Gnosis is direct spiritual experience, as opposed to intellectual knowledge.
Most people think of "the Gnostics" as members of one of the early Christian sects that were branded "heretical" by the coalescing "Catholic" Church bureaucracy. In fact, they never would've referred to themselves as "Gnostics;" that's just our word to classify people who shared certain beliefs; and the tradition of such beliefs goes back centuries before Christianity. The Christian Gnostic's were simply applying this tradition to Christian symbolism.
It's interesting, though, for the purposes of this question, to look at exactly why the Church was so hostile to these sects. For "Gnostics," the Church bureaucracy of priests, bishops, etc was totally unnecessary. They insisted on the supremacy of personal "revelation;" they weren't interested in simply believing what they were told by others who postured as "authorities." They weren't looking to agree, and this infuriated the Church. Of course, this attitude wasn't exactly conducive to the formation of an organization, while the Church's obviously was; that's why the Church won out, historically speaking.
See Elaine Pagels' excellent books on the subject, especially "The Gnostic Gospels," which deals with the Nag Hammadi scrolls. There are also several editions of original "Gnostic" texts, both Christian and Prue-Christian.
Gnostic refers to a diverse, synergistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect spirit, the demure, who is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God.The demure, who is often depicted as an embodiment of evil, at other times as simply imperfect and as benevolent as its inadequacy allows, exists alongside another remote and unknowable supreme being that embodies good. In order to free oneself from the inferior material world, one needs nosies, or esoteric spiritual knowledge available only to a learned elite. Jesus of Nazareth is identified by some (though not all) Gnostic sects as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring nosies to the Earth.
However, if what you mean is really "Agnostic" then this is the belief that the existence of God is unknown and most likely unknowable due to subjective experience as well as the fact that we don't know what happens when we die. Basically, it is the acceptance of the fact that you don't know and no one else does either. This differs from Athiests who believe that there is no God.
David H should explain to me how I became an agnostic atheist.
Anyway...
Gnosticism can mean a few things. Gnostics are a sort of Christian denomination that was around at the very beginning of Christianity. They had gospels, many of which were not included in the final canon of the Bible when the Council of Nicea voted on what the Bible would contain. Yes, I said, "voted".
Gnosticism can also mean holding a position that you think you "know" whether there is a god or not... as opposed to agnostic, which means "without knowledge" and describes the philosophy that the existence of a god is unknown and/or unknowable.
You can have a gnostic theist, a gnostic atheist, an agnostic theist, or an agnostic atheist. Most people are agnostic no matter how loud they preach their respective ideas.
For Gnostics: Can you explain Gnosticism?
