Are religions that use military power instead of moral authority and persuasion

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Christianity went a good three centuries without the use of violence to spread the faith.  All of the conversion to Christianity in recent history has been peaceful.

When does this "recent history" start?

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

You have a good point. While previous religions used both moral authority and military power, it would be best if religion was not spread by military power, for violence and force are degrading. It is even more grotesque than the nihilistic violence of say, Genghis Khan, for it is evil cloaked in the hypocrisy of righteousness, rather than an honest domination. That being said, is Gnostic Christianity not still a form of Christianity?

(I have no right to watch videos right now)

Gnostic Christianity is not at all like Christianity although our myths were written when no one read their scriptures literally. They, like the Christian myth are full of supernatural while Gnostic Christians do not hold any supernatural beliefs.

We are a Universalist religion that cannot abide homophobia and misogyny as they go against the notion of equality of all souls.

We also see Yahweh as a vile demiurge who always seems to kill when he could just as easily cure those he thinks defective. Especially the babies and children.

We are demonized by Christians and others who see Yahweh as a good God and not the genocidal son murdering demiurge that Gnostic Christians see.

That is basically why Christianity tried to annihilate us when Constantine gave them political power.

They too like to kill instead of converting by good arguments.

Gnostic Christianity is quite an all inclusive moral ideology as compared to the discriminations of Christianity and Islam.

Regards
DL

That's not "mainstream" Gnostic Christianity, it's your own personal theology and nothing more than that

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

If by "we" you mean just yourself

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

What you call "Gnostic Christianity" is just your very own theological views and I don't think the reflect the views of many self-called Gnostic Christians

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

You have canvased us Gnostic Christians have you?

Yes. They've all been dead for well over a thousand years.

Not so. I think you should refine your research methods. Or at least get some.

We are not mainstream but a good 25% of the world are free thinkers and that is what we are and the numbers are growing daily.

Regards
DL

I don't understand the relation between freethinkers and gnostics

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Not so. I think you should refine your research methods. Or at least get some.

My research method is the following: there was once a branch of Christianity that held certain views and this branch is conventionally referred to by historians as Gnostic Christianity. This particular branch of Christianity - about which we know relatively little and of which what we know at all it is by chance (i.e. the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library) - appears to have died out by the 5th Century at the latest. Of course there has been substantial interest in Gnosticism in certain circles since the 19th century but there's no connection between this and the actual (long dead) religion.

Died out is a strange way to say that the Christians tried and failed to annihilate us.

We are a small group, but never died out as there are still Gnostic Churches in Europe and France.

Regards
DL

And the continuity for the past 1500 years? Or is that part of the secret knowledge?; where your believers were for over a millennium.

Check the literature. We have popped up all over the place at all times and never left France and other more Eastern countries.

Regards
DL

What literature? The DA Vinci Code isn't a valid source, and neither is The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail or the Dossiers
The Cathars were a revivalist movement and we know very little about their theology, and we know for certain that as a religious denomination it disappeared by the late early 14th C.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Ecclesia Gnostica, revivalist. It's even spelled out in the article
Johannite Church, revivalist. It's even spelled out in the article
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, revivalist. It's even spelled out in the article

They were all founded by people who claimed to receive a new revelation from God or a very very very weak link to some extinct movement. There are thousands, if not tenths of thousands of these "prophets" with non-gnostic Christianity and in every other religion, why are these three more important or more believable than any other?

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

What? Nothing you say makes any sense at all

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Neo-Platonists are not compelled to fight those evils but Gnostic Christians are.

What? Says who?

Says this Gnostic Christian of course, unless proven wrong.

Regards
DL

And how do you know that this applied to other "Gnostic" Christians?

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Neo-Platonists are not compelled to fight those evils but Gnostic Christians are.

What? Says who?

Says this Gnostic Christian of course, unless proven wrong.

Regards
DL

And how do you know that this applied to other "Gnostic" Christians?

Ask them when you find them.

You will know them as they will use the term demiurge for Yahweh and Allah.

Not a complimentary tern that.

Regards
DL

But Neoplatonics CAN be Gnostic, or non-gnostic, Christians