RE: What the devil is a "gnostic atheist"?
October 7, 2012 at 3:10 pm
(This post was last modified: October 7, 2012 at 3:11 pm by Cyberman.)
I fully understand and appreciate the term as applied to the Gnostic sect. I don't think anyone would argue otherwise in that regard. You yourself identified that the sect is all but extinct, though historically relevant. My point is that languages change with usage, usage being the whole purpose of language, and that what may have been common usage a millennium ago almost certainly will not be today. I admit I'm no expert in obscure religious sects; isn't it just as likely that the Gnostics adopted the name from the Greek, as the idea that the term originated with the sect? Similar to the modern atheist sect, the Brights, using a word commonly used for a completely different purpose?
I personally have no contention with using the words agnostic/gnostic where such usage clarifies ones belief position. Then again, perhaps it's my instincts as a writer that causes me to balk at any limitations placed on my use of language.
I personally have no contention with using the words agnostic/gnostic where such usage clarifies ones belief position. Then again, perhaps it's my instincts as a writer that causes me to balk at any limitations placed on my use of language.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
