What is a gnostic?

Question

People! I KNOW what an Agnostic is. For crying out loud LOOK AT MY SCREEN NAME!

Answer 1

nosticism is a term created by modern scholars to describe a diverse religious movement often associated with Christianity, although textual evidence for the movement contains distinctly non- and anti-Christian elements, as well as anti-Judaic elements. These beliefs had largely syncretistic origins in that they were often based on various influences from such idea-systems.

Several Gnostic texts appear to have no Christian element at all. Because the textual evidence comes from the first few centuries AD, many scholars have assumed that Gnosticism did not predate this period, but earlier historians of religion saw it as an outgrowth of ancient mystical traditions in Asia, especially Iran.

The majority, mainly due in the English speaking world to Edwin Yamauchi's Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Survey of the Proposed Evidences American Society of Church History (1979), of scholars now are of the opinion that Gnosticism does not pre-date Christianity, but its nascent occurred in the early 2-3rd century. There has been considerable controversy about which groups fit the term "Gnostic." Scholars even dispute whether or not members of these ancient cults described themselves by the term "gnostikoi" at all.[1][2] The close connection between Gnostics and the Mystery religions of the classical world, attested by ancient sources and affirmed by some scholars such as G. R. S. Mead, suggests that Gnostics would have called themselves telestai, "those who are aimed," consistent with their involvement in the pagan Mysteries. By contrast, they would have been called gnostikoi, meaning "know-it-all," as an insult directed to them by their enemies, the Church fathers such as Tertullian and Irenaeus. [3]

The subject of Gnosticism presents exceptional difficulties at the outset due to the lack of any clear definition of gnosis, "knowledge" in Greek, considered in the sense that Gnostics themselves would have understood it. Scholars at the Messina Conference in 1966 failed to arrive at a consensus, and no expert writing on Gnosticism follows precisely the same rules of interpretation. The evidence for the movement - mainly, the Nag Hammadi codices (NHC)in Coptic, other non-NHC documents in Coptic, related apocrypha in Greek, Aramaic, and Syriac, and the patristic writings against the Gnostics - may be compared to the contents of a trunk labelled "Gnosticism" with a description of the contents written on the label. Upon rummaging through the trunk, it becomes clear that it contains many elements that do not fit the description on the label, and even flatly contradict it.

Answer 2

Well as your name is agnostic which is based on experience to influence your belief. BUT a GNOSTIC is a person who has provoked an inner experience and feels every person has this divine spark within them that can be provoked to grow. If you look at the Nag Hammadi texts online, these are considered gnostic. I suppose the true ancient Kabbalah texts are gnostic as well except the relams.

I am a Catholic Gnostic.

So all in all its an agnostic that has found the experience to have lost the "a" :)

The subject is really interesting. I hope you study it and find out how to find those things fellow gnostics have done before you.

Answer 3

Gnostic - an adherent of gnosticism, the thought and practice especially of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis, esoteric knowledge of spiritual truth held by the ancient Gnostics to be essential to salvation

Agnostic - a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god

Answer 4

"Gnosticism is a term created by modern scholars to describe a diverse religious movement often associated with Christianity, although textual evidence for the movement contains distinctly non- and anti-Christian elements, as well as anti-Judaic elements. These beliefs had largely syncretistic origins in that they were often based on various influences from such idea-systems.

Several Gnostic texts appear to have no Christian element at all. Because the textual evidence comes from the first few centuries AD, many scholars have assumed that Gnosticism did not predate this period, but earlier historians of religion saw it as an outgrowth of ancient mystical traditions in Asia, especially Iran.

Gnostics regarded nature and the material world as flawed, corrupt, if not downright evil. They claimed that the natural world was created by a lesser deity, the Demiurge, not the true God who dwells in another realm outside space and time. The human soul, originating as a divine spark in the higher world, finds itself fallen captive to matter, exiled in the realm of the senses. Spiritual development means extricating oneself from enmeshment with matter and returning to the Source, the Light of God. Gnosis is the recognition of the presence of the Higher Self, the spark of Divinity trapped in matter, but only an elite few can realize this awareness and liberate themselves from blind enslavement to this world."

You can read even more info concerning gnostic from the source I have provided for you.

Answer 5

Gnosticism is a term created by modern scholars to describe a diverse religious movement often associated with Christianity, although textual evidence for the movement contains distinctly non- and anti-Christian elements, as well as anti-Judaic elements. These beliefs had largely syncretistic origins in that they were often based on various influences from such idea-systems

Answer 6

Gnostic refers to knowledge

Answer 7

Here

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-hEhYPrI4fKld04PWL6apE5k-?cq=1

Answer 8

I am a gnostic. ... I believe in cleansing and purifying myself and try to be kind with other people and love god creations. I believe that I should try my best to cleanse and purify my soul so that I can return my light to the almighty god. I want to be one with him... That's what Jesus and Muhammad really taught, be one with god and be closer to him... That's what we Gnostics are all about....

Answer 9

The opposite of "a"gnostic.

Answer 10

A christian that claims to have knowledge of the afterlife, or a christian that doesnt believe the same stuff as the mainstreamers.