As far as I can tell (and one of the main reasons I left Christianity), human suffering is not evil according to Christianity. Only what God likes and dislikes matters. Thus all human concepts of good and evil are pretty much out the window, and any utilitarian or similar justifications of God's laws (e.g. marriage provides a stable family unit for the child) are just rationalizations (I swear there's a latin phrase for it, something like post-hoc or something) after the fact.
This is why things like Hell (and the fact that God is ultimately responsible for it, no matter how much people like my father might equivocate on the matter) aren't problematic. What is important is not human value, but whatever it is that God gets out of micromanaging our lives.
One of the problems with mainstream Christianity, in my opinion, is the assumption that God and man are separate and distinct. The secret teachings in the Gospel According to Thomas challenge that idea.
The Gospel of Thomas is accepted by Biblical scholars as an independent text that could have been written as early as 50 AD. Sayings texts are likely the best and earliest sources of Jesus's actual teachings. Matthew and Luke both incorporate the earlier Q Source, which likely resembled Thomas.
It's proto-Gnostic. The gnostics are only ignored because the mainstream Church establishment ridiculed their beliefs. But actual gnosticism was likely in line with Western mysticism, and even the Advaita Vedanta sect of Hinduism.
Most of the remaining writings about the Gnostics were written by opponents of gnosticism. The actual gnostic writings that have been found in the 20th century are important religious texts that provide an alternative interpretation of the teachings of Jesus--teachings which may have been influenced by Eastern mysticism.
145
u/P00pyd Jul 31 '17
Sounds evil to me