Gnosticism

What do we mean by gnosticism?

A wide variety of Jewish and early Christian sects having an interest in gnosis, or divine knowledge, and generally holding the belief that there is a god greater than the Demiurge, or the creator of the world.

An ancient religious movement that evolved out of nascent Jewish and Christian sects in the late 1st century A.D. Gnosticism is a very subversive set of ideas, and it's distantly related to other Abrahamic mystical traditions like Kabbalah, but was suppressed by the early orthodox Christians and Jews as a perversion of their beliefs. Basically, Gnostics read the first chapters of Genesis in a very different way than is traditional, seeing the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve as good and viewing the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as humanities first step into consciousness. Because of this, Gnosticism posits that the god of the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh, is actually an evil bastard child of the lowest aeon called Sophia (Greek for "Wisdom") who disobeyed the higher aeons and fell from grace. Gnostic cosmogonies are complex and convoluted and very diverse across different movements, but a basic description of it would be that basically Yahweh and his archons (Greek for "rulers") created the physical world and rule over it, trapping our souls within it to keep us from the light world, the world which is ruled by the aeons and a Supreme God who is fundamentally good and who possesses both masculine and feminine hypostases. Many Gnostics believe this good God is the God of the New Testament and they generally regard Jesus as a savior who came into the world to rescue a fallen Sophia and bring humanity back into the light world through knowledge. Urban Dictionary

Literally, "one who knows." Every religion has its gnostics, but Gnostic with a capital G almost always refers to Christian Gnostics. Beliefs vary widely, but essentially they value personal revelation and mysticism over dogma. Gnostics believe absolute religious truth can be known but it is only revealed towards enlightened humans, and the Gnostics purported to teach secrets that orthodox Christianity did not know. Hence, most Gnostic gospels are titled "The Secret Book of insert name." The more extreme Gnostic theologians theorized that the Earth was created by an imperfect creator, called the Demiruge, who had "spun off" from a higher Father but does not realize it. Jesus was sent by the Father to show humanity the truth. The Cainites went one step further; they believed the Demiurge was evil, and they worshiped as saints all who stood against him in the Bible - Cain, Judas, etc. Urban Dictionary

One who has knowledge of the spiritual. Urban Dictionary

What does Gnosticism mean? Plain and simple…it means rebelling against and breaking free of the conformity set forth to us by religious dogma. That same Dogma that, for centuries, has instilled unbelievable fear and guilt upon the masses. It means dispelling all the fear based untruths about God and our eternal Souls by bringing reasoning and intelligence into the equation Gnosticism has been linked to the New Age movement. This so-called New Age movement isn’t so new. In fact, it is older than time. Gnosticism was around long before the time of Buddha or the time of Jesus, and it came about way before the Old Testament. The whole world believed in it, totally and completely--we have had many lives. So who are we? We are Gnostics--not agnostics. As Gnostics ... We base our path to God on not so much as faith as we do reason. We know that Anything that can be asked can & will be answered. We know there are no mysteries. Believing on faith alone is exhausting. Reason is what we bring you. We know that the reasonable idea is that we keep progressing, that whatever wrongdoings have been done to us, they are ultimately for a reason. Nothing is random or pointless. What you have to realize is that Gnosticism does not care whether you are Lutheran, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, or Buddhist. Gnosticism is an addition to your existing beliefs…not a replacement for them. The knowlege of Gnosticisim is this... * To Love not fear God * To Get rid of guilt * To Show that through many lifetimes you perfect your soul, then return to the Other Side This is the knowledge that will help you progress faster and not have to come back so many times. If you want to…that’s fine. But I am sure most everyone is weary of it, or they would not be searching. We are tired of the guilt, of the fear, and of laboring through life. We know Life is hard, but we also know it doesn’t mean it cannot be wonderful…free of guilt & fear. Urban Dictionary

A mystic philosophy taught by Jesus of Nazareth. This philosophy contains the true teachings of Jesus, who seems to have been highly influenced by Buddhist philosophy. The central book in the Gnostic canon seems to have been the Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas was written somewhere between the years of 50-90 CE. Gnosticism teaches that God is only good, but that humans view Him as bad because of the delusions of error. Jesus claimed to be teaching God with these delusions removed, which show God in a much more loving and gentle light then the Jewish scriptures. Gnosticism in ancient times had Bishops just like Catholicism. These Bishops called themselves "One Holy Church", just like the Catholics. It would appear that the Church hijacked many things from the Gnostics and then sought to destroy them and their texts. Gnosticism has seen a revival since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library. Gnosticism is growing within Christianity at any incredible rate. Urban Dictionary

A conspiracy theory nut. From the ancient Christian Gnostics who thought Judas was the good guy in the Bible. This type of person thinks they know something everyone else doesn't dispite the fact they only have a highschool education and lives in the basement reasearch the moon landing, JFK, and 9/11 all day. Urban Dictionary

1. combination of the words, gnarly, nice, awesome, and fantastic. 2. refers to anything mind blowing at any given moment. {that is-> gnarly, nice, awesome, and fantastic} Urban Dictionary

