Why is Gnosticism so spiritually compelling? I am quite certain it is completely wrong, but it is fascinating and beautiful.
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@sun I see it as the inevitable result of applying Greek philosophy to a Jewish worldview. I'm obviously biased here but the way I see it, the Jewish worldview (which Christianity inherits) gives God an anthropomorphic personality and an ego, and the spirit fundamentally recognises this as wrong - which is why the open secret of Judaism is that their god isn't really GOD, but rather just "their" god that they need to circumvent in order to live properly. This disconnect between the "demiurge" (the Judeo-Christian god) and God (as in Logos, Brahman, Olodumare etc.) creates an innate striving for the "real thing" and a feeling of wanting to escape one to find the other.
In short, it offers an escape from a worldview that fundamentally makes you submit to an unjust authority, while offering you the higher philosophy that can only flourish in the absence of a controlling anthropomorphic god.
Tl;dr: The soul inherently knows there's something very wrong in the Judeo-Christian worldview, and Gnosticism offers those already inducted in it a path beyond it.
In short, it offers an escape from a worldview that fundamentally makes you submit to an unjust authority, while offering you the higher philosophy that can only flourish in the absence of a controlling anthropomorphic god.
Tl;dr: The soul inherently knows there's something very wrong in the Judeo-Christian worldview, and Gnosticism offers those already inducted in it a path beyond it.
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@druid I do believe there are almost innate difficulties in gnostic thought on its own, but I agree with you completely that this is a real tension that manifests
@sun There are, and my personal feeling is that the demiurge the Gnostics identify (and so resent) is just a particularly bothersome Asura that enjoys CLAIMING it created and has dominion over the world, but like the rest of my take that's me speaking as a Dharmist.
Another thing I find particularly troublesome in a lot of Gnostic branches is the focus on Jesus. Early Gnosticism is all about anointing YOURSELF as the Christ (in fact, "Christ" was originally a Gnostic title) in order to be master of your own qualia, but a lot of what survives after the Christian purges of Gnostic material focuses on Jesus as "THE Christ" instead, just like Christianity does. Jesus Christ as "The Way" and all that. I've even seen (prolific) Gnostic material that claims Jesus as the only pneumatic. It's sad when you come across a Gnostic text called something like "THE TRUE AND HIGHMOST REVELATION OF SETH" that turns out to be a lot of babble about Jesus.
Another thing I find particularly troublesome in a lot of Gnostic branches is the focus on Jesus. Early Gnosticism is all about anointing YOURSELF as the Christ (in fact, "Christ" was originally a Gnostic title) in order to be master of your own qualia, but a lot of what survives after the Christian purges of Gnostic material focuses on Jesus as "THE Christ" instead, just like Christianity does. Jesus Christ as "The Way" and all that. I've even seen (prolific) Gnostic material that claims Jesus as the only pneumatic. It's sad when you come across a Gnostic text called something like "THE TRUE AND HIGHMOST REVELATION OF SETH" that turns out to be a lot of babble about Jesus.