can any religion gurus help me?
 

Warning. shameless plea for help on my assignment.

I'm in a messianic studies class and I'm supposed to show how old ideas influence new ideas. In this specific example, I'm supposed to show the influence of Gnostic ideology on the ideas Marshall Applewhite, the leader of the Heaven's Gate cult in the 20th century.


I sort of understand Gnosticism but I don't really see how it applies to the Heaven's Gate cult. Anyway, I'm not looking for a dissertation, just a simple explanation would be fine.

Re: can any religion gurus help me?
 

Gnosticism as usually understood was an heretical take on christianity, and there is no connection between that and that cult. But gnosis in general can mean any system based on secret knowledge, even a takeoff of an already existing religion. So just define gnosis as such and then show how that cult was based on what secret knowledge and how one could acquire same (join the cult).

Of course you should also try to gather empirical data such as showing the comet's trajectory was off predicted values due to the presence of a spaceship hiding behind and matching speed with it.

Re: can any religion gurus help me?
 

Gnostic theology is based on made up stuff.

So is Heaven's Gate..

Maybe Applewhite thought he could get away with it, because the Gnostics did.

Re: can any religion gurus help me?
 

As I understand it, Gnosticism is derived from an understanding/knowledge of the divine. The Heaven's Gate cult based their teachings on the premise that "aliens" were divinities.

It's not too much of a leap to accept that there is some level of contiguity between the two, assuming that man is very different to all mammals. We can then suggest that Man is a variant species inplanted onto Earth by an alien race.

Alternatively, we might consider the "Squareworld" argument (which was briefly discussed in another thread), in that anyone with more "powers" than us might be considered "divine". For example, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Ronaldinhio may be considered "god-like" in their football prowess. Einstein, Steven Hawkins and other emminent scientists might be considered "god-like" for their mental strengths. An alien race might be considered "divine" for their differentiating abilities - telepathy, space travel etc.

However, the counter-argument is similar to the disproval of belief structures: we have no direct experience/knowledge of the existence of aliens/God; therefore, we cannot KNOW (see arguments on Justified True Belief) that aliens/God exists.

Therefore, the existance of aliens/God relies on faith, rather than knowledge. Heaven's Gate is possibily (to my mind) not Gnostic. However, I do believe Gnosticism is possible and there are logical arguments that allow it - just ones that do not place divinity onto a singular entity.

Re: can any religion gurus help me?
 

As I understand Gnosticism, these were individuals who through training entered into a spiritual understanding of the living. Gnostic="to know".

A Gnostic understanding of the approach of the Christ Divinity(The "Three Kings" also knew but don't know if they were "Gnostics") was present at the beginning of our era but the problem was that there was difficulty in seeing the Christ Being after the event on Golgotha. They knew he existed but had lost track of this being(so to speak).

This Gnostic ability was trained clairvoyance. Most ,if not all, of the works on Gnosticism in existance today were written by opponents in Christianity.

Yes, Gnostics taught a knowledge of divine beings, and was no more a cult than the Essenes and Pharisees at that time. Nowdays it appears that divine beings have been transformed into "materialistic aliens" in the sense that you present Applewhite whom I know nothing about.

carlo