An ancient religious movement that evolved out of nascent Jewish and Christian sects in the late 1st century A.D. Gnosticism is a very subversive set of ideas, and it's distantly related to other Abrahamic mystical traditions like Kabbalah, but was suppressed by the early orthodox Christians and Jews as a perversion of their beliefs. Basically, Gnostics read the first chapters of Genesis in a very different way than is traditional, seeing the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve as good and viewing the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as humanities first step into consciousness. Because of this, Gnosticism posits that the god of the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh, is actually an evil bastard child of the lowest aeon called Sophia (Greek for "Wisdom") who disobeyed the higher aeons and fell from grace. Gnostic cosmogonies are complex and convoluted and very diverse across different movements, but a basic description of it would be that basically Yahweh and his archons (Greek for "rulers") created the physical world and rule over it, trapping our souls within it to keep us from the light world, the world which is ruled by the aeons and a Supreme God who is fundamentally good and who possesses both masculine and feminine hypostases. Many Gnostics believe this good God is the God of the New Testament and they generally regard Jesus as a savior who came into the world to rescue a fallen Sophia and bring humanity back into the light world through knowledge. Urban Dictionary

Opposite of agnostic, having spiritual knowledge. A small Group of Christians claimed to be Gnostics, its pretty much died out since then Urban Dictionary

A gnostic atheist is someone who knows that things like god and whatnot are real. It has nothing to do with actual gnosticism, as that would be an oxymoron. The term "gnostic" in this sense just means that they know. This would differ from the term "agnostic", as an agnostic atheist would just believe there is no god, but would make no claim that we could know if god existed or not. A regular atheist would be someone who doesn't claim to know if god doesn't or does exist, they would just not believe. Urban Dictionary

Words that are spelled similarly to gnosticism:
gnosticism, agnosticism, gnostics, gnosticize.

Words that are triggered by (strongly associated with) the word gnosticism:
demiurge, gnostic, neoplatonism, gnosis, manichaeism, monad, platonism, cathars, heresies, nag, theosophy, occultism, kabbalah, archon, zoroastrianism, ecclesia, monotheism, nihilism, sufism, existentialism, platonic, dualism, esoteric, taoism, heresy, dionysus, mysticism, sects, alchemy, freemasonry, druze, christianity, hellenistic, coptic, plato, occult, sophia, apostle, jung, speculative, mystical, buddhism, spirituality, jonas, gospels, hinduism, logos, judaism, elaine, bloom, testament, creator, mysteries, parallels, apostles, beliefs, philosophical, antiquity, sect, pagan, wisdom, jesus, theology, evil, salvation, gospel, rejection, divine, followers, biblical, revelation, orthodox, deity, traditions, belief, alexandria, hans, writings, christian, god, mystery, islam, doctrine, scholars, similarities, religion, movements, knowledge, spiritual, philosophy, religious, faith, ancient, psychology, angels, interpretation, thesis, seem, concepts, ideas.

Words that rhyme with gnosticism:
fascism, aphorism, euphemism, recidivism, altruism, nihilism, nepotism, plagiarism, socialism, anachronism, mechanism, racism, narcissism, optimism, schism, criticism, chism, prism, metabolism, atheism, terrorism, autism, cronyism, organism, cynicism, populism, hedonism, capitalism, nationalism, feminism, communism, pragmatism, parallelism, animism, ism, mysticism, humanism, chauvinism, catechism, imperialism, journalism, despotism, patriotism, materialism, consumerism, stoicism, pluralism, skepticism, embolism, empiricism, magnetism, professionalism, dynamism, mercantilism, feudalism, astigmatism, tourism, mannerism, antagonism, secularism, pessimism, liberalism, judaism, rheumatism, chisum, paternalism, egalitarianism, fatalism, nativism, aneurism, activism, dualism, zionism, positivism, absolutism, totalitarianism, determinism, favoritism, federalism, botulism, egotism, egoism, symbolism, evangelism, individualism, surrealism, alcoholism, colonialism, modernism, collectivism, naturalism, statism, darwinism, romanticism, legalism, elitism, relativism, parochialism, heroism, conservatism.

Adjectives that are often used to describe gnosticism:
ancient, early, incipient, modern, christian, century, syrian, heretical, pagan, oriental, later, pure, second, true, radical, classical, hellenistic, contemporary, earlier, dualistic, primitive, historical, docetic, speculative, false, secondcentury, extreme, blown, anti, secular, nascent, neo, called, egyptian, orthodox, pre, syncretistic, impious, antinomian, older, esoteric, popular, islamic, medieval, manichaean, mythological, ascetic, developed, perfect, refined, revolutionary, philosophical, sheer, alexandrian, see, judaistic, mystical, eclectic, pessimistic, mystic, greek, technological, prechristian, heathen, rudimentary, unhistorical, abstract, poetic, persian, ecclesiastical, hegelian, moderate, existential, byzantine, mythical, buddhist, heterodox, hermetic, fantastic, manichean.

Nouns that are often described by the adjective gnosticism:
characteristics, the.

Words that sound like gnosticism:
gnosticism, mysticism, narcissism, agnosticism, neuroticism, witticism, eroticism, mosaicism, monasticism, iotacism, narcism, nativism, narcisism, nastasia, naziism.