RELIGION: 101 PART THREE

Now let us take a few minutes to look up agnostic, gnosticism, secular humanist and atheists. .

Agnosticism means unknowable, and is the philosophical view that the true value of certain claims—particularly theological claims regarding metaphysics, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, or deities—is unknown or inherently unknowable.

Agnostics claim either that it is not possible to have absolute or certain knowledge of God or gods. While it is certainly possible it may be, they personally have no knowledge.

Gnosticism [from Greek gnosis means knowledge] is a term created to describe a religious movement in the first century. Some identify Jesus as the divine spirit incarnated to bring gnosis to humanity. Other Gnostics have no Christian element at all. Gnostics taught that humans were divine souls trapped in a material world created by an evil spirit. To free oneself from the evil one needed spiritual knowledge or gnosis. God was depicted as a pleroma composed of multiple manifestations.

Secular humanism is a humanist philosophy that upholds reason, ethics, and justice. It specifically rejects the supernatural and the spiritual as warrants of moral reflection and decision-making. It is a life stance of focusing on the ways human beings can lead clear and happy life’s.

Atheism is the absence of belief in the existence of God or other deities, the conscious rejection of Atheism, as well as the belief in the nonexistence of God. Today about 2.4% of the world population describe themselves as atheists.

Atheists are frequently thought to be irreligious or unspiritual. Some atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere to.

Thinking back over the groups we have looked at, as Christians it is easy to dismiss them as not true to the Word of God. But how do we stand on what we do believe?

How then do we prove our religion is different? We do not want blind faith. We want something that can prove itself worthy before we can say we trust it. All the groups we have talked about thus far stand or fall on something that no one can prove or disprove.

No one can prove angels appeared to Mohammed. No one can tell if Siddhartha Guatama achieved nirvana or whether Nanak visited heaven. No one can tell if a New Age religion is just putting on an act or is really receiving a spirit, or if it is a real spirit, is it a benevolent one or a malevolent one. It is left entirely up to the faith of the follower.

What of our so-called Christian religions? How do we know what is truth and what is twisted to conform to traditions and other beliefs? That we will start on tomorrow.

God bless
rECj/LJG