criminally insane little viper, to the psych unit. After viewing the eclipse from the window of the unit, I soon told the rector I was a psychopath over the phone claiming, "It is harder for some of us," he didn't understand at the time that I was dead serious. Other than that the only other interesting occurrence there was this guy with multiple personalities that kept telling me that he read an interesting book that implied that john the baptist was evil. By some miracle of God after only a three day stay I was discharged. I evaded the forensic psychiatrist, this time. Walking to my car, I just so happened run into the same event supervisor strolling with hunched posture among a group of middle aged females in the opposite direction. He offered me a sullen glance, perhaps my disgrace made him look at the world in a different way. I hope he is doing well.

Finally after all this suffering I managed, with a handshake, to schedule a twenty minute sit-down with the rector. Upon arriving in the nave he gave me the floor. Soon enough selective hearing kicked in so he just heard the key phrases of: hugging a man, cannabis, psych ward, smoking, staying up all night, programming competition. So he reasoned, with a mind which is better suited to design fairly complex accounting spreadsheets, that I must suffer from a terminal case of homosexuality. He rebuked me as soon as I tried to explain how sick I am to him, and that given the context that this was good for me in the end however he didn't see it that way. Admonishing me, he shamed me into stopping smoking again and getting a job again, which is fair advice I painfully must admit.

All I said fell on deaf ears as his fellow orthobros have made him much more reactionary, ironically going in the direction he helped me grow out of. For example, the only acknowledgement from him of my message was that it contained a blasphemous theological error. It was my first very angst-laden facetious polemical work, keep in mind I am not even baptized yet. I sent him another message a month after our last meeting but of course no response; I've had better luck with sending such letters to monasteries. Out of embarrassment, and to try to not obsess over all this, I got rid of the accounts I sent them from, which wasn't the wisest move looking back since I poured my soul into those emails. Despite our inability to understand each other, the rector never has given me poor advice in the three years I've known him. Well, actually once, he told me to pray the small compline which takes over 20 minutes a day. Maybe he felt I was demanding too much time from him as a poor steward only contributing $20 a month, and if I included the food and candles my net contribution was probably negative.

Gauging from what I've heard and experienced, many understand all the grief the petty yet blood-boiling dramas within orthodoxy which the internet has exposed the world to. This reflection is not meant to persuade or demean anyone. Instead, I hope it can serve as the first of several pieces chronicling my experience with orthodoxy, from one who is still is perplexed at half-wittingly becoming wedged seemingly in the center of all the tropes I've read on here.

I sincerely hope to be baptized soon and perhaps this post can be considered a portion of my life confession. It saddens me to hear how awful some convert priests can be, I never meet any of these types yet probably because in my hometown orthodoxy has been around for a century, so it is not any more exotic of a religion than any other christian denomination.

>>16
bro. have you tried "no religion"
some people are better off with jesus. you seem like you need a lack of jesus.
you brandish morality as a sword and opine within your self justifications a high ground looking down on everyone.
god's message is we are all his children, yet you persist in this view that you are somehow the better amoung them for knowing better.
with a framework of "there is no god" we are also likewise equal. we are naught but worms pretending to be more. your morality is little more than your self inflated ego waves bouncing within a fragmented id.
chill. watch some hentai. take a nap.

>>17
bro, i have tried 'no religion' to no avail as it is not possible to avoid regardless of whatever framework as all suffering in the world can be seen as the echos of calculated torture.
men who think they are more than 'mere worms' use the systems cynical misanthropics design to devour it, all this sadism just to achieve a liminal ecstasy staving off ever pressing thoughts reminding them of their own mortality.
orthodoxy, secularism, modernism, denpaism, even anime are religions; their liturgies not from manuscripts and idols not of paint, but from software and of silicon.
computers have enveloped men's souls more than any other technology in known history, perhaps not unlike the idol of idols the golden calf.
all but one tribe of israel wrongfully worshiped it after receiving the ten commandments, leading in God to bar these eleven from ever entering the holy of holies in jerusalem.
at least with orthodoxy i can't avoid personally knowing the people who puppeteer and perhaps even craft the timeless idols and services, there is no screen to hide behind.
locking myself in a monastery seems the best shot i have to learn to chill and to love God, in hopes to loose myself of the sins which bind me to hades.
i would abandon everything and go tomorrow yet it seems providence, or self-destructiveness, has prevented this for an agonizing three years and counting: my family has mistook this calling as clinical insanity from the start.
well, i took your advice knowing you meant well, but lost seed works against me always. spiraling into self-deception even after a cold rainwater laced bath, i proceeded to lash out against someone who helped me the most which perhaps pushed him away forever.
only if any of them knew it is out of hopelessness that acted as a wicked pharaoh, hoping God would work through someone with a gaze of loving understanding thereby cleansing me of inner turmoil; my heart is so callous that God has damned me to gnash my teeth indefinitely as a last ditch effort to soften it.
most of those that were willing to help me transition to monastic life now deem me incorrigible, if only i chilled out earlier...

