Point #5: Why stop at the Seven Ecumenical Councils and ignore the Western ones? Is this a similar line of thinking to that attached to Scripture which says that revelation ceased with the death of the last apostle? Did the authority of councils cease with the end of the last of the seven?
Point #7: The Orthodox deny that we are born in Original sin? Really? This is heresy, no? Then what's the point of Baptism? What sin is being removed from the soul with the sacrament? None? Then why bother?
Point #12: While Catholics would say that the end of man is to serve God in this life to be reasonably happy in this life and completely happy in the next,......
"Be reasonably happy in this life"?? I'm not sure which Catholics would say this is an "end of man". The Church doesn't.
Unless we are talking about Orthodox mission lands, the Diocesan Presbytery chooses the Bishop, same as the Presbytery of Rome - the Cardinals - choose the Pope.
Point #5: Why stop at the Seven Ecumenical Councils and ignore the Western ones? Is this a similar line of thinking to that attached to Scripture which says that revelation ceased with the death of the last apostle? Did the authority of councils cease with the end of the last of the seven?
None of the above. The Orthodox simply reject any general episcopal assembly called, presided, and dismissed by the Bishop of Rome after the schism.
Point #7: The Orthodox deny that we are born in Original sin? Really? This is heresy, no? Then what's the point of Baptism? What sin is being removed from the soul with the sacrament? None? Then why bother?
No, they conceive Original Sin in another way, the way in which I explained it.
Point #12: While Catholics would say that the end of man is to serve God in this life to be reasonably happy in this life and completely happy in the next,......"Be reasonably happy in this life"?? I'm not sure which Catholics would say this is an "end of man". The Church doesn't.
Well, you are correct. The expression I used here comes from Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr's famous "Serenity Prayer":
But it is a sentiment that both Orthodox and Catholics can also share. It's not incompatible with this teaching from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.
CCC #1718: The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it: We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated. How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you. God alone satisfies.It it my considered opinion that it's permitted to ask from God reasonable happiness in this life as a prelude to eternal happiness in the next.
Those whose vocation is to undergo redemptive suffering often find happiness in their suffering so they too are "reasonably happy" in this world.
-Theo