Gnosis and Greek logic in late antiquity

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Sep 15, 2013 at 11:14

Our dear Treitze does not seem to realize that religion and reason do not mix otherwise he would have been able to reject the claim by Muslims that their prophet indeed flew on a winged horse or that Allah says that men can beat women right our dear Treize?

I am not a Pakistani nor would I call myself a Muslim.

So what do you "really" call yourself? And why do you have no respect for others, and in this case the Alawites, and what they believe in? Remember who who lives in a glass house should not throw stones

Infact I am an agnost and most certainly of Germanic genetic background.

Sure...sure sure

Gnostic beliefs seem to revolve around gaining knowledge about God rather than having blind faith in God.

Wrong as you shall see.

I was refering to the Gnostic-Christian sects that appeared in the first few centuries after Jesus died.

But you told us that the religion of the Alawites is a gnostic religion but you seem to be unable to tell us what is really gnosis and who are really the gnostics and why is it a gnostic religion. See? you really do not know

For the readers: Gnosis really means in the knowledge and the gnostics were really saying that this creation is a cosmic disaster with wars and famines and disease and fires and earthquakes and suffering and death and to them this meant that the creator of this cosmic disaster is really a poor and evil creator that should be avoided and he should not be the subject of warshipping and in the case of Christianity this god was the god of the OT and in the case of Islam this god was Allah. They also believed that there is another real god that is the true god and he has nothing to do with this poor creation and that he sends his aeons or spirits the likes of the Christ to teach those seeking to find this real god and he sends the likes of the Christ who would teach them those secrets that can lead to finding this true god and case in point are gnostic gospels as in the case the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas and yes Gnosis made it to the the Qur'an and to Quranic tafseer and for this see al-Tabari's exegesis of surat al-Ikhlas

Neoplatonism is more difficult to describe but I refer to the teachings supposedly derived from Plato himself that revolve around becoming one with God (or the One) and how everything is an emmanation of God. I am not too sure though I have not read the Enneads.

For the readers: Plotinus really said that there is a single source from which all emanates and that the soul can unite mystically with such single source and that the source of this reality "transcends the self and thought and is naturally unknowable"

Again I'm trying to make some thing that is very complicated as simple as I can

Now you see the link between both and indeed Neoplatonism and Gnosis had profound effects on not just Jewish and Christian late antique thinking but also Islamic thinking well in the late Middle Ages and it made it to the Qur'an and the Quranic tafseer

Then again maybe you should stop about caravans and winged horses, it is really not relevant to the topic.

Let me paraphrase what you said: And you our dear Treitze should stop your advise that Alawite women have no reason to believe in the Alawite "religion" as it is really irrelevant to the topic

I mean talking about the Alawi religion itself is pretty much on the edge...

What edge?

See? I told you your crossed the line between really wanting to know and polemics now do you get it?

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