Category: Gnosticism
Is Artificial Intelligence A Digital Demiurge?
Some provocative thinkers have compared AI to the demiurge of Gnosticism. The demiurge is a kind of false god, whom many Gnostic scriptures describe as incompetent or malicious or both. In these texts, it is the demiurge who made this material world, a flawed realm subject to pain, decay, and death. While the analogy isn’t…
The Gnostic view of Jesus
What was the Gnostic view of Jesus? We might more appropriately discuss Gnostic “views.” The term “Gnosticism,” as I’ve written previously, can be applied to a diverse (and often contradictory) body of teachings and texts. Nonetheless, we can (cautiously) draw some general conclusions about so-called Gnostic Christianity. Christian orthodoxy sees Jesus as the Second Person…
The Gnostic View of Adam and Eve
The Gnostic view of Adam and Eve is very different than what Christian orthodoxy holds. In traditional Christian teaching, our first parents were placed in paradise, and given the privilege of communing openly with God. If you were raised in church, you might have been told that when Eve ate the apple, this act initiated…
The Gnostic View of God
Gnosticism radically reimagines the Abrahamic God, the creation he authored, and our relationship to both. Many Gnostic texts don’t see the God of Genesis as divine at all. He is a creature inhabiting our lower, material realm, often malicious or incompetent. The world he made is an abomination, and he inflicted a wound on the…
The Apocryphon of John Explained: Yaldabaoth, Sophia, and The Gnostic Creation Myth
The Secret Book of John, also known as The Apocryphon of John, is a second-century Gnostic text that claims to contain hidden teachings of Jesus about the creation of the world, the origin of evil, and the destiny of human souls. It is part of the Gnostic tradition, an aberrant form of Christianity condemned by…
An Economist Teaches Us How To Live In A Simulation
Inspired by Nick Bostrom’s simulation hypothesis, Economist Robert Hanson wrote a brief and fascinating article, in which teaches us how to live in a simulation. Here, he offers some advice about how one should live considering the world we inhabit might be a kind of advanced computer program. Early on, he suggests that if we’re…
Is Simulation Theory A Religion?
Is simulation theory a valid scientific hypothesis, or is it a new religion? Simulation theory, first proposed by philosopher Nick Bostrom, is often cited, but the arguments in his paper are rarely described in a clear way. Bostrom’s paper, “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?” is a dense and fascinating piece. The hypothesis that…
Categories
Recent Posts
- If the Medium Is the Message, What is the Message of AI?
- Is Artificial Intelligence A Digital Demiurge?
- The Gnostic view of Jesus
- The Gnostic View of Adam and Eve
Tags
3 Baruch AI AI Art Antonin Artaud Apocalypse apocryphon of john aquinas AR CERN chimeras Francis Fukuyama Genesis 11:1-9 George Orwell gnosticism History How to Live in the Simulation hypsostasis of the archons Jack Parsons Late Capitalism Marshall McLuhan Media Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrum Political speech politics Postmodernism religion Robin Hanson second discourse simulation hypothesis Simulation theory Sophia Technology The Attention Economy Theology The Theater and the Plague Tower of Babel transhumanism Turner Doomsday Video Twitter Spaces Unto This Last Video Games War on Terror Writing Yaldabaoth