# Gnosticism according to me This isn't very accurate Gnosticism happened about two thousand years ago It was declared a heresy and the ideas were banned and most of the original texts were destroyed I'm only talking about the parts that interest me and I'm mixing in my own views on the meaning of life I'm a bitter and hate-filled crackpot --- ## One rule in the garden of eden > The Lord God told the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden. But do not eat from the tree of learning of good and bad. For the day you eat from it you will die for sure.” sidenote: **IT WAS NOT AN APPLE.** --- ## But the serpent comes along: > The snake said to the woman, “No, you for sure will not die! For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad.” And then Eve eats it, and so does Adam, and they don't drop dead. --- ## But instead, they snap out of their bliss: > Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were without clothes. And then later the Lord God says: > Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and bad. Now then, he might put out his hand to take from the tree of life also, and eat and live forever.” --- ## My thoughts 1. one of Us? Who else is The Lord God referring to? 2. What happened with the "for the day you eat from it you will die for sure." part? 3. Who is the serpent really? --- ## Tower of Babel > “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord fears this, so: > The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then **nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.** Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” Y'all see any pattern? --- ## The Demiurge The demiurge is what regular Christians call "The Lord God". Gnostics believe that the demiurge is evil. We are all immortal souls and the demiurge trapped us in an illusion where we have forgotten about our divinity. The demiurge wants us worshipping him, but really, we are equals to the demiurge. Jesus, the serpent, and other prophets are all here to tell us we've been deceived. --- ## Fast forward to Jesus Christ There's only traces of gnosticism left in the bible. Here's a good one: > Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” And on the night he gets arrested, he says: > Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.” --- ## What does gnosticism mean for daily life? Take your pick: * do whatever feels good (hedonism) * stop seeking earthly pleasures because they are illusions meant to distract you from your immortal divine self (asceticism) * help out the other immortal souls getting caught up in suffering and attachment to this illusion (like a Buddhist bodhisattvah) --- ## Isn't this the plot line for The Matrix movies? YES I can't find it now, but 25 years ago I remember reading a big long blog about this. In the blog, the author pointed out gnostic symbols in those movies. The people that wrote The Matrix movies apparently namechecked gnostic ideas in their interviews as well, but only if you really knew stuff. Or maybe I just had a dream and that's where I remember this. --- ## Isn't this just Hinduism or Buddhism Maybe? There's twenty years of Jesus's life that are not accounted for in the gospel. There's an idea among scholars that maybe Jesus walked to India and learned about Hinduism and Buddhism and then walked back back and taught what he learned.