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I'm starting to think that the gnostics were right, that the creator of the universe was fuckin evil. It's trapped us in a prison of flesh and suffering.
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Buddhists have a similar idea in which the neverending wheel of suffering, Samsara, is lorded over by a demon king named Mara. But Samsara wasn't created, it's just an endless cycle of suffering and dying.
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That's kind of like what the gnostics say. It's an endless cycle. One has to extricate themselves from it thru detachment, same as the Buddhists teach. Gnostics also say there is metempsychosis, where souls have to come back and deal with past karma.
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Many Gnostic ideas came from Platonic thought, like the demiurge and transmigration. Greek and India shared between ~ 500-300 bce. So, Buddhism and Gnosticism are sorta cousins.
My issue with many of the Gnostic Gospels is the theism and reliance on Christ as Messiah.
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I read somewhere while back that the Gnostics may have come into contact with Buddhist teachings and been informed by them.
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No belief is better, agreed. My degree is Religious Studies and Sociology. Despite my hopes, I graduated with only more doubts. I'm an extreme agnostic - I refuse to believe anything 100%. But I still find these topics useful as models for speculation. IDK
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I'm not talking about beliefs. I'm just examining ideas. I was reading earlier that the gnostics disdained faith. That made me like them even more. lol
Right. The thread got tangled, my belief remark was replying to a different comment.