In my Bible classes, the only thing we learned about the Gnostics was that they were heretics. That was the end of the conversation, so I decided to do my own research. I wondered why these people were considered sinful heretics by the Christian church.

Gnosticism was a very prominent 'heretical' movement of the early Christian church. They taught that there were multiple higher powers or deities and that our world was created by a lesser one known as the demiurge. The demiurge can only create things that are flawed and in general not good, which is why our world is full of evil. The Gnostics believed that everything in the material world is evil because it was created by such an imperfect being.

The origin of this demiurge is rather interesting. It is believed that there were a pantheon of supreme deities, male and female counterparts. When the deity Sophia decided to reproduce without her counterpart, she birthed the demiurge. The other deities rejected this creature and the demiurge left to found its own place in the universe: our world. However it is an imperfect and unholy creature and it's creations are all evil.

Their goal was to obtain salvation through direct knowledge of the hidden deity and by realizing the truth of their creation/existence.

They believe that each person contains a piece of God within themselves. I think this idea is rather beautiful.

There's still a lot we don't know about this movement because the church burned most of the texts.

I think the whole concept of the demiurge having created our imperfect world is fascinating! I don't believe it but it is very interesting.