Thank you for creating this resource thread. I hear many say “The fathers did not speak on this, so both positions are acceptable”, something that Father Seraphim puts well to rest.
They're always saying that kind of tripe, on origins questions as much as in Ecumenism. I begin to doubt if any of them really believe it.
Many other issues. I think contraception is the case where this lie is used the most; certainly with evolution they often have to admit that the fathers said otherwise and then claim that the fathers didn't know SCIENCE(TM). With contraception the most common claim is that the fathers didn't write about it at all (a lie) and they get away with it by claiming or implying that it is a new invention (also a lie).
“Therefore, it's like in the times of Copernicus. Then there was the Ptolemaic interpretation of the movement of the heavenly bodies, that the sun, planets and stars all go around the earth. The question arose: why don't the planets correspond to the stars? Some of the ancients said it is because they are on different spheres. That is, the stars are fur- ther away and the planets are closer; therefore, the planets appear to go faster. But then why do the planets sometimes go forward, and some- times backwards? In order to explain how they moved, the Ptolemaic astronomers had to say that they go around each other somehow in a very complex movement of cycles and epicycles as they swing around the earth. Some are going backwards, others are performing figure eights. It became so complex to follow the movements of these planets according to this Ptolemaic model that Copernicus got the idea that maybe they were all wrong-maybe the earth and the planets were going around the sun. He began making calculations on the basis of this idea, and his theory was much simpler. Finally we came to accept that theory as the true one.”— Genesis, Creation and Early Man : Pp. 458
"...The Ptolemaic model was found to be lacking because it did not explain the facts as well as the Copernican model6. Copernicus said that if we interpret the earth and the other planets as going around the sun, then all these motions make sense; that is, they are mathematically very simple to explain. Eventually that was accepted. Now, by calculating according to the Copernican model, we can send rocket ships quite close to Saturn and not miss; in fact, it is astonishingly accurate. So obviously it seems to be true that all the planets do indeed go around the sun, even though, according to our observations, the sun goes around the earth."— Fr. Seraphim Rose
(This is an unreleased lecture that’s never been on YouTube before, I found the audio and gave it to my friend to release.)
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32)
