The Gnostic Story (Fable/Fantasy).
Putting dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e., "self" 'justification' into praxis or social action, making man god.
by
Dean Gotcher
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Timothy 4:3, 4
The Gnostic story, both spiritual and secular, is a fable about a god who, at first, does not, know his "self," living in a pleroma which has eons circling around him (as electrons in pairs spin around a nuclei). Sophia (wisdom), one of the eons, wants to know (Gnosis) the essence of this god who does not know his "self," which is "love." In her pursuit (for knowledge) she falls out of the pleroma, causing confusion or disharmony. In her effort to restore harmony again, now outside the pleroma (I chose one of the many renditions of the fable) she, siting on a rock, contemplating her dilemma, gives birth to Demiurge, a son. Demiurge, as he grows up, reaches into the pleroma, takes parts of the god who does not know his "self" and merges them ("divine sparks") with the material world around him, i.e., the earth or dirt (which, according to the story, has always existed) and thus "creates" man, insisting upon him doing his will, obeying his commands over and therefore against his nature. It is this tension (antithesis) between "self," the desire of the 'moment,' i.e., the desire to be at-one-with nature (Eros), and God (Demiurge), doing God's will that the woman in the garden, with her desire for the "fruit" of the "forbidden tree," i.e., her desire to be at-one-with nature and her desire to please God at the same time, that Satan uses to 'liberate' the woman (and through her, Adam) from God's (Demiurges) authority.
It is his (Satan's) dialogue with her (and her with him), telling her she will not die if she eats of the "forbidden" tree, that makes her conscious of her "self," i.e., "self" conscious. Now conscious of "self," she is now not only aware of her "self," she is conscious of the other "self," i.e., the other person in the garden, i.e., Adam (who is like her in essence), the other "tree," i.e., the "forbidden tree" (which she desires to "touch") which she can now not only "touch" but, being able to "evaluate" it according to her essence, perceiving it as being "good, pleasing, and desirous" she can now "rationally" eat the "fruit thereof" as well, and God, who she can now evaluate as one who restrains her from eating of its "fruit," as not being like her, i.e., as not being of her essence ("love"). It is Satan who therefore, according to the Gnostic fable, becomes the "savior" (the 'liberator') of mankind, by coming, as a facilitator of 'change,' into the garden to "help" rescue the "self," i.e., the "self" of the woman and Adam (the "divine sparks") from Demiurge's (God's) control, restoring them back to the god who does not know his "self," who, according to the gnostic story, comes to know his "self" as the woman, using dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e., "self" 'justification,' i.e., "higher order thinking skills," i.e., critical thinking, i.e., the "wisdom of the world," comes to know (Gnosis) her "self," 'justifying' her desire for pleasure (her "love" of Eros—the essence of god) along with her resentment toward restraint (her hatred toward Demiurge's laws and restraints and therefore hatred toward Demiurge himself which was subconscious up until now), thus 'liberating' her "self" (along with the other "self's" of the world) from Demiurge's (God's) authority system through the use of dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e., "self 'justification,' i.e., the essence of god. In the praxis of dialoguing opinions to a consensus man comes to know he is god, united again as one upon his ability to reason for his "self," 'liberated' from God who restraints him from being his "self," thus no longer feeling "guilty" for his deceitful and wicked thoughts and actions, thinking and acting like his 'liberator,' i.e., the master facilitator of 'change,' i.e., Satan instead, the god (anti-Christ) who is becoming, as God's restraints over man are negated.
The dialectic (Gnostic) story—rejecting man's sinful nature (his deceitful and wicked heart, his lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life, the laws of the flesh and sin), his need for repentance before and forgiveness from God, salvation from the Father's wrath upon him for sinning, 'redemption,' through the shed blood of Christ Jesus upon the Cross, 'reconciliation' to the Father through His resurrection from the grave and death, etc.—establishes the Lord Jesus Christ as siding with Satan (one of the eons, working in partnership with Sophia), whose death on the cross was the result of his effort to rescue mankind (the "divine sparks") from the "establishment," i.e., from the religious leadership of his day, i.e., from Demiurge, i.e., from God, i.e., from the Father's authority system, which "represses" the people, preventing them from knowing their "self," "alienating" them from their "self" and the rest of the "self's" i.e., the "divine sparks" in the world. It is in this Gnostic, dialectic fable/fantasy, that the god who does not know his "self," becomes "self" conscience, i.e., becomes conscious or aware of his "self" through coming to know the "other" (the other "self's" in the world, who are like him, and his "enemy," i.e., God, i.e., the Father's authority system, which is not of his "self"), and through dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e., through the praxis of 'self" 'justification' over and therefore against the Father's, i.e., God's, i.e., Demiurge's authority system, 'liberates' his "self," uniting his "self" with the of other "self's" (divine sparks) of the world through the dialoguing of his opinion with them to a consensus, coming to "know" (Gnosis) his "self" as is, as he "actualizes" his "self" according to his essence, i.e., according to Eros ("love"), 'discovering' his "self" in his common praxis (social action) with the other "self's," as they 'liberate' their "self" from the Father's authority, negating the Father's authority from their "self" and the world—thus, through dialectic 'reasoning,' "god," i.e., the children of the world who do not know their "self" come to know their "self" as they are,"of and for self" (Eros) only, i.e., of and for the world only (in its secular form).
