Wise words:

quote:53. His disciples said to him, "Is circumcision useful or not?"

He said to them, "If it were useful, their father would produce children already circumcised from

their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect."



from the Gospel of Thomas.

This further proves that the "god" of the OT is not the God of Jesus.

The gospel of ... who?

There is no book of Thomas in the Bible from what I can tell. What's your source?

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html

Don't you know about the REAL gospels?

According to that site, they're the "secret sayings of Jesus". Yeah, okay, sounds like something from Paranoid Delusions. Unless it's got some amazing evidence speaking for it, it's got less credibility than the Bible... and that's not much.

quote:Originally posted by Iehovah:

According to that site, they're the "secret sayings of Jesus". Yeah, okay, sounds like something from Paranoid Delusions. Unless it's got some amazing evidence speaking for it, it's got less credibility than the Bible... and that's not much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library

Yes, it does have amazing evidence to speak for itself.

Try reading about it, you might learn something.

Do they burn Nag Champa at the Nag Hammadi?

I've been wanting to read those books, but I keep getting diverted by Plato, Parmenides or Kant.

EDIT - if I'm correct, Gnostics believe the world is imperfect because it was created in a flawed manner, pushing all blame onto the OT God, who isn't the real "One", am I correct?

[This message has been edited by Hare_Geist (edited 03-17-2007).]

quote:Originally posted by Hare_Geist:

I've been wanting to read those books, but I keep getting diverted by Plato, Parmenides or Kant.

EDIT - if I'm correct, Gnostics believe the world is imperfect because it was created in a flawed manner, pushing all blame onto the OT God, who isn't the real "One", am I correct?



Yes, Sophia (wisdom) tried to create without the approval of her consort, or without a balance. Thusly the material world is flawed. However, we are not OF the material world, even though we are on it.

I suggest you read some of them for yourself though, reading a few won't take that long and it's incredibly fascinating, all beliefs aside.

quote:However, we are not OF the material world, even though we are on it.

I remember that standing out when I read about Gnosticism. It striked me as man yet again trying to put himself on a pedestal and explain away his alienation.

quote:Originally posted by Hare_Geist:

I remember that standing out when I read about Gnosticism. It striked me as man yet again trying to put himself on a pedestal and explain away his alienation.

What does that mean? What alienation?

Either way, that isn't even a secret teaching. That was widely taught.

What does that mean? What alienation?

Either way, that isn't even a secret teaching. That was widely taught.

Actually, gnosticism was largely unknown until recently. I think it was Bishop Iraneous who wrote a nine-volume work condeming gnosticism,and what he said about it was all we knew, until the Nag material came to light.