What Happened To Gnosticism?
When speaking of Gnosticism, many people today do not know what it is. Their best guess may be “The opposite of Agnosticism”. They may be right in a way because the word “gnosis” translates to “knowledge” and Agnosticism is the lack of knowledge of whether or not there is a deity. Although those two words are opposites of one another, the two religions are unrelated completely. Christianity and Gnosticism, on the other hand, show a close history. During the first through seventh centuries, Gnosticism and Christianity were two of the few mainstream religions. The two battled for followers and approval; Gnosticism and Christianity, being two separate religions, have plenty of distinctions from explaining how life came to be to and explaining what happens after. Why did Christianity endure time, but Gnosticism did not?
Creation
From Science to Religion, the questions with the most varied answers are “How did life come to exist?” and “How did the universe come into existence?” In Genesis, it states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth” straightforwardly explaining how the universe came into existence in the most basic form, God created it. (Genesis 1:1) It
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Some people suppose Gnosticism and Christianity eventually merged because the Gnostic texts are scriptures that were left out of The Bible. Gnostics believed they had the divine knowledge because they knew what Christians did not. Many Christians believed these texts were untrue, and forged by Gnostics. (Robinson)
) Although these two religions share stories, they are two entirely different religions. Gnosticism is closer to a polytheistic religion with all of its different Aeons; Christianity is monotheistic. Gnostics did not endure time because they did not reach out for followers, they did not always accept, and they did not promise salvation. Christians reached out for new followers, accepted all, and promised salvation through
The Gnostics believed that the world was created by a blind and insane angel named Abraxas who believed he was God. Jesus was then sent to redeem humanity from this tyrannical spirit and did so by escaping from the cross. The also believed that there was a great mother goddess who was in charge of the God of the Old Testament. 6. Arius was a priest who was also a member of the Council f Nicaea.
The Gnostics and the Great Church disagreed on divine inspiration. While the Gnostics thought themselves elite and special, leaders and followers of the Great Church thought anyone could experience divine inspiration through God and could become a believer and follower of Christ. This is shown in "The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity." Although Perpetua came from nobility, she was not really anyone partcularly special. She was a prisoner for her faith and her father desperately tried to make her renounce Christianity.
Yet, some started coming up with their own conclusions about their faith. Thus, causing the importance of the clergy to decrease. In addition, the Great Awakening caused a split between many churches. Although many churches practiced various beliefs, they were still able to assert religious control over their nation’s
Human beings are innately predisposed to seek an origin of existence. So, naturally, as humans evolved, theories of origin arose from all corners of the world. Although different in belief, there was always one common theme: A creator or creators, intended for humans to live on this earth with purpose. Moreover, as the world advanced, culturally specific religions remained, but a new religion emerged in Christianity. Consequently, as Christianity amplified, a centralized church was created to keep the religion standardized.
Argument Against the Argument of Pascal’s Wager In Pascal’s Wager, Pascal pioneered new thoughts and opinions amongst his peers in probability theories by attempting to justify that believing in God is advantageous to one’s personal interest. In this paper, I will argue that Pascal’s argument rationalizing why one should believe in God fails and I will suggest that even if one was to accept Pascal’s wager theory, this will not be a suffice resolution to reap the rewards that God has promised to Christian believers like myself who has chosen to believe in God due to my early childhood teachings, familial and inherited beliefs. Pascal offers a logical reason for believing in God: just as the hypothesis that God's existence is improbable, the
Introduction/Thesis A Biblical Worldview is your view of the world through a biblical perspective. Worldviews are very important because they influence everything you do and every decision you make. That is why it’s important to know your worldview and to make sure it is in line with God’s word. It is also important to know your worldview because it affects your witness to others about God’s salvation.
Religion in Western civilization has undoubtedly played a pivotal role in shaping and developing Western society. Regardless of the form of religion, such as polytheism or monotheism, people in ancient societies believed in a God or Gods. This belief in a higher power was an important part of human progression and expansion. Religion was the backbone of Western civilization and has always been a very important foundation of culture, schooling, philosophy, art, and social interaction. Before Judaism and Christianity, philosophers such as Aristotle ponder the thought of a higher power and in his book Metaphysics wrote about eternal motion was an unmoved mover.
While both Islam and Christianity were spread Christianity had more governments in control than Islam. The Christians and Islam each believed that there is only one true God that sends down a messenger
This contrast has created significant differences in the way the two religions developed over the course of history. Christianity in the modern age and even throughout most of history has been a significantly more
They have very many different beliefs. They are both very unique though. These are very interesting religions to write about and I enjoyed
Christianity and Judaism are both monotheistic religions that share many similarities. Both religions were found in present day Israel and share a common writing. They shared the same Ten Commandments; Torah for the Jews and the Old Testaments for the Christians. Even though they are common in many different ways, they are also very different. Their marriage rites, rituals and the meaning of life are different.
In comparison, Buddhism and Sikhism are religions that originated from Hinduism. The differences lie because Sikhism is monotheistic (single God) and Buddhism believes there is no God. Other differences lie in the teachings, practices, idol worshipping, religious laws, symbols and concept of God. Buddhism - Buddhism is the old religion around 624 B.C. - Buddhism talks about self-organization, they do not believe in the Creator. - Buddhism is a monastic community called as the Sangha.
Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece were very powerful and influential forces around the time that Christianity had began to spread. In Rome’s society, people followed under an emperor, who had strict rules about religion and the type of beliefs one should have. At the time, Rome’s official religion was pagan, but later converted to Christian. Ancient Greece had different religious beliefs than those that Christianity consisted of, but these countries were both powerful and helpful in spreading this new religion. Greece and Rome were impactful on Christian doctrine as well as helping this religion thrive and continue to expand to new areas.
This is why monotheism is the worship and belief one "true" god. The origin of where monotheism started is not clear. Some say that it started when Moses brought it to the ancient Hebrews. Some say it evolved from polytheism. Others say there is a documented case of monotheism in Egypt during the rule of Akhenaten.
Both of these religions mention and revolve around the idea of the cycle of reincarnation. Almost all religions have a theory of what happens after death. Buddhism and Hinduism are unique from other religions because they believe that we experience a rebirth after death. That we are in a cycle in which we live multiple lives. These religions also have mediation as a key part in their belief.