It's amazing to see how many philosophers and people in general get so close to the mark yet miss it completely. The inability to reconcile the flawed nature of man with the perfect and good nature of Christ is quite interesting. It seems to me that many incorrectly attribute the hypocrisy especially of Christian's to that of Christianity in particular Orthodoxy itself. Rather than seeing each flawed Christian as just that, many take the flaws to the epistemic level and solidify these flaws as absolutes rooted in the paradigm which is not the case.
Example: Christian doctrine dictates that one must not kill. A Christian then kills a person. Now people believe that because the Christian killed someone, Christianity itself is contradictory. You cannot attribute the actions of some followers to the faith itself unless the faith makes a dogmatic claim regarding such a thing. Example: If the dogma was instead that No Christian will ever kill anyone and then a Christian killed someone, the faith would be proven contradictory and therefore false. We don't see this though which is a unique and exclusive triumph of Christianity and Orthodox Christianity in particular.
It's amazing to see how many philosophers and people in general get so close to the mark yet miss it completely. The inability to reconcile the flawed nature of man with the perfect and good nature of Christ is quite interesting. It seems to me that many incorrectly attribute the hypocrisy especially of Christian's to that of Christianity in particular Orthodoxy itself. Rather than seeing each flawed Christian as just that, many take the flaws to the epistemic level and solidify these flaws as absolutes rooted in the paradigm which is not the case.
Example: Christian doctrine dictates that one must not kill. A Christian then kills a person. Now people believe that because the Christian killed someone, Christianity itself is contradictory. You cannot attribute the actions of some followers to the faith itself unless the faith makes a dogmatic claim regarding such a thing. Example: If the dogma was instead that No Christian will ever kill anyone and then a Christian killed someone, the faith would be proven contradictory and therefore false. We don't see this though which is a unique and exclusive triumph of Christianity and Orthodox Christianity in particular.
Great read!