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You have answered your question....you cannot believe in gnosticism because gnosticism does not require belief.
Ancient Gnostics (let us put aside the modern variants for now) focused on understanding the relation of man to the divine. We can only guess at their full story, since most of their records have been destroyed. Nevertheless, for a gnostic, salvation appears to have been a process that required intellectual, emotional, and physical development.
The modern Catholic Church considers gnosticism to be the greatest heretical enemy it ever faced. In fact, each verse of the Nicene Creed (the statement of belief still said in every Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican mass) is worded specifically to combat it. The Church considered association with Gnosticism wrong for one reason...all Gnostic's state that the world is not good nor created by a good creator. This idea undermines the entirety of Christian thought.
Is the idea wrong objectively, though? That is another question. I will only suggest that the answer is not simple. Moreover, you will find few texts, still existing, that address it without a knee-jerk reaction to one side or the other.
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