Gnostic Christianity

[Retorth]

It appears Christianity isn't as uniformed as claimed to be.

Their idea of evil and of the universe I find most intruiging:

Evil: They did not look upon the world as having been created perfectly and then having degenerated as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve. Rather the world was seen as being evil at the time of its origin, because it had been created by an inferior God.

The Universe: This is divided into three kingdoms:

1. The "Earthly Cosmos": The earth is the center of the universe, and is composed of the world that we know of and an underworld. It is surrounded by air and by 7 concentric heavenly spheres: one for each of the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. (Although the planet Uranus is visible to the naked eye, it was not recognized as a planet in ancient times.) Within these spheres live demonic, tyrannical entities called Archons. Beyond them lies Paradise which contains the "Tree of Life", the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil", and the flaming, turning sword of Genesis 3:24. Beyond Paradise was the sphere of the fixed stars, divided into the 12 signs of the zodiac.
2. The "Intermediate Kingdom is composed of an inner blue circle of darkness and an outer yellow ring of light. Within these rings is a sphere which is the realm of Sophia.
3. The "Kingdom of God" consists of two spheres: an outer one of the unknowable Supreme God, and inner ring of the Son.

Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/gnostic2.htm

[Rhizomorph13]

Nice post,

I love the depth that people go into when describing things that most people say are unknowable. It reminds me of me when I am describing my six dimensional model of the universe (Apparently science proffers up an 11 dimensional model but I don't know how to comprehend that). The only difference seems to be that I know my model is probably not "true" but religious assertions just put up a shield of faith that is supposed to protect their ideas from scrutiny. I could do the same, I suppose, but that wouldn't make my ideas any more or less interesting, just more annoying to people who would rather not accept stuff based on personal experience.

Rhizo

[fr0d0]

Weird. What's it about again

[Violet]

The grand bureaucracy of hyperactive sugar crickets that makes up my brain just lost collective brain cells...

And although these crickets are geniuses... they are merely smart crickets... and they don't have many brain cells to spare.