Christianity Pros + Cons - My Current Status
A struggle to find the truth through the Orthodox lens
This post is nothing more than a simple pro’s and con’s list, reflecting on my current faith status as I attempt to find the truth of Christianity’s religious claims (through the Orthodox lens). I hope it lends itself useful, even if it’s just for myself to visually see where I’m at.
This is not a list of WHY Orthodoxy appears to be the truth, but rather Christianity as a whole, as seen through the Orthodox lens.
Lastly, I will BOLD the heavy hitting points I think are weighed the most.
Pros
Orthodoxy is Theologically and Spiritually deeper than any modern day version of Christianity OR “being spiritual”
Evidence for Jesus historically existing in and outside the bible is sufficient to believe he truly existed and died on the cross
The experience of Liturgy in the Orthodox church is the deepest spiritual “service” I’ve ever attended
I almost always have a good experience at Liturgy, and sometimes get a very subtle buzzing feeling through my body or finger tips. This is extremely subjective, but worth noting.
Philosophically, Moral grounding in God makes the most sense objectively. Nothing can truly be right or wrong, good or bad, without an ultimate objective standard, God.
In a practical moral sense, the general guidelines of God found through the Orthodox church make STRAIGHT a life in comparison to the rest of America. It restores natural balance of man and woman, purpose in life through God, right and wrong for every important situation, and more.
Fasting is scientifically proven to be good for our bodies, and the Orthodox church rightly prescribes it for everyone who can partake.
The idea of humbling one self, and self sacrifice as a means of love for another, is the message of Christ and the ultimate form of love. This cuts deep and seems to be very true!
Some of the prophecies of Jesus, the Son of God, the coming messiah, are incredibly convincing in the Old Testament. Especially since we know from the dead sea scrolls the Old Testament really is prior to Jesus’s life.
Jay Dyer’s transcendental argument is a pretty solid starting point to seeing how Orthodox Triune God can be true from a philosophical POV. It’s not full proof, but gets you closer than any other argument.
The teachings of the orthodox church, based in Christ, are in a sense revolutionary to modern day way of life. For instance the massive importance on humbling oneself to be exalted through Christ, is counter to today’s “Pride” narrative. Any sensible open minded person can see how being too prideful can ruin your own spirit and others. Nobody likes an egomaniac.
I fully believe the commandment to love one another, even if they are your enemy is the most revolutionary thing we could do (even though it’s hard). This one simple commandment would change the entire world, and prevent all wars if we actually lived it.
Peoples’ anecdotal testimonies of Jesus healing or saving them in some sense is moving. Out of addictions, or out of demonic attacks or things like that.
Orthodox theology and life within Christ gives human existence the ultimate amount of meaning. Everything matters, everything is important. Meaning is exponential if Christ is God. Our lives, our decisions, our repentance, our choice to love, it all matters because it determines our salvation in eternity. Also because it implies there IS truly a final judgement. Even if it’s not a provable thing, it’s incredibly inviting to live a life full of real meaning, as opposed to the nihilism of atheism.
If Christianity is false, then it’s one of the greatest lies or created (false) stories I’ve ever heard. The amount of depth in the teachings, and some of the prophecy and evidences, would make this con man (or men) the best to ever do it.
IF we take oral tradition of Apostles being all Martyr’d as true, then this in itself is extremely compelling evidence for what they believed to truly be real (resurrected Christ as God).
Cons
We can never really KNOW in a modern sense that Christ IS God, there always is a point in history or historical evidence where you have to simply believe or not. For someone like myself, this is incredibly frustrating, because I can’t simply see all of the truth if it’s there, in an investigative sense.
How could a JUST God give the non believing unrepented “bad” humans ETERNAL judgement/damnation for such a short life of sins on earth? Even for some of the worst people on earth, I can’t imagine eternity burning in hell is just. Maybe 100 life times of hell, maybe 200, maybe 1,000 years of hell, but eternity? I probably have some sort of wrong interpretation of hell or lack of salvation, but for now, this is my thought.
