[kahljorn]

An interesting thing about gnosticism and christianity is the following:

In the bible there were the, "Three wise men" who came from the east. More than likely, and I'm pretty sure on this, they were from india (or some similar country). As the story goes Jesus supposedly went and traveled to meet the three wisemen and learn from them, most likely inheriting the indian philosophies. Another interesting thing is that some/many of the revered philosophers also traveled to India(or egypt, or any other numerable places) to learn their ways; such people as Pythagoras, socrates and plato, among many others.

[There is actually a saint-type figure in a few indian texts who is considered to be jesus. Saint Isa might be the name.]

The culturally perverse and inspired gnosticism might actually be a better representation of the true Christian belief system, especially seeing as how the beliefs of their philosophers, like Thomas Aquinas and Origen, had seemingly gnostic-like influences. Obviously gnosticism has been influenced by other religions, their belief system is nearly identical to that of India or any other school of mysticism. I'd like to say that Christian gnosticism is the purest form of christianity, while the christianity of the masses is more of just that; christianity for the masses. Origen is known to have attested to just that, and perhaps his lackluster approach to the Christianity of the masses is why he was expelled. I believe that theory has been put forward on many occasions.

Basically christianity is more like gnosticism(or other religions) than most people will admit, and I believe jesus himself more than likely practiced something much like gnosticism or some other Mystic-type religion. Which makes sense, considering generally cultures influence eachother, and considering the fact that they are all attempting to describe the same thing. It makes more sense than whatever it is that the bible puts forward, which is essentially nothing. "he was a magic guy who did magic stuff for you love him and we created this entire idea". I hate the lack of information that comes from the Christian idealogy(/church), because there's really no idealogy there, just blind acceptance.