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On Gnosticism: I think it's important to bear in mind that "Gnosticism" isn't a single set of ideas, or a unified theological perspective. There are some Gnostic concepts that I think have enormous value, or to my mind "invaluable value"- and others that simply strike me as sophistries, solipsistic illusions, or even clever attempts to subvert what might be termed "moral law"- attempts to devise a philosophy that recognizes no constraints on one's own actions. I want to throw out the dirty bathwater, not the baby. The notion of moral law, and the ethical conduct informed by it, is paramount to me as an ideal. Until I slip up and forget about it, anyway, feeding myself some cheap rationalization about my transient ego trips being more important...sounds like Buddhism, and I think the idea of Dharma has a lot of wisdom to it. But I believe in God, not the advance of consciousness into nothingness. Without God, what you got is humanism- which in my opinion is perpetually engaged in endeavors like setting the bar too low, or setting it too high and berating itself in self-pity over its inherent limitations, or offering moral judgements in the absence of any acknowledgement of a divine concept of morality... Jesus makes more sense to me. God as essential, but not essentialist...