Tangential claims to Christianity are so opposed to modern scientific thought. You truly have to give up massive beliefs we hold to be true (ie evolution, some would say climate change, radio active decay dating techniques) and accept the miracles taught in the old and new testament (Noah’s arc fitting every animal, God wrestling with Jacob in person (but wasn’t incarnate?), Moses parting the sea, and many other miraculous claims). Of course, if the Christian God is real, then anything is possible… but how do we confirm?
Sometimes personally, praying feels fruitless. I’m unsure if God ever hears anything I say. How do we confirm he is really out there hearing our prayers? Prayer feels one sided. Just me, talking to the air.
If God has his own will that will be done, what’s the point of praying for others at all? After all, God is not a genie granting us wishes right? Everything happens to his will?
Making the ultimate connection between everything in the Old Testament to the New Testament can get very confusing and cluttered. How do we make sense of ALL of the laws given to Moses (NOT the commandments but everything else around food that’s clean, stoning people to death, how to treat slaves etc). Why would Christians give up all of these traditionally Jewish Old Testament things? Jesus never explicitly says that. Understanding the old covenant rules vs the new covenant is confusing. Even the apostles in Acts don’t talk about every single law/rule mentioned in OT, only some.
The book of John is written 90+ AD or later, which is quite long after Jesus’s death to quote direct passages Jesus supposedly said. They aren’t just a sentence or two, these are pages of direct quotes. If we pre suppose the holy spirit miracle in John himself, then sure this is possible. But if we don’t, is this likely? Can any of us remember more than 2 sentences from someone else 10 years ago?
There are a LOT of miraculous claims within Christianity, especially with the Saints in Orthodox church. However, they are very hard to verify all the details of, unless you are there or part of it. I have never seen a myrrh crying icon, or a healing, or anything like that. All we have are stories. Again, how do we know it is truly a miracle? I’m open to them, but I have yet to see any first hand. Someone makes a miraculous claim via a saint, ok, but how do I know it actually happened? Just because it’s written in their book doesn’t mean it did.
Is Theosis actually real? Like really though? You see orthodox Christians online or in person, and they’re still just as much human as you or anyone else even if they’ve been repenting for 20+ years. In what way are they God or like God? This point can be refuted though if I have the wrong idea of what Theosis is.
Oral tradition, in my mind, is great to look at, but doesn’t really have nearly as much weight as historical evidence like written first hand documents. How do we really know every apostle besides John died a Martyr’s death? In my research, I found 3-4 that are historically verifiable to some extent, the other 8 are just oral tradition. It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but it’s just harder for me to believe it.
General questions that fit in between
What is the point of Israel being the chosen people? I KNOW the Orthodox say the point is to eventually reveal Christ in the Davidic line, but that doesn’t fully answer the question. Israel as a people is chosen to be a special people beyond the gentiles, at least prior to Christ, what explains that prior to Christ? God gives them a harder line of judgement, and calls Israel his people. What’s the purpose of that? Saying to reveal Christ, only partially answers that question to me.
If God gave Moses the commandments and other laws, and the humans were bad at following them, thus needing Christ, wouldn’t of God knew that and just sent Christ first? Like if we were destined to fail, why not just send Christ first. If humans didn’t fail the mosaic law, would Christ not have came?
Understanding judgement for others outside of the church, and even prior to Christ. Judged on their hearts sounds nice, but it’s kinda vague. Other cultures believe in genital mutilation as a cultural norm, to them it’s ok, in their hearts it’s good.
Do we know what the pre incarnate form of Christ was like? Was he a Human, with God? Was he some other spiritual form, but not Human yet because he didn’t incarnate yet? How do we understand pre incarnate Christ’s form or being?
God is frequently described as dispassionate, but everywhere throughout the OT and NT you clearly see Passion with God. God being “angry” at Israel. Things like that, how do we reconcile that? Unless we totally re interpret the word “angry”, then I think HE IS ANGRY.
How do we understand when it’s ok to go to war, to fight back, to defend, to go on the offence? When is violence ok? Is this theologoumena?