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Old 12-14-2009, 10:42 PM
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Default Christians, what are your views on Gnosticism?

In general, what do you think of it?
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Old 12-15-2009, 10:42 PM
jennyann 4's Avatar
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In general I view it as misinformed and sinful.
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Old 12-20-2009, 10:42 PM
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As with all other things, I have many opinions on it, some of which are self-contradicting.
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Old 12-24-2009, 10:42 PM
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I think the concept is silly. How can you know God exists? How can you know if he doesn't exist? Anyone who isn't an agnostic- theist or agnostic-atheist is a complete nut.
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Old 12-25-2009, 10:42 PM
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You can't teach a Gnostic anything because as their very name indicates, they already know it all.

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Old 12-26-2009, 10:42 PM
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man made, used by the ones in power to keep people in their little mind so they can make money off them.
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Old 12-31-2009, 10:42 PM
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I actually really like it. I believe 100% in Jesus' divinity, which differs from the Gnostic approach, but other than that I am fully behind almost every Gnostic doctrine. It honestly makes a lot for sense than Pauline Christianity to me, and I like the way it empowers women.
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Old 01-04-2010, 10:42 PM
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Same thing the early Church Fathers thought it's Hersey.
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Old 01-08-2010, 10:42 PM
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I think the Gnostics are alive and well and currently hiding out in one of the larger US denominations. I won't say which one, but they use beads a lot.
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Old 01-10-2010, 10:42 PM
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I've taken a break, part way through the Nag Hammadi Library, but as far as I've gotten I am unimpressed. Part of my reaction is the pain of wading through huge lists of arc hons (mostly, I gather, borrowed from Zoroastrianism); the unnecessary and pointless detail seems to be aimed at impressing novice recruits, but it doesn't seem to have any other purpose.

The main point appears to be that creation of a material universe is so inferior a concept that it cannot be blamed on God, because matter is inherently corruptible. So the Creator is thought to be an inferior being, and the true God a purely spiritual entity on a higher plane. Humanity has a bit of the spiritual in it and therefore people are capable of achieving that higher plane of existence, but they attain it by knowledge (nosies).

Knowledge of what? the answer appears to be: the heaps of mystic elevation compiled by the Gnostic writers.

By contrast, orthodox Christianity treats the material world itself as part of the intended creation and therefore of value, and regards faith as superior to knowledge. This is not the cocksure claim of personal rightness that some call faith, misreading Hebrews 11:1 (and, in practice, nearly indistinguishable from the nosies of the Gnostic teachings). Rather, it's the steadfast commitment to a relationship that constitutes faith in just about every other mention throughout the Bible.

The Gnosis is too brittle a concept for me; I don't believe that any human mind is capable of perfect knowledge. We aren't built for it. It's precisely the sort of unfounded claim to perfection that people often think is represented by faith.

For me, knowledge should be more like science: always admitting its limits, without which its scope cannot expand. Much of what we know today is tomorrow's garbage. Real faith is like that: it's about trusting a relationship in progress, as science (modern, post-Galileo science) is about sticking to the process.

I'm not embarrassed by the material. The fact that my mind operates (at least in this life, so far) because a chunk of specialized meat in my skull keeps working is the reality. So far, Gnosticism seems to me to be about ducking away from that reality.
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Old 01-13-2010, 10:42 PM
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I adore gnosticism. It's God telling you to use your god-given brain to study with. "Test the spirits." By inquiry.
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Old 01-18-2010, 10:42 PM
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I don't nosies.
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Old 01-22-2010, 10:42 PM
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I don't know anything about what others refer to as Gnosticism. I only know the meaning of agnostic and I figure anything the opposite of that must be good.
A person can know God. Many people do have personal relationships with God.
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