That in bolded parts. Has nothing to do with religion. Which is what I say. Snake oil salesmen use religion to do their dirty deeds. Nothing to do with religion...
For all we know, Jesus was real and his preachings were real. Or not. But do NOT confuse RELIGION with the actions of bad people. Jesus whether real or not, the preaching were real and were of ONLY good things.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1831267/amp
ATHENS: One of the consequences of the fall of Constantinople in 1453 was the biggest brain drain in early European history. Greek intellectuals left the Byzantine Empire in droves, with many settling permanently in Italy, bringing with them their vast knowledge and precious collections of manuscripts.
Their presence contributed significantly to the rediscovery of classical Greek literature and philosophy, which they reinforced through teaching, translations and publications. The European Renaissance owes a great debt to them.
In the process, Venice became the center of the Greek intelligentsia and mercantile class, which organized themselves into a strong community.
By contrast, the former lands of the Eastern Empire entered a darker age, which could have obliterated Greek culture altogether were it not for the Orthodox Church, preserving the Greek language through its liturgical texts and ceremonies and local autonomy institutions, safeguard the feeling of belonging to a community.
One man who helped rescue the Greeks from intellectual oblivion was Kyrillos Loukaris, a patriarch of Constantinople in the early 17th century. Under the influence of Reformation ideas, Loukaris sought to educate Greek clerics to defend against the aggressive proselytism of the Catholic Church. He also established a printing press and an academy in Constantinople.
From the late 17th century onward, numerous schools opened across the southern Balkans, almost all of them teaching courses in the Greek language. Many of the most influential schools were established in major centers of Hellenism: Smyrna, Ayvalik and Chios.
Chios hosted a library containing some 12,000 volumes. Ayvalik, a rich city with an exclusively Greek population numbering 30,000, had a modern school with more than 300 students, managed by a liberal clergyman named Benjamin of Lesbos.
God may or may not exist. I agree.
#1 and #2 I agree. And I am not here to convert anybody.
But #3 is not religion that tells people to control and manipulate. People USE religion as an excuse to control and manipulate.
You have to separate the two...
The Greek Orthodox church never in history was ever INVOLVED to control people. The religion itself is as peaceful as the founders. Which were the ORIGINAL followers, the apostles, of Jesus Christ himself. Directly from Jesus.
On TOP of all that, and what I keep on saying is that never was a bad man using the Greek orthodox religion as as weapon to control and manipulate people. There were priests of the Greek Orthodox faith that were sexual predators, but those priests were not really priests, they were in fact sexual predators DISGUISED as priests to sexually assault young boys.
What you and others seem to confuse and blend in with are the bad people that USE the teachings of Christ to LURE sheeple to do bad things and/or manipulate sheeple.
The religion itself does NOT preach such bad things.
I do not know about you, but I do NOT read anything relating to raping young boys in that script.
I do NOT read to steal, lie and commit adultery in those 10 items there.
Yes...there are some nice things in religion and it teaches humans to choose the right path. Notice I am NOT using 'godly' terms such as choosing the righteous path...
And the way ALL of you are choosing to intertwine religion with snake oil salesmen tell me ALL there is to know about where your thought processes are.
And its fine.
Just understand that there IS a difference between religion and how bad people choose to manipulate others USING religion.
PS: When practising religion as an educated adult, the issue is less of asking if God exists or not.
The IMPORTANCE of religion is the MESSAGE that God teaches that takes precedence over whether he exists or not.
Now...I fully understand one does NOT need religion to be guided to be a decent human being.
But...mega christianity, evangelicalism and all that garbage are NOT legit religions. They are cults. The Greek Orthodox religion is NOT a cult...
Learn the damned difference...