Maybe I'm just going to drive myself mad trying to pick one religion over another. Perhaps I just have to be satisfied with "freelance monotheism", throw Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism, and Islam into the pot, and let whatever bubbles to the top be whatever it is.

If that's even possible.

I'm winging it on this post, just writing to work out this realisation that embedded itself in my mind recently.

( Scripture is inherently symbolic... )

Trying to reconstruct the gist of the long post that I lost. That one was more structured and organised. This one is ad hoc and messy because I can't be bothered to structure it a second time.

( theology, A.K.A., 'Fuck It' )

Gnostics claim that their religion is based on knowledge (gnosis), not on faith, which is inferior and on which everybody else bases their religious beliefs. That is, they claim to know the nature of God, Christ, the Universe, etc ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

If one takes the Gnostic mythology of the Demiurge not as a literal account of Creation but as a symbol of aspects of the human psyche and mind and perhaps social interactions, then it does make a fair bit of sense. Whether the ancients read it this way, who knows, and, really, who cares ( Read more... )

I finished reading Pagels' Beyond Belief The Secret Gospel of Thomas. My reading list continues with The Gnostic Gospels, and The Gospel of Judas. After that, I have The Nag Hammadi Scriptures coming in the mail.

Following in the theme of this post, I wonder if what I'm drawn to is not Christianity, even heretical Christianity, but Gnosticism. ( Read more... )