From my limited information and recall on it: they appear to think that the god of the new testament was an evil beast or demon and not the true God if any. This to me may also serve to suggest that religion is all a hoax by another species.
The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word (nosies "knowledge", Gnostic's, "good at knowing"), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formula indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were "people who knew", and their knowledge at once constituted them a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was essentially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know. A more complete and historical definition of Gnosticism would be:
A collective name for a large number of greatly-varying and pantheistic-idealistic sects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a deprivation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God-sent Saviour.
However unsatisfactory this definition may be, the obscurity, multiplicity, and wild confusion of Gnostic systems will hardly allow of another. Many scholars, moreover, would hold that every attempt to give a generic description of Gnostic sects is lab our lost.
Gnosticism is the way of "hidden or secret knowledge." It is derived from the term "nosies" which is Greek for knowledge. They have a very different view of spiritual realities than traditional Christians. Essentialy gnosticism is a combination of various influences that existed in many religions during the time of Christ in the Roman Empire. Christian Gnostic's took some of the stories and parables and ideologies in Christianity and twisted them to fit into their own ideology of things. They were in fact, one of the first heresies to be condemned by the Church.
Their heretical teachings varied from group to group and can't be pinned down with specificity, but common gnostic beliefs included these:
Although Christ appeared to be human, his humanity was merely an illusion.
Christ appeared to die, but did not really die.
Christ was not truly God, the second Person of the Trinity. He was merely a created being who was the lowest of the aeon's, a group of semi-divine beings between God and man. Each lower eon was given power by a higher eon. Christ, the aeon furthest removed from God, created the world because God was too pure to dirty himself with matter.
Matter is evil, so one can do anything one wants with one's body, including killing it to release the soul from its imprisonment.
The God of the Old Testament is evil, as evidenced by the fact that he created the material universe. He is not the same as the God of the New Testament, who is the God of Love, as Jesus and his apostles taught (1 John 4:8, 16).
People are saved by acquiring secret knowledge (<gnosis>), which is imparted only to the initiated (CULT). Gnosticism was similar in some ways to the modern New Age movement. Like New Agers, gnostics used Christian terminology and symbols, but placed them in an alien religious context that gutted the essential teachings of Christ. It's unclear when gnosticism began. Many Church Fathers thought gnosticism was founded my Simon Magus, the Samaritan sorcerer who converted to Christianity (Acts 8:9-24). Some contemporary scholars think gnosticism started a few centuries before Christianity and then invaded it from the outside through the conversion to Christianity of Jewish and Gentile gnostics. Other scholars believe gnosticism started as a Christian heresy.
It seems clear, though, that the apostles themselves had to contend with a form of gnosticism (Col. 2:8, 18, 1 John 4:1-3, Rev. 2:6, 15). Paul said, "Avoid profane babbling and the absurdities of so-called knowledge [<gnosis>]. By professing it some people have deviated from the faith" (1 Tim. 6:20-21).
What do you think about christian gnosticism?
