Gnosticism

Gnosticism is an offshoot of Christianity, and is generally considered a heresy by “proper” Christians, and that believing in it would send you to hell when you died. The main difference between Gnosticism and “proper” Christianity is the fact that Gnostics find the material world (things we can touch and feel) disgusting and impure, while thoughts and spiritual knowledge are extremely pure. Christians thought god created all material things, so all material things are pure, and that spiritual things were also pure because god is spiritual and must go as Jesus in a physical form. The Gnostics say that there are in fact two godlike beings, one is a pure and spiritual god that is named Monad and is extremely benevolent, and one is a blind, horrible, evil god, named the Demiurge. It is this Demiurge that created the world and us people, which is why the material world (and us) are impure. The Gnostics then say that god sent Jesus to Adam and Eve in the garden that the Demiurge created. Jesus then took the form of a snake and told Eve to eat the apple of Eden, which housed some of the true knowledge of Monad. After this Eve took the apple to Adam, who ate it, which gave them sentience, which in turn gave them superiority over the other animals. Realizing the Demiurge was a wicked being they fled from it and started civilization. Later on in the bible they have Jesus come again, after helping Eve. Jesus in Gnosticism is not a physical person on the earth, but a concept of knowledge that has come to help people, and so he is knowledge that the disciples have discovered on there own, though Judas understood the concept of Jesus better than the others. Since jesus is not a person, merely beneficial knowledge, he was never raised on a cross, never died, and never came back to life. There were several books that promote Gnosticism that never made it into the bible. Some of these books, such as the book of John, the book of Judas, and the book of Thomas, implies that heaven is not a place you go to but a symbolic representation of knowledge. He says “If those who lead you say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky!’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fishes will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you and outside of you.” By this the Gnostics believe he means heaven is knowledge, and is therefore “inside of you and outside of you.” Gnosticism is a very uncommon religion because the early church fathers did a good job burning all the books, but recently archaeologists have discovered new books that support Gnosticism.