So, How Cool Are You?

By Archimandrite Paul Papadopoulos

Unbelief, is not cool.

Sin, is not cool.

To simply exist for your desires, is not cool.

To talk without doing, is not cool.

To live in the shell of your "ego", is not cool.

To do something because "most do it", is not cool

The Science (Fiction) of the 10 Percent Brain Myth

Science Fiction movies hardly ever employ valid or good science, but lately a string of movies have come out of Hollywood that build off the myth that we only use ten percent of our brains. A few years ago Limitless played off this myth, and more recently Transcendence and Lucy. However the complexity of the brain is based on the fact that it is a vast network that works as a whole to be able to do what it does. One could just pass this myth over as silly if it wasn't for the fact that the majority of Americans actually believe it to be true. A study last year from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research concluded that 65 percent of Americans accepted the 10 percent myth as fact. Unfortunately, even when Mythbusters proved this myth was not true, they still conceded by saying we only use 35% of our brain, which is also not true. No doubt the internet has done much to spread this myth, along with the equally mythical right brain/left brain dichotomy, but one could also point out that a common feature in all the films mentioned is that when we are able to use all the functioning of our brain, we almost have god-like qualities. It is a secularists dream of self-deification realized. It is no wonder that the origins of this myth lie in thinkers who are popular among New Agers, which is a belief system centered on self-deification and realizing the god within us all.

"The Internet Over Us!"

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos

of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The Internet has firmly entered our lives, since a lot of people are using it, but especially all modern young people are users to such an extent that to talk about dependence is identical to talking about addictive substances - drugs, alcohol - and assistance is needed for rehabilitation by a psychologist.

The word Internet indicates "an international network of computer systems, created by connecting multiple networks worldwide for immediate information sharing for scientific, commercial, educational and recreational purposes" (George Babiniotis).

Byzantine Frescoes of Ancient Philosophers

During the Ottoman occupation (15th-19th cent.) many churches and monasteries throughout Greece served as "secret schools" (Gr. "κρυφό σχολειό") where the writings of the ancients were studied in a private environment and taught by either monastics or clergy. Often these schools were in the narthex of churches, which is why these frescoes are often found in this area of the church. Because many ancient philosophers are said to have foretold the coming of Christ as well, they were revered by Christians for their wisdom, though not as saints (hence their depiction without halos).

The Iconography of Musical Instruments on Mount Athos

By Maria Voutsa

In Post-Byzantine iconographic representations on Mount Athos we encounter the artistic representation of musical instruments. Examples include the representations in the Sacred Monastery of Koutloumousiou, and we will mention others in our future posts. This shows a percussion instrument, probably of Persian origin. The nakers appear in Byzantine iconography from the 12th century onwards, a pair of kettle-like percussion drums of the same size hemispherically, with the open side covered by a membrane attached usually with ropes. They are struck with two thin keys that are called "xyliphia" (wooden sticks).