Christian apologetics is the process of attempting to twist either the bible or reality or both so that somehow they appear to match to excuse the vast gulf between them.
Gnosticism is an early Christian sect which held (and this is really going back a few years) that the universe (or earth?) was created by an evil being called Ialdoboath, and something even more complicated. Surely Wikipedia could sort this one out for you?
Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism
It's a phenomenally complex philosophical system. In many ways, far more interesting and fulfilling then then the simplistic idiocy that ultimately triumphed as christian theology.
Gnostics believe that to be saved you have to acquire a hidden knowledge. The gnostic gospels were written by Gnostic's. Apologetics is the science of defending the Christian faith from misconceptions.
Gostics came a bit before Christianity, it is more of a philosophical path and they believe knowledge is the key to salvation. The Gnostic Gospels are gospels found in Egypt, you can read them on the Internet (go ogle Nag Hammadi Gospels or something like that). The early church fathers used to kill Gnostic's as heretics, today we still have Gnostic's though but they are a complete minority.
What are the gnostic gospels?
--Writings that conflicted with the growing Catholicism in Eastern Rome.
What is gnosticism?
--A religious-cultural practice that was shared between apostate Jews and early Christians. Gnosis/knowledge, sexual fulfillment, amongst other things, were practices of Gnostic groups. 'Christ' was an achievement of leading members, as Christianity grew more popular.
What are Christian apologetics?
--An attempt to be educated in a field of making up excuses for those that doubt things concerning the bible, they also seek to convert, like evangelicals.
Do Gnostics take Jesus as God or only a human?
--That varies with each Gnostic sect, like Protestants
and Catholics as well. It's a very individualized thing.
Do they contradict Christianity as we know it?
--Not really. They helped produce 'Christianity' as 'we' know it.
Gnostic's believe the key to salvation is nosies ( Holy knowledge).
They predate Christianity a little.
The gnostic gospels are contemporary with the gospels in the regular bible and they often feature Jesus saying some rather interesting things( with much in common with gnosticism) that you will not find in the "official version".
When they started to form the catholic church ( and pretty much screw up Jessi's teachings royally) they dropped the texts perceived as gnostic ,calling heretical and so forth.
One of the main themes in Gnosticism is that the creating god of this world is a false malevolent god called a 'Demiurge'.
Christians apologists are people who lie for Jesus.
Apologetic is the art of defending the inanities of ones religions, in which every religion has.
As for the gnostic vs Christians, the schism has a long history. Gnostics were an early "sect of Christianity" that even Prue-dated Christ. Even though gnosticism is not completely aligned with Christianity, the gospels of John, Thomas, Philip, and Mary were influenced by gnostic teachings. The Gnostic's' rivals were the pis tics and like early Christians, saw the Gnostic's as heretics and burned their books and manuscripts given the chance.
One of the earliest schisms in Christianity were between the Gnostic's and pis tics around 34 A.D. when Nero began threatening both groups to renounce their faiths or be thrown to the lions. The Pistics wouldn't and sacrificed themselves while the Gnostics chose life furthering the divided as the pis tics garnered more scorn against them for choosing life.
In 325 A.D Constantine created the first Catholic Church, which means universal. Even though it was heavily Christian based, it invited many religions, including the pagans, gnostic, and pis tics during the council. Given that the gnostic doctrine inherently questions authority while the Pistis doctrine forbade questioning, Constantine sided with the Pistis seeing them as politically expedient and the gnostics were further buried in history.
what are the gnostic gospels and what is gnosticism? Also what are Christian apologet
