Mister Terrific
It’s in the name
Gnosticism posits that the earth and the universe is governed by a malevolent diety called the demiurge. All the suffering is so that it can feed on the never ending supply of souls. Human beings are essentially displaced spirits who originally pure are forced to suffer a material existence. Only through purifying your soul can you be reunited with “God” who is all loving and companionate.
However, gnostics barely exist. I was introduced to Gnosticism through white hippies who told me about their belief that we are all recycled souls being fed to the evil demiurge. What I’ve found is it really only appeals to spiritual people I.e. hippies.
However, as an atheist it’s the only religion that actual explains why bad things happen. Why a bomb could be dropped on a village of people who did nothing or why babies are born and die after their first breath. It’s also the earliest forms of Christianity so it’s not strictly heretical. It also explains why Yahweh of the Old Testament is a genocidal maniac and the God of the New Testament is solely focused on redeeming humanity.
In our jobs and daily life we are being farmed for our time with our lives being devoted to companies that only intend to use us up until we are dead and hopefully do the same with our children. An endless loop of souls. That matches up well to the tenet of Gnosticism which is an endless loop of souls to being recycled to feed an unconcerned entity.
Our physical universe per science is chaos and destruction. The demiurge didn’t create the universes to sustain life but to feed its insatiable appetite.
According to Marcion, the title God was given to the Demiurge, who was to be sharply distinguished from the higher Good God. The former was díkaios, severely just, the latter agathós, or loving-kind; the former was the "god of this world",[34] the God of the Old Testament, the latter the true God of the New Testament. Christ, in reality, is the Son of the Good God. The true believer in Christ entered into God's kingdom; the unbeliever remained forever the slave of the Demiurge.[/i]
I suppose my challenge to this forum is to establish why would you subscribe to mainstream abrahamic religions when Gnosticism is a far more coherent and better explanation of the reason for the existence of our material universe.
