first book: early plot question(s)

mattig89ch wrote:Hidy ho all,

Quick question. I picked this book up off audible. And was rather enjoying it. I think I'm 6 chapters in or so. And I'm getting the feeling more and more, that this book is very anti-religion.

now, I have nothing to argue about that point. People are allowed to believe as they like. But I'm a god faring man.

But then, I've been known to see shadows on a clear day.

I'm curious if anyone else got this impression? Or am I seeing shadows where there are none?

Hi. Welcome to the forums. I notice that since you started this thread you haven't commented any further. I hope you are in lurk mode and that we haven't scared you off already.

Henry Brown wrote:

mattig89ch wrote:Hidy ho all,

Quick question. I picked this book up off audible. And was rather enjoying it. I think I'm 6 chapters in or so. And I'm getting the feeling more and more, that this book is very anti-religion.

now, I have nothing to argue about that point. People are allowed to believe as they like. But I'm a god faring man.

But then, I've been known to see shadows on a clear day.

I'm curious if anyone else got this impression? Or am I seeing shadows where there are none?

Hi. Welcome to the forums. I notice that since you started this thread you haven't commented any further. I hope you are in lurk mode and that we haven't scared you off already.

Yeah mattig89ch, we are not all insane. Trust us.

TN4994 wrote:

mattig89ch wrote:Hidy ho all,

Quick question. I picked this book up off audible. And was rather enjoying it. I think I'm 6 chapters in or so. And I'm getting the feeling more and more, that this book is very anti-religion.

now, I have nothing to argue about that point. People are allowed to believe as they like. But I'm a god faring man.

But then, I've been known to see shadows on a clear day.

I'm curious if anyone else got this impression? Or am I seeing shadows where there are none?

Henry Brown wrote:
Hi. Welcome to the forums. I notice that since you started this thread you haven't commented any further. I hope you are in lurk mode and that we haven't scared you off already.

Yeah mattig89ch, we are not all insane. Trust us.

But you just have to take that on faith

IIRC there were several versions of Gnosticism one of which did involve being a Christian heresy.

I remember reading that there were Jewish versions of it as well as many "pagan" versions of it.

Basically it was a belief that the material world was completely evil and the spiritual world was completely good.

The more "material" a being was, the more evil the being was.

In addition, the "Supreme Deity" was completely spiritual and could not have created the "evil" material world.

Thus the Supreme Deity created a Lesser being that was slightly material that in turn created another being that more material and so forth. With the final created being actually creating the material world.

Note, in some variations of Gnosticism the being who created the material world was (or became) the Lord of Evil.

Gnosticism is a complex subject and I'm sure that I haven't done justice to it.

Tonto Silerheels wrote:gcomeau wrote:

Gnosticism's weird, the relationship between gnosticism and agnosticism isn't just the straightforward negation that the form of those words would suggest.

My understanding is that gnosticism is an early Christian heresy wherein a person's salvation is achieved through gaining (spiritual) knowledge.

~Tonto

This has gotten considerably off topic. It is probably time to move it to the GOD Exists topic in Free-Range Topics
http://forums.davidweber.net/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6469

DrakBibliophile wrote:

IIRC there were several versions of Gnosticism one of which did involve being a Christian heresy.

In my church I was taught that gnosticism originated with Christianity. Prior to posting I checked wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism. They seem to concur. They state that scholars once believed that there were several versions of gnosticism, but once something called the 'Nag Hammadi library' was found, that idea was discounted. Wikipedia states, "To date, no pre-Christian gnostic texts have been found,[8] and gnosticism as a unique and recognizable belief system is typically considered to be a second century (or later) development.[9]"

~Tonto

fallsfromtrees wrote:This has gotten considerably off topic. It is probably time to move it to the GOD Exists topic in Free-Range Topics
http://forums.davidweber.net/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6469

But that's such an affirmation.
God, real, probable, or no way dude.
But you're right we should move it.