Today in class we discussed the philosophical topic of Gnosticism and evaluated several of their beliefs.
The Gnostics were a group of people who took several of the doubts about God and the opinions of human superiority to an extreme. They believed in two Gods: a Creator God and a superior, unimaginable God. Gnostics considered the Creator God an evil being whose villainy explained the presence of evil in our world. This Creator God generated the evil in the world by creating it and therefore trapped humans within a tortuous, frustrating existence. Not much was said about the superior God within Hecht's text but the Gnostics seemed to believe that the spark of divinity within all humans comes from this God.
The Gnostics believed humans are superior to the Creator God specifically because we could have done a better job of creating an idealistic world that lacks the pain and suffering that currently exists. The Creator God lacks a sense of ethics, pity and care that humans do not. Gnostics considered the universe a horrible place, but emphasized that humans have the ability and ultimately the willingness to "rise above" the evil trap that is the universe and seek divine truth(divine truth = gnosis) instead. The journey to seek divine truth is humanity's ultimate mission, and Gnostics believe the only place one could find such truth is within yourself. According to the Gnostics, people must actively strive to separate themselves from this evil world. By doing so, humans can come to know themselves and ultimately know (the superior) God.
Some questions we pondered on the topic of Gnosticism:
1. If such a Creator God exists, is it an evil being?
2. How much of a role does this Creator God have in the universe?
-Did the Creator God simply create, or does it have the ability to affect the events of the world?
3. Can humans come to know divine truth by discovering more about themselves?
1. I believe there is an evil being but not that the evil being is a Creator God I believe in heaven and hell . God and devil. So to me there is one God and then there's a devil.
ReplyDelete2. The Creator God does not exist to me.
3.I do believe that humans can come to know divine truth within themselves with time and patience.
I don't believe that the Creator God is an evil being. Asking whether the Creator God has a pre-made plan is such a tough question to answer. Gnostics believe that the Creator God just created and left humans to themselves, which is an idea that I like: You find your own meaning...don't let an outside being tell you how to live your life. But I know that some people need to feel that something "up there" is watching out for them; I don't think that it makes a person weaker to think that. The pre-made plan only brings up more questions for me that I know I won't be able to answer, but I can only think things will work out.
ReplyDeleteThe Gnostics brought up a very important question I've thought about for quite some time...how much of a role does God play in humans' lives? I certainly don't think God is an evil being...I just think God doesn't have a lot of the power most people think he/she does. I believe God created the universe, but after that he/she hasn't interfered. I believe God wants us as humans to find our own path, to discover our own truth and become good, genuine human beings. I think that is our ultimate mission in life...to be good. Once we find that goodness within ourselves, we are able to spread it to others and therefore make the world a better place. That might sound idealistic, but what other purpose on this earth do we serve if we don't help each other survive and thrive?
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