Astrology Is Astrolatry

Father Alexander Karloutsos

"When our soul departs from life, we shall not be accused because we have not worked miracles, or have not been theologians, or have not seen visions, but we shall all certainly have to give account before God, because we have not wept unceasingly for our sins."

-St. John Climacus, Author of the Divine Ladder

Christian man does not have to be a miracle-worker, brilliant theologian or heavenly vision soothsayer or maker, but he does have to account for not being aware of his sins. A sin in the Orthodox Church is understood in the spirit of the Greek word "amartia." In Ancient Greece, when a person aimed to hit the bull's eye and failed, they called it "amartia," "he missed." Falling short of the mark, not reaching your goal, not attaining your purpose is sin. When a Christian does things that keep him away from Christ, he sins because he does not live up to his purpose, and that is to live in Christ. When we do not live up to our goal, being the image and becoming the likeness of God, then we sin. When we allow the stars of heaven to guide our actions and not God, who created the stars, then we are sinning. When we run to the newspapers to look up our horoscopes and our futures, and do not seek wisdom and learning from the Bible, then we are sinning. When we do, or don't do, this and that because astrologers say so, and close our ears to God's Commandments, then we are sinning. We are sinning when we pray to our Christian God and, simultaneously, take somewhat seriously the zodiac. We are not Aquarians, Pisceans or Librans, sons and daughters of stars; we are men and women, sons and daughters of God.

Documentary: "Ancient Aliens Debunked"

Ancient Aliens Debunked is a 3 hour refutation of the theories proposed on the History Channel series Ancient Aliens. It is essentially a point by point critique of the "ancient astronaut theory" which has been proposed by people like Erich von Däniken and Zecharia Sitchin as well as many others.

The film covers topics like:

Ancient building sites: Puma Punku, The Pyramids, Baalbek, Incan sites, and Easter Island.

The Monster Within: Where Horror and Theology Meet

- "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man." 

(Jesus in Matthew 15:19-20)

- "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." 

(Stephen King)

- "In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose – what we want most to be we are." 

(Robert Louis Stevenson in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

Saint Glykeria and the Pagan Magician Paulinus

St. Glykeria the Great Martyr (Feast Day - May 13)

Dositheos in his Dodekavivlos records that the holy relics of Saint Glykeria were interred at Heraclea in Thrace. At Heraclea, a copper pot was used to collect divinely-flowing myrrh which gushed from the Saint's tomb. By means of this streaming myrrh, many received miracles, as also attested by Saint Theophylact of Ochrid. The Metropolitan of Heraclea, while in Constantinople, found an impressive gold pot. He bought it with the intention of substituting it for the copper vessel that received that sanctified outflow from the Saint's tomb. However, when the exchange was made, the miracles also ceased.

Protodeacon Andrey Kurayev On Alien Life

October 1, 2010
Interfax

Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Protodeacon Andrey Kurayev believes that the possibility of life on the recently discovered planet by American astronauts does not contradict Christian teaching.

"When people discovered atmosphere on Venus in the 18th century, Lomonosov assumed there could be people there. If they live there then there are two options: they committed sin as we did or they have not done it," Father Andrey told an Interfax-Religion correspondent.

Thus he commented on the news that American astronomers discovered a new planet and conditions there are very similar to Earth, which gave them grounds to think that their "discovery" may be inhabited.

Fr. John Romanides on Extraterrestrial Alien Life

In November 2010 it was reported that the Vatican called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church. The Director of the Vatican Observatory commented that the discovery of possible alien life would have "many philosophical and theological implications" for Catholics. In 1965 Fr. John Romanides offered a valuable resource on this topic for a series run by the Boston Globe that explored this topic from various religious perspectives. In the fifth response of this series, he gives the unique Orthodox perspective. The full text is below. 

All Planets the Same: Religion’s Response to Space Life V

Rev. John S. Romanides, Ph.D

The Boston Globe

April 8, 1965

I can foresee no way in which the teachings of the Orthodox Christian tradition could be affected by the discovery of intelligent beings on another planet. Some of my colleagues feel that even a discussion of the consequences of such a possibility is in itself a waste of time for serious theology and borders on the fringes of foolishness.

I am tempted to agree with them for several reasons.

Do Orthodox Icons Depict UFO's?

By John Sanidopoulos

Almost every special on television that speaks about the historical evidence of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) and alien life inevitably cites Orthodox icons as proof that certain Christians of the Byzantine/Roman Empire believed in UFO's or alien spacecraft. Of course, for everyone that knows the basic method of interpreting Orthodox icons, this is clearly not the case and is a total misrepresentation of the basic interpretation of Byzantine iconography.