Fundamentalism

Evolution vs Six-Day Creationism

"What about the theory of evolution? If that's the way God created, who am I tell God how he should have created? Should I say, "Gee God, I think you made a mistake. I think you should have done it much more instantaneously and eight thousand years ago"? We know of course by now that humans lived several million years ago, and we know we have living remnants of human beings twenty thousand years ago in North America. All of these things are realities. The idea that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time is just madness. Once upon a time it was a sincere error, but to continue to assert that really is a kind of madness. There is no way that you can continue to assert such ludricrous notions and expect people to still continue to come to Christ, and to find their salvation." -- Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, All Saints Monastery YouTube broadcast, October 17, 2008.

Fundamentalism Bad For The Faith

"Fundamentalism is the worst enemy of Christianity in our era. It is one of the primary shapers and formers of modern atheism. It is done not sincerely, but to preserve ideological models of reality that have long since outlived any kind of rational context. The lack of faith is one of the hallmarks of fundamentalism. People are not defending the idea of biblical inerrancy because they have faith, they are defending it because they do not have faith. Because they have ideology rather than faith. They think that faith consists of coming into a court with a system of supposed facts. Faith has nothing to do with coming into a court with a system of supposed facts. Faith is an orientation of the soul to the will of God. That is what faith really is. And when people lack faith, and cannot cope with new knowledge, new understanding, or changes in models of reality that were formed in antique times; when people have to dogmatize ignorance, in order to preserve their ideology, they do not have faith in God -- they do not have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a lack of faith that generates fundamentalism, not an act of faith. To defend one's faith on the basis of models of reality that were thought thousands of years ago is not faith. Faith is to trust God in the face of all things." -- Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, All Saints Monastery YouTube broadcast, October 17, 2008.

Ideology and Ego

"It is a thousand times easier for a person to say and admit their religion is completely wrong, rather than to say and admit that their thinking and their life is wrong. It is much easier for a person to abandon their religion than their ego, and they are always looking for a religion that does not jeopardize their ego." -- Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopolis, God, Christ, Other Religions.

Ideology vs Philosophy

"Ideology is the opposite of philosophy. Philosophy is the curiosity which guides its inquiry according to universal principles. Ideology is a prior prejudice that seeks out an echo-chamber of reaffirming information." -- Archimandrite Maximos, Facebook post, 5 Feb, 2016

Condemned By Works, But Not Saved By Them

"In fundamentalist Protestantism, while they declare that man is saved by faith without works, you can be tortured in hell for all eternity even if you have faith, if there is something amiss about your works." -- Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, All Saints Monastery YouTube broadcast, October 17, 2008.

See also Morality