The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ

[Pravoslavnik]

Steve,

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   Thank you for posting this, and the Orthodox material on Halloween.  I have a few sincere questions regarding this cosmogony.  

  First, who were "the daughters of men" who married the sons of Adam, as described in the Holy Scriptures, and who were the "men" who fathered them?  Is it possible that the Adamah was a special spiritual creation of God, whose progeny then married the evolved adamah (men) of the earth?

   Secondly, why must some Orthodox Christians insist that the Triune God did [i]not[/i] bring the cosmos and the life on earth into existence partly through evolutionary biological processes like natural selection?  

  If time is a function of velocity in our expanding universe--as per Einstein's theory of relativity-- is it not conceivable that the six 24 hour "days" of God's creation measured at the center of the universe-- the hexamera-- might have lasted fully 15 billion years in earth time, which is the approximate astrophysical age of the cosmos?  (In fact, some modern physicist have noted that there is a fairly precise fit between the scriptures and modern astrophysics when the relative rate of time is factored into the equation.)   Certainly, blessed Augustine of Hippo disagreed somewhat with both Sts. Basil and Ambrose on this issue of the duration of the hexamera.

     Must Orthodox Christians necessarily accept the flawed paleontology of Henry Morris and the Protestant Evangelical "Young Earth Creationists?"

[Cyprian]

ST. PHOTIOS THE GREAT

MYSTAGOGY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

It is possible to find many other examples in our holy and blessed fathers. I have in mind Clement, one of the bishops of [Old] Rome. Consider the books which are known from him as Clementine (I do not say write because, according to ancient report, Peter the Coryphaeus commanded they be written). Consider also Dionysius of Alexandria, who in stretching out his hand against Sabellius nearly joins with Arius. Consider also the splendour of the sacred-martyr, Methodius the Great of Patara, who did not reject the idea that angels fell into mortal desire and bodily intercourse, even though they are incorporeal and without passions. I shall pass over Pantaenos, Clement, Pierios, Pamphilos and Theognostos, all holy men and teachers of holy disciples whom we hymn with great honour and affection, especially Pamphilos and Pierios, distinguished by the trials of martyrdom. Although we do not accept all of their statements, we grant them honour for their patient disposition and goodness of life and for their other doctrines. In addition to those previously mentioned, there is Irenaeus, the bishop of God, who received the supervision of sacred things in Lyons and also Hippolytus, his disciple, the Episcopal martyr: all of these were admirable in many ways, though at times some of their writings do not avoid departing from orthodoxy.