An analysis of the potential usefulness of the Gnostic Notebook series for the conversion of Christian believers.
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| The first four books in the Gnostic Notebook Series. |
While writing the books that make up the Gnostic Notebook series, I've often felt that I was being guided. I do not mean this in any supernatural sense. Rather it was as though the author of some particular text was more akin to the designer of a game who must anticipate the steps that the player will follow in order to successfully complete some challenge within the game. The designer also uses the design of the game to teach the player techniques that may form the basis for more advanced solutions to more complex puzzles that the player will eventually encounter.
As I progressed through the set of seven parables that would lead the seeker to the secret teachings of Jesus when properly understood, it seemed as though I was actually accessing an ancient and forgotten cache of information. The secrets revealed felt somehow both alien and familiar.
Now that I have finished with the series, for the most part, I have to ask myself what is the purpose of this information? I think that it is probably meant to be whatever comes after Christianity. It solves many of Christianity's weaknesses: It is in agreement with the basics of evolution, it explains the changing nature of Jehovah, and it even addresses transsexuality.
When I have attempted to share my views with Christian believers they often tell me that, while they do not agree with my conclusions, they really appreciate the way I present my findings as compared to atheists. I believe this preference is based on my method of presentation which centers around the citing of Biblical or extra-Biblical texts. This is the same technique employed by Biblical apologists.
Atheists, on the other hand, attempt to reason with the believer from outside of the framework of belief. This approach is usually doomed to failure thanks to a design feature of the Bible. Consider the following verses:
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2Co 10:5 NIV)
24 And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. (2Ti 2:24-26 NIV)
25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. (Mat 11:25 NIV)
The Bible has been designed to repel attacks from the outside. Atheism runs up against this barrier. Often times it is unable to breach this defense.
Is atheism the answer anyway? Yes, it frees the former believer from an outdated belief system. It discards the Bible as excess baggage. But what if hidden somewhere in that baggage was a treasure, hidden and forgotten?
I am not confident that atheism is the future, for the simple reason that every new generation is born innocent. They will be educated and/or indoctrinated, either at school or at home. If they are at least indoctrinated with a religion that has a positive view towards science and the world, then perhaps their fervor could be turned towards saving the Earth and its inhabitants.
The solutions to the mysteries unlocked through the use of the Gospel of Thomas and other apocryphal texts seem to form the basis of a new religion for the present age. Christianity shaped the consciousness of those living under its influence for the last two thousand years or so. Despite its claims of embracing eternal and unchanging Truth, its age has passed. A greater Truth awaits.
The books that form the Gnostic Notebook series seem to have been written precisely to assist would-be agents of gnosis in their task of slowly exposing selected candidates to the inner mysteries of Thomasine Gnosticism.
I'm currently reading the third book in this serious and I just came to a portion that blew my mind. I just wanted to share this strange synchronicity with you. When I was 9 or 10 years old I had a dream in which I was in a underground cavern with passage ways and no external light, there was "green slime" in the crevices of the walls and ceiling,and I was being instructed by a disembodied voice pertaining to the nature of this substance but was never explicitly told what it was. Every once in a while I will pull out an old journal and become almost obsessive over exploring hidden meanings over past experiences and dreams. I did a Google search of this substance using only descriptive words and the only image that I found that matched exactly what I saw was cyanobacteria. Never heard this word before let alone knew what it was. For the past two weeks I've been researching cyanobacteria and discovered that it needed light and warm conditions to proliferate. I became frustrated thinking 'how could this be the same substance of it was underground?'. And then I found an article two days ago that said the scientists have recently discovered cyanobacteria living 2,000 feet below the surface of the planet without sunlight. In another article they discovered that it could survive in space for over 500 days and were considering the potential use of cyanobacteria to terraform mars in the future. After spending two weeks researching cyanobacteria I decided to give myself a break from that topic and read your books, and bam, out of nowhere there's cyanobacteria in a place that I last expected. Just thought it was oddly synchronous that even when I wasn't actively seeking it out it appears. Also, I'm loving your books so far.
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