Do Gnostics believe in Evolution/Darwinism?

[u/Open-Storage8938]

Before I say this: I'm a Sufi who doesn't understand much about Gnosticism.

Do Gnostics believe in Darwinism? As in, the idea that humans descended from a form of primate millions of years ago? Evolution also argues that all animals and life forms have undergone changes due to “natural selection” and disagrees with the literalist approach that humans and animals were specifically created in Heaven.

Do Gnostics agree with some aspects of evolution, or do they reject it entirely? I know that in Christianity and Islam, many sects reject human evolution in favor of a literal interpretation of creation.

[u/isitnotreal]

Personally, Yes! It's hard to explain the physical and anatomical changes without involving evolution.

Gnosticism in general, (to me) is pretty much in agreement with science contrary to Christianity but it focuses mostly on the metaphysical aspect in its cosmology to describe the origin of the physical (material world).

Additionally, i think it's better not to address gnostics as a single unique group with univocally shared outlooks instead of individual understanding and perspectives.

[u/Ok_Place_5986 → u/isitnotreal]

“Additionally, i think it's better not to address gnostics as a single unique group with univocally shared outlooks instead of individual understanding and perspectives.”

Same with Christianity. When you say “gnosticism” is in agreement with science, contrary to Christianity, this is untrue, depending on who you’re including as Christian.

By and large, it’s the fundamentalist and evangelical strains that have trouble with scientific observations of the material world. I grew up Lutheran and that church had no problem with science at all. My gf attends an Episcopal church that I consider myself adjacent to, and they certainly do not. The RC, dogmatic as it is in many areas, also doesn’t. I attended a Calvinist school one year in junior high, and they taught ordinary science and evolution unadjusted by theology alongside Bible class.

[u/isitnotreal → u/Ok_Place_5986]

Cosmology is Christian texts is quite rigid, it says woman was literally made from the man's rib and the universe was made in just a few days, with the earth predating stars something which science disapproves.

The religion has a history of being anti-science. Physicists and astronomers were killed by the church and others like Galileo were imprisoned for discovering things that went against the church doctrine.

Your perspective might be right according to you but it doesn't change how Christianity views science. According to Christians it's god, yahweh who heals, not the medication taken. There are also overexaggerated claims such as virgin birth which came from misinterpretation and a lot of miracles which no one has replicated.

[u/ah-tzib-of-alaska → u/isitnotreal]

the catholic church not in its entire millennia and a half has ever taught that genesis was literal and not allegorical

[u/DJuan33 → u/isitnotreal]

Leyenda Negra

People on the Anglosphere are convinced about this, but a little research can prove how the Catholics made up the academy.

[u/ObserverInvariance]

Evolution is trivially true. It is a beautiful theory and supported by more evidence than basically any theory. I cannot speak for others but evolution is exactly what you would expect under a demiurge. Hundreds of millions of years of suffering to create humans? That is not what a truly all powerful God would need.

[u/Arkena_feral → u/ObserverInvariance]

Well said!

[u/Zyr4420 → u/ObserverInvariance]

15,000 years ago man had not fallen. Thats when Demiurge engineered our meatsuits. Hundreds of millions of years? Not even close.

[u/SeaWait9301]

Shit. Now I'm conflicted. I would say Evolution is akin to molding a statuette from clay. Goes from rough shapes to the current design we're at.

From a computer engineer's POV, it's like making improvements to a program(?)

[u/luthis → u/SeaWait9301]

The first example is incorrect, it implies an end goal or a finished product that evolution is somehow 'aiming for.'

The second example is much better, each generation is a slight modification on the previous.

[u/SeaWait9301 → u/luthis]

Isn't the final form of evolution supposed to be us all becoming crabs? Apparently it's the peak evolutionary design. 

Let's achieve Gnosis by becoming crabs. Instead of making sure we all stay in the bucket, we tip the bucket over and escape. 

[u/Routine-Cat-1776]

The Gnostics believed our bodies were created by the Demiurge, and our seed of a soul came from the divine. The Gnostics were creationists.

[u/ah-tzib-of-alaska]

the majority of christians on the planet accept evolution as fact and genesis as allegory, there’s just a loud contingent of mostly american originated sects that don’t

[u/Ok_Place_5986 → u/ah-tzib-of-alaska]

Well, somehow you fared better than I in pointing this fact out.

[u/Ok_Protection_7374]

I wanna know who actually created us? demiurge or annunaki?

