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From: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron C. Howes)
Newsgroups: net.origins,net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Dan Boscovich steps forward to talk about God
Message-ID: <811@mcnc.mcnc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 14-Sep-85 12:08:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: mcnc.811
Posted: Sat Sep 14 12:08:19 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Sep-85 12:00:00 EDT
References: <8508172148.AA02946@sdcc6.ARPA> <308@pyuxn.UUCP> <2195@sdcc6.UUCP> <324@pyuxn.UUCP> <184@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron C. Howes)
Distribution: net
Organization: North Carolina Educational Computing Service
Lines: 30
Xref: watmath net.origins:2371 net.religion.christian:1299
Summary: 

In article <184@well.UUCP> jay@well.UUCP (Jay Kinney) writes:
>
>I don't know about anyone else, but I've been greatly enjoying this
>Damager-God discussion and have found it quite stimulating.  I don't
>think that anyone has mentioned that Paul Zimmerman's concepts closely
>match the ancient gnostic concept of God as a Demiurge who *thinks*
>he is the Big Cheese, but is actually just a Creator-god somewhat down
>on the Totem-pole. The gnostics posited an Unknown God far beyond the
>realm of Good & Evil who oversaw the whole mess and to which one could
>make contact--once one saw thru the Demiurge.

Oh boy, a chance for me to come out of my closet again!  The big difference
between the Demiurge and the Damager G-d is that the Demiurge isn't evil,
just unaware that it's not at the top of the deific heap, so to speak.  In
some traditions he is called Samael, "The Blind G-d."  Gnostics are not
maltheists, in general, and we would reject Zimmerman's views.

Gnostics do not believe that one can make contact with The Father.  The
Father is perfect and unreachable and exists as a principle, rather than
as a thing, to us.  One can, and should, touch the Sophia (Wisdom,)
but that is not the same.  Seeing through the Demiurge does not mean one
sees the Father, merely that one percieves the universe in a different
way.


Thanks for the pointer to the journal, I had not heard of it.
-- 

						Byron C. Howes
				      ...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch


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