of course all religions are just ways to distract people with false hopes and fill them with feelings of guilt and helplessness. religions are ancient psyops. modern psyop is "health care."

I met an orthodox priest and he was complaining about how many right wing edgelords walk into orthodox churches and ruin them with their poltardation and have to be forced out. Pretty nice guy.

>>19
This religion is a psyop line is getting tiring.

religion is an attempt at a hivemind, unfortunately the cool ones get called terrorist organizations or cults, i myself aspire to one day connect with the puppy girl mono mind

Secularism is the ultimate hivemind in denial. It also sucks and is boring.

people who do not believe in any type of religion are literally the most boring people in the world

>>23
everyone is religious, religion has nothing to do with theism.

>>24
as funny as it might sound there is a huge chunk of people nowadays who is neither religious nor theist. probably because the generations before us were lead to believe that only trough their own could they change their life around. so essentially people nowadays are satanists(???) without even knowing it ;)

>>20
The specimen you are referring to is the orthobro. They armed with the heaping piles of youtube debates and twitter spats believe that since they read a pdf of the ramblings of the founder of a tight-knit sixties hippiedox commune in california they can overcome modernity and fix their life by finding a trad wife or whatever. Bad news for the orthobro is that they lack self-awareness, or even knowledge that the Gospels is the basis of christianity, eastern orthodoxy even. The inevitable result is a hivemind of orthobros their self-possession fed by the metrics of their twitter page. When this ideology of orthobroism is deployed irl without any inhibition, it can result in excommunication, legal entanglements, or worse trying to convert to another 'based' religion like islam to repeat the process with even more psychologically perilous results.

>>26
At least the Orthodox Church forces them out, with Islam they just get validated by a thousand online retards who blindly accept them, ruining the whole scene, until they eventually burnout and become satanists or Norse pagan crypto nazis or something like that. Muslims and born again Christians suffer from retardation because they will accept literally anyone, allowing low grade material to poison the pool which intensifies mental degeneracy.

>>27
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

>>25
you didn't understand what I was saying at all...

>>29
i was literally joking thought it was clear cause of the winky face :c

Online Christians annoy the shit out of me. The ones I meet IRL aren’t as obnoxious. Internet is deceiving.

>>27
>>31
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Do orthodox have anything similar to Calvin’s idea of absolute depravity?

>>33
The concept of sin is that mankind was corrupted by the fall from paradise meaning the sons of Adam are mortal; It is due to carrying this innate corruption being born into the world where good and evil are knowable, not guilt or complete depravity, that it is inevitable every member of mankind will fall into sin. Only Christ's descent into hades after His death on the cross where He lifted up fallen Adam and Himself was resurrected was mankind able to enter paradise once more by His grace.

Since God is "dead" (forgotten by the majority of people), divine grace cannot be actualized anywhere through people. Even Satan is a redeemable character because he had a role to play in God's game. "Jesus loves you" only means something when people live out that love. Because they don't there is no possibility for the Lord's grace to exist in the world and no possibility for love on Earth.

pretty sure love is a primordial aspect that jesus subsumed but if he is dead as you claim (ie the devotion of a single person is not enough to sustain a god - which is a different point which id probably disagree with but i digress) then love would have returned to being a divine aspect separate from the jesus god, and still accessible directly.

Does God need creation to be a god? If people stop believing in god, then god is truly alone. Even if only a handful of people believe, god remains a dead idea to the majority. Love is not accessible because people do not live it out anymore and a small minority cannot revive it. So we live in a loveless, faithless world. God is like a lonely creature trying to make contact with a world that ignores him. Because everyone ignores him, he isn't accessible. Since human love is just a mirror of god's divine love, normal humans are loveless to each other.