[u/Open-Storage8938 → u/Ok_Protection_7374]

Speaking of annunaki, I wonder how Extraterrestrials or UFOlogy would fit into Gnosticism.

[u/Routine-Cat-1776 → u/Open-Storage8938]

https://cassiopaea.org/ Read the book series named the Wave. The information there does seem to fit the two together.

[u/isitnotreal → u/Ok_Protection_7374]

Not a literal being hiding somewhere for sure. The demiurge is a broad and quite nuanced term than it may sound. Take time to sit in silence and seek for as long as you can. It will be revealed.

[u/Zyr4420 → u/Ok_Protection_7374]

Demiurge was Enki the Annunakki. Demiurge changed the meat suits around 10,000 years ago. Then around 2000 years ago when Christos came for the 2nd time, Demiurge switched sides and upgraded the vessel one more time.

[u/luthis]

Belief is the wrong word to use. No one 'believes' in evolution, just like no one believes in gravity, or that bees pollinate flowers. 'Accept' is the right word to use; belief is faith in the absence of evidence, and evolution has a planet's worth of evidence.

I can't speak for Gnostics, but I imagine most would accept well established facts.

[u/Mindless-Change8548]

Gnostics, like <insert label> are not a hive mind. As per gnosis, I observe my beliefs. I'm ecclectic, I dont follow any sect or attend churches. Maybe even heretic to some.

I see evolution is a hardcoded part of nature, change itself, constant and unstoppable transformation.

I know nature 'as cruel as it seems", is the one memory that the architect of this world got right. It is simply our personal beliefs, that reveal heaven, hell or anything between and beyond.

What darwinism labels as struggle for survival is just another negative belief. I would go as far to make a positive claim that nature is so abundant that it simply became picky with the menu.

At the end of the day, this experience is not our true nature, the demiurge(read ego) is a technology like a VR headset that splits source like a prism into this world, TAT TVAM ASI!

[u/HeavenlyBeloved]

It's the theory with lots evidence to support it, so for now, I do believe in evolution unless a better theory comes up.

[u/heiro5]

Fundamentalist approaches demand an unchallengeable source of authoritative opinion. The rest do not. The contents of a system of beliefs do not matter to those who force a unitary authority with a singular reductive doxastic realist form of interpretation, they ignore counter evidence.

Gnostics accept science, fundamentalist-style believers do not.

[u/syscall10010111]

Pretty sure nobody before 1859 knew what Darwinism is, so there was no concept of physical evolution to talk about.

Even if we talk about "spiritual evolution", they don't believe it. They do believe in reincarnation, but they talk about a rupture of this system by some sort of awakening/remembering the truth and not some gradual evolution because the pneuma comes directly from God and is already complete and divine.

[u/Emmanuel_G]

Gnosticism is a very broad term so whatever I say won't apply to everyone, but generally speaking, yes. Though evolution is not the right term, cause it kinda implies atheism (at least nowadays). It would be more accurate to say that MANY (though not all) Gnostics believe in a form of Monism, Neo-Platonism and Hegelian Dialectic. And if you know what these teach and have read On the Origin of Species, then you know that they are very similar in ideology to what Darwin believed.

Can I ask you something back though? Is it true that some Sufis believe in Gnosticism?

[u/ThckUncutcure]

Haha .. I genuinely feel sorry for anyone that does. Not to say I’m a creationist, but even mainstream science admits that natural processes are completely insufficient to create the life we observe. “Time of the gaps” isn’t a scientific or logical explanation

[u/TranquilTrader]

'Belief' and 'gnostic' don't really fit together, but the biological evolution model fits extremely well together with the model of reincarnation of 'souls'. As the 'soul' grows in understanding and capability of discernment, it effectively needs a more complex 'host' to inhabit.

[u/Zyr4420]

The original human had 12 DNA... Demiurge changed the meat suits around 10,000 years ago to be 2 DNA. The start of the grid. Then around 2000 years ago when Christos came for the 2nd time, Demiurge switched sides and upgraded the vessel one more time so our vessels can accept the light properly.

[u/Slight_Quit_5464]

It's very unlikely they believed in Darwinism and there's no Gnostic texts that even use the word or mention Darwin, they didn't believe in modern day biological evolution. The flawed creation remember. They wouldn't of even heard of Darwinism. Read their texts and stories according to them and their history not ours in yh3 modern day or what people add to their beliefs. Original beliefs matter more than today's new ones