Just another attempt to justify an idiotic atheistic ideology. The antitheists are far more rational, in my opinion.
From my anecdotal perspective on the subject, Gnosticism is personal knowledge in the metaphysical. It sidesteps doctrine and theology and fabricates non-materialistic paradigms of the supernatural order. So, Gnosticism is a deviation from atheist and theist theology. In essence, from an atheistic perspective, that seems somewhat ironic to me because the atheistic perspective suggests that all theology is fabricated. You can't not know what you or even someone else made up.
To me proto-Gnosticism is quasi religion. Independent gurus looking to gain power. If you have spent a considerable amount of time discussing theology, atheism and religion you will have come across people who make up their own dogma vaguely in reference to the occidental established theology. They can't be wrong, they seem to think, because they make it up, but they always need that established traditional basis to be relatable. I think they just think it makes them interesting. To each his own, I suppose. @
Axeroberts is to me, an example of this. @
LordShadowfire suggests, from time to time, that he has an interest in Gnosticism in that sense, making up a mock religion, but he also has some Gnostic tendencies with the supernatural. Ghosts, paganism.
Perhaps another irony is that ultimately a Gnostic theology merely replaces a traditional theology which is in itself a form of Gnosticism as it deviates from the deviation. First there was truth, which became myth and legend, which became doctrine, and thus, confusion.
It isn't that God isn't knowable, it's that people prefer not to know him. Or the concept, even, as that has become, in the West, a perversion.
Neither theist nor atheist knows for certain, but there is enough material to establish and maintain a reliable and accurate knowledge. But not very many people have ever really been interested in doing that.
Ockham's Razor: the principle (attributed to William of Occam) that in explaining a thing no more assumptions should be made than are necessary.
Gnostic: relating to knowledge, especially esoteric mystical knowledge.
Agnostic: a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.
Theist: a person who believes in the existence of a god or gods, specifically of a creator who intervenes in the universe.
Atheist: a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.
