Any Gnostics round here?

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

you've quoted all CHRISTIAN scholars who all paint Gnosticism in this way
Gnosticism is a diverse category of beliefs, but the term is generally applied to Christian Gnostics in the first few centuries AD
The Nag Hammadi found in the middle of nowhere in a desert years ago, is the closest thing to a Gnostic bible
There are many different sects and philosophies within Gnosticism but they share the same fundamental beliefs about the nature of this world
Gnosticism is not esoteric Christianity, it's an entirely different spiritual tradition

Gnosticism is a confused mess that tried, unsuccessfully, to make sense of the human experience based on a shallow understanding of Christianity. This doesn't mean that they were stupid or inferior. They just didn’t think things through and, as a result, they're theologically incoherent. Reading the texts makes that more than apparent.​

 

[Able Archer 83]

Gnosticism is a confused mess that tried, unsuccessfully, to make sense of the human experience based on a shallow understanding of Christianity. This doesn't mean that they were stupid or inferior. They just didn’t think things through and, as a result, they're theologically incoherent. Reading the texts makes that more than apparent.​

TBF, Christianity itself was a confused mess for about three, maybe four hundred years. And even then...

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

TBF, Christianity itself was a confused mess for about three, maybe four hundred years. And even then...

About some things, sure. Especially the Trinity, but when you have texts stating that in order for women to get 'saved' they have to become men......​

Thing is, Christianity was confused due to directed persecution for several centuries, not because of faulty, incoherent theology.​

 

[Able Archer 83]

Early Christianity was subject to:

A. A shortage of clergy actually versed in the tenets of Christianity,
B. Nonexistent literacy among the vast amount of followers,
C. Tenuous communications between the various dioceses,
D. A number of high-level non-Gnostic heresies,
E. Continuous arguments between high-level clergy, and
F. Occasional bouts of official persecution.

This was a recipe for mass confusion and theological heterodoxy.

 

[Deep_Black_Conscious]

Gnosticism is a confused mess that tried, unsuccessfully, to make sense of the human experience based on a shallow understanding of Christianity. This doesn't mean that they were stupid or inferior. They just didn’t think things through and, as a result, they're theologically incoherent. Reading the texts makes that more than apparent.​

nah
you are going to keep coming here bringing your Christian scholars focusing on a specific part of Gnosticism trying to paint Gnosticism as a failed attempt to understand Christianity when Gnosticism in of itself is an entirely different spiritual tradition
The fundamental beliefs of the world are shared within Gnosticism but like I said there are many different sects and philosophies

If you don't care for Gnosticism then just leave the thread

 

[Able Archer 83]

Thing is, Christianity was confused due to directed persecution for several centuries, not because of faulty, incoherent theology.​

Eh, I think it was a combination of persecution and an overall lack of authority. It's telling that orthodoxy was only set in stone once Constantine took an interest in the church.

It was kind of a paradox. The Empire was its greatest persecutor...yet its only possible source of power and legitimacy. It clarified its theology, but it could not impose its will without Imperial authority.

 

[Able Archer 83]

Especially the Trinity, but when you have texts stating that in order for women to get 'saved' they have to become men......​

I think a lot of Gnosticism was built around scam artists and David Koresh types; not necessarily confused themselves, but instead using the confusion to set up their own personal sex cults and grifts. That's the way it reads to me at least.

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

nah
you are going to keep coming here and bring your Christian scholars focusing on a specific part of Gnosticism trying to paint Gnosticism as a failed attempt to understand Christianity when Gnosticism in of itself is an entirely different spiritual tradition
The fundamental beliefs of the world are shared within Gnosticism but like I said there are many different sects and philosophies

If you don't care for Gnosticism then just leave the thread

A common tactic of gnostics is to say the exact same things you've stated in this thread, but it's just to disguise poor theological reasoning and a lack of any evidence to the contrary.

Gnosticism is based on a superficial understanding of Christian/Jewish theology.

​

 

[Deep_Black_Conscious]

A common tactic of gnostics is to say the exact same things you've stated in this thread, but it's just to disguise poor theological reasoning and a lack oaf any evidence to the contrary.

Gnosticism is based on a superficial understanding of Christian/Jewish theology.

​

not even close
that fact you keep saying that means this is the last time I'm responding to you w/ that shyt interpretation
also, I'm atheist
A common tactic is to repeat the same thing over and over again until you convince others it's true

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

I think a lot of Gnosticism was built around scam artists and David Koresh types; not necessarily confused themselves, but instead using the confusion to set up their own personal sex cults and grifts. That's the way it reads to me at least.

Maybe, I tend to think they were trying to mesh differing theological points from differing traditions, none of them too well thought-out, in order to make sense of the majority opinion concerning Jesus' 'divinity' while trying to reconcile 'The Problem of Evil' and an all-powerful 'G-d'.​

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

not even close

Then you're going to have to explain why ALL gnostic texts quote the New Testament.​

A common tactic is to repeat the same thing over and over again until you convince others it's true

A common tactic of atheists is to use straw-man arguments when their points are invalidated.​

I'm a theological noncognitivist.​

Post more smilies.​

 

[Deep_Black_Conscious]

When I think about it, the best way to describe Gnosticism as it relates to pop culture would be The Matrix. Only it's hard to say whether agent Smith was really the bad guy or just some poor tortured soul who wanted nothing more than to escape this 3D earthly prison.


Throw reincarnation into the bag and shake it up. The Oracle told Neo that maybe he was waiting for the next life. Agent Smith might have lived a trillion lives and by then had cracked the code but was over it.
Hmm

If there is any truth to reincarnation,. who knows how many times you or I reincarnated here

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

If there is any truth to reincarnation,. who knows how many times you or I reincarnated here

That still leads back to an 'ultimate' origin as you can't 'eternally' reincarnate. There had to be a point where 'you' didn't exist, if not, then the 'you' of today wouldn't exist as 'you' would never be born.

​

 

[Rollo Goodlove]

i think the human imagination can run away with some folk*

Indoctrine

 

[010101]

Indoctrine

so you read too many tall tales¿*