George Hegel's "Universal" is what all children have in common, that which they can unite themselves as "one" upon, i.e., as god, is found in their "Particular," in their talking to their "self" about their desires of the moment and their resentment toward authority, i.e., that which restrains them, 'justifying' their "self" through the use of dialectic 'reasoning,' through the dialoguing of their opinions with one another, i.e., sharing with one another, without fear of reprisal or judgment, how they are "feeling" in the 'moment' and what they are thinking about, subject to their "feelings" of the 'moment' and the given situation, becoming aware of their communism with one another, and through the consensus process (agreeing to work with one another for the "common good") actualizing their "self" in the praxis (social or group action) of helping others become at-one-with them in the world as well, i.e., showing them how to "help" their "self" 'liberate' their "self" from the father's/Father's authority system, so that they can feel, think, and act, and relate with their self, other children, and the world without having a "guilty conscience" for doing wrong. While Hegel 'recognized' a universal spirit driving the dialectic outcome, i.e. oneness "of and for self," of and for the world, Karl Marx, turning Hegel 'right side up,' perceived the universal to be society itself, with the individual finding his identity in society alone. "Then both parties recognize their rigidified position in relation to each other as the result of detachment and abstraction from their common life context. And in the latter, the dialogic relation of recognizing oneself in the other, they experience the common ground of their existence." (Jürgen Habermas, The Idea of the Theory of Knowledge as Social Theory) This follows in line with Martin Luther's warning to the Church regarding Aristotle's Philosophy.
Marxism, whether in the form of "dialectical materialism," i.e., traditional Marxism ("Do what Marx says 'or else.'") or "historical materialism," i.e., transformational Marxism (merging Marx and Freud and visa versa in the praxis of "group psychotherapy," i.e., "Don't just study Marx, Be Marx," putting Marxism into praxis) is only a secularized form of Gnosticism, turning Hegel "right side up." (Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I, Afterword to the Second German Edition,1873) Contemporary education (using "Bloom's Taxonomies") is built upon Transformational Marxism, using dialectic 'reasoning' in "group psychotherapy," uniting the "divine sparks" of the world as "one" through the consensus process (through the soviet system), 'creating' a "new world order" out of the child's carnal nature only, void of any God's, the Heavenly Father's restraints. "The child, contrary to appearance, is the absolute, the rationality of the relationship; he is what is enduring and everlasting, the totality which produces itself once again as such [once his feelings, thoughts, and actions and relationship with others is 'liberated' from the father's/Father's authority 'system']." (George Hegel, System of Ethical Life)
"Freud and Hegel are, like Marx, compelled to postulate external domination and its assertion by force in order to explain repression." "Capitulation enforced by parental authority under the threat of loss of parental love . . . can be accomplished only by repression." "The guilty conscience is formed in childhood by the incorporation of the parents and the wish to be father of oneself." "We must return to Freud and say that incest guilt created the familial organization." (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death, The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)
"In the process of history man [the child, discovering his "self" in other children, working together with them as "one" for the "common good"] gives birth to himself. He becomes what he potentially is, and he attains what the serpent—the symbol of wisdom and rebellion—promised, and what the patriarchal, jealous God of Adam did not wish: that man would become like God himself." (Erick Fromm, ou shall be as gods: A radical interpretation of the old testament and its tradition)
"Humanism asserts that the test of human conduct must be found in human experience [in social action or praxis]; concern for man [approval by the other children] replaces concern about pleasing God [approval by the parents]. Humanism elevates man to the rank of God.... God is man, mankind, humanity.... salvation is a symbol, a symbol for becoming ultimately concerned about humanity—salvation is an 'eternal' present. The answer to man's predicament lies in the realization by individual man, that all men are essentially one and that the one is God. This self-realization is a 'return' to union: potential becomes actual." "Sin is the estrangement of man from man." (Leonard Wheat, Paul Tillich's Dialectical Humanism)
"... according to Freud, the drive toward ever larger unities belongs to the biological-organic nature of Eros itself." (Herbart Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud) "According to Freud, the ultimate essence of our being is erotic." "The aim of Eros is union with objects outside the self ." "Eros is fundamentally a desire for union with objects in the world. Eros is the foundation of morality." "The individual is emancipated ['liberated from the Father's authority system] in the social group [his loss of love (of approval) by the Father (agape) is replaced with "love" (approval or "affirmation") by society (Eros)]." "In the words of Thoreau: 'We need pray for no higher heaven than the pure senses can furnish, a purely sensuous life. Our present senses are but rudiments of what they are destined to become.'" (Norman O. Brown, Life against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)
"Eros belongs mainly to democracy." (Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality) "Democratic planning for change must elevate informed and experimental collective judgment over unchecked private judgment." " Democratic ideology... must develop persons who see non-influenceability of private convictions in joint deliberations as a vice rather than a virtue" (Kenneth Benne, Human Relations in Curriculum Change)
Be forewarned, in the consensus ("group hug") process, Eros is always the outcome, with "Christians" and the "Church" calling it agape, worshiping the "feeling" (experience) of worship instead of worshiping the Lord in Spirit and in truth, i.e., being dead to "self" and the world, i.e., dead to the "approval" of men, i.e., dead to the other "self's," concerned about their souls and where they will spend eternity instead.
"Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God."
"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:14-17
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." John 3:16-19
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2016, 2018