Lazar Puhalo: Morality and Virtue are Evolutionary Constructs

Deposed Deacon Puhalo, who masquerades as an “archbishop” with the blessing and implicit consent of the OCA Synod, continues to spread heretical and false teaching, using the authority granted to him by the same Synod, to directly contradict the truth, the Scriptures, and the teaching of the Orthodox Church.

On October 26 on his Facebook page, Lazar Puhalo made several outrageous and categorically false statements about morality and virtue. Here’s a sampling of his latest non-Orthodox and non-Christian declarations:

“Morality is an evolutionary construct, it is not a product of religion.”

“Basic moral concepts are practised to one degree or another throughout the animal kingdom and not just among primates.”

“Moral concepts evolve the same as the organism that has and develops those concepts. The argument that we would not have morality without religion is simply fraudulent and completely untrue.”

“Both morality and concepts of virtue are evolutionary constructs”

Here’s Puhalo’s entire Facebook post from October 23, 2023:

We do not need to tell lies and use misinformation to defend our Faith. Morality is an evolutionary construct, it is not a product of religion. Basic moral concepts are practised to one degree or another throughout the animal kingdom and not just among primates. Moral behaviour and regulation developed as a necessity for survival, especially after the beginning of agriculture and social village life. Interaction within a tribe, whether it is a human tribe or an animal tribe, makes survival dependent upon regulating that interaction and branding the actions that disrupt the tribe and endanger its survival “immoral”. Generally, actions that unify and enhance any social organism’s survival and prosperity will be labelled as “moral.”

The Old Testament is riddled with what we would now consider immorality. It justifies and even sanctifies genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, kidnapping and stoning people to death. Many activities that were both sanctified and given false justifications in the Old Testament are now against international law and are considered war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many of these sanctified actions in the Old Testament are now completely reprehensible to most human beings. This is because the evolution of morality has raised the moral concepts and consciousness of mankind far beyond what is presented in the Old Testament. Moral concepts evolve the same as the organism that has and develops those concepts. The argument that we would not have morality without religion is simply fraudulent and completely untrue. In fact, one could logically and reasonably argue that moral concepts evolved first and that religion developed to enshrine and regulate concepts of morality in any given era and culture.

The actions exposed in the Old Testament now considered grossly immoral were thought necessary for the survival of a given tribe or social unit in that era. They are misunderstood and misrepresented in any religious context, and much of the Old Testament is the product of chroniclers seeking to justify the actions of their own tribe and rulers. The origins of “divine command theory” developed from a bondage to fundamentalism, which necessitated very slippery and unconvincing attempts at justifying actions in the Old Testament which were claimed to be sanctified by ancient chroniclers whose primary function was propaganda for any given tribe and ruler. That same dedication to unsound religious propaganda manifests itself in all fundamentalist preaching and teaching.

The moral clarifications that our Lord Jesus Christ teaches are based solely in love. The radical juridicalism of Western theology results from it being tied to Roman civil law and the literal understanding of the Old Testament. This resulted in the idea that God required a human sacrifice to cover the sins of human beings. The notion that Jesus Christ was punished on our behalf for our sins is grossly immoral and has no connection with the concept of love. In fact, it negates any concept of forgiveness because punishment and forgiveness are mutually exclusive. If one has been punished for an action, it cannot be claimed that he has been forgiven. If Jesus Christ was punished on behalf of mankind, then mankind is never forgiven; rather, punishment has been had, which means that the idea of forgiveness is a mere legal fiction, defining most Western theology.

Both morality and concepts of virtue are evolutionary constructs, and we can measure the process of their evolution in fairly concrete terms over the centuries. The Old Testament is dominated by gross sexual angst and genocidal warfare. The spiritual revelation and concepts that do come through in the Old Testament were clarified by Jesus Christ. Religion that is involved in politics is more inclined toward the negative moral aspects of the Old Testament than toward the clarifications and revelations given by Jesus Christ. But there will be shrieks and howls about what is said above because there is a lack of integrity and an abundance of fear among so many of our religious leaders, particularly those of a fundamentalist bent. It is time that we develop sufficient integrity and firm faith to be honest about these matters instead of burying our heads in the sand of self-idolatry and the delusions of fundamentalism.

Puhalo brazenly teaches falsehoods that undermine the truth and directly contradict the right theology and teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church. He has done so repeatedly in the past without any consequence from the OCA Synod. Many of his teaching are not only not Orthodox, they’re not even Christian!

Puhalo has a long history of scandalizing the Church and teaching falsehoods. How much worse does it have to get before the lukewarm bishops on the OCA Synod finally act and defrock this impostor?