[Stargazer]

Let me just preface everything here by saying: Wow, I sure missed a lot! Anyway, here we go.

Egor wrote

You sound like a very religious person. You sound like someone with a lot of religious expertise.

Being a religious person and knowing a lot about religion are not necessarily the same thing. As I stated before, I have always been an atheist:

Yesterday, Stargazer wrote

I have been an atheist all my life (can remember not believing stuff taught at Sunday School around age 8), yet I went to a Baptist university, majoring in English. It was required to take religion courses there, and I did. I took the required Bible course and I also took comparative religions. There I learned about Gnosticism, and have done a lot of reading on that subject and many others on religion since college. I have read the Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon, Mahabarata, you name it.

You may have noticed in my profile that I study mythology. To be crystal clear, that mythology includes all literature which refers to gods (and some other stories, but that's another topic). Just because I read a religious text does not mean I believe it. Actually, since my major was English, I am more interested in the storytelling aspect, and the way myths of one culture relate to and are influenced by another.

Egor wrote

You sound like someone seeking the truth.

A lot of people say that about me. But the meaning of the word "truth" differs.

Egor wrote

I respect your atheism, Stargazer.

Can you do that without attempting to convert me?

Egor wrote

All I ask is that you keep an open mind.

Just so long as you do the same.

Egor wrote

I may be able to show you something in the future that will change your way of thinking. I apologize that I can’t do that now, that I don’t know how to do that now, but the subtleties of influence that cause a person to change their mind are not something we can control. In the future, I may say something in such a way that you are impressed by it and think about it.

Anything is possible, but I would say that so far you haven't said anything that I've not heard before.

Egor wrote

You know, there was this guy once. I had a small New Age periodical back in 1996 and I went out with camera and tape recorder to a Wiccan meditation group (or some such thing). Anyway, I was talking with him, and my wife was talking with some others (they loved her because she’s American Indian—Cherokee. Go figure). Anyway, I was talking with this guy and he said that everything was God. I said, “So you’re God?” He had the balls to say, yes. I said, “Well if you’re God, I’ve got some serious questions for you.” He just looked at me straight-faced and said, “Go ahead.” And I laughed it off. Over the course of a year or better, it ate at me. The concept of monism (because before that time Veridicanism was just the Veridical Christian Society, for the most part). But it ate at me. Eventually, I couldn’t shake the idea of monism, and then I realized that God had to be monistic. That if He created the universe, He could have only created it from Himself, that in fact there couldn’t be anything other than God—ever, not then, not now. And I became a monist—just like that guy was.

So, perhaps one day I will say something and you will become an atheist, just as I am. -?-

Egor wrote

Someday I may say something in such a way that your foundation is shaken, as mine was. So stay tuned. Keep an open mind. That’s all I ask, and if you do, then I will continue to respect your atheism. But just yours! Everyone else can go to hell (heehee, pun intended).

You should know that my atheism is in no way unique on this forum. I am not any more special than any of my friends here.

Egor wrote

I have a lot of sympathy for the Gnostics. It’s a little known fact that the Christian church was so corrupt by the time the Bible was written that Gnostics were, as you say, hunted down and killed for their beliefs. I don’t know if Veridicanism is Gnostic or not. I have been accused of that before, but I really don’t know if I fit in that category. Gnostics were not monists, far from it in fact. And I don’t think the Gnostics believed that a human being was supposed to become Christ. Having said that, back in 2007 or 2006, I wrote a synthesis of the four Gospels and the Gospel of Thomas. I call it the Veridican Gospel of Jesus Christ. I will be publishing it soon. Some would say that the Gospel of Thomas is a Gnostic text. I tend to think it’s less Gnostic than the Gospel of John, but that’s up to each individual to decide. Nevertheless, one must approach God through their own religious means, no matter what. Even if one were to be a Veridican, they would find that in becoming Christ, which is a tenet of Veridicanism, they would have to approach God on their own.

Sounds like you will have to find out for yourself if you're a Gnostic by learning.

Which is what they support.

Egor wrote

And think about it: You see this in atheism as well. Each atheist demands proof of God, but each atheist has their own particular proof that will work for them.

Not true. Atheists have pretty much sought proof on their own, and not found it. When approached by some theist who assumes an atheist is one because he/she "wants to be," or is petty and willful, or has just not thought things through, the theist is making an error in that assumption. Atheists, on the average are pretty intelligent, and have, as a general rule, already gone through the analysis.
Most often, they do not believe in God, because they either cannot make the leap of faith (see my discussions of the Argument From Design), or they object to being coerced into accepting dogma that is nonsensical. (One example of many: the story of Genesis: Adam and Eve are supposed to have sired the human race, as the only humans in existence. But their offspring consisted of three sons. To an atheist, the only viable way for that to have worked is if each son copulated with his mother, something Christianity does not support. Also the genetic implications are dire: talk about inbreeding!) Of course there are other reasons atheists do not believe in God, but the proof they request of someone making the assertion has one requirement: it cannot depend on the suspension of disbelief.

Before, Stargazer wrote

Also, though, if you read enough Gnostic literature, it begins to sound kind of like Buddhism, which I think is not a religion but a philosophy.

Egor wrote

Well, you know, they say that mysticism is pretty much the same across all religions. And a lot of Jesus’ teachings are almost Buddhist in nature. Some think he stole a lot from Buddhism, but I think it was more the influence of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Think about it, the Egyptian pharaoh was supposed to be an incarnation of God on earth; Jesus may have encountered this and came up with the idea Himself. Of course, however Jesus came to be, God was in control of it all. But the idea that man can and should be God on earth could certainly have come from either the Buddhists or the idea of the Pharaoh.[/font][/size]

There are a lot of possibilities, certainly. But I think they all came from the highly inventive brains of men and women.