If we link the flow of discussion to the initial topic, you could say that:

Bush is an idiotic, active-Satanist blood drinking Belgian.

LOL. The Masai have a staple diet of cows milk and blood which is the reference that Derf was mentioning.

Thats it. Cheers.

Since we are talking about christianity and satanism I have something interesting to add.

Does anyone know what gnostism is?

Well Ill tell you anyway. The short version is
gnostism is a old form of christianity.

They believed that the God that created the material unviverse is not the same God of everything. They thought, that there were 2 Gods, God the uncreated, spirit, good, and God the creator of earth and the "matter" in the universe.

The God the creator of the "matter" world is the God of the Old Testiment. And the God that Jesus preaches about is the true God, the spirit, with no form, and is complete and good.

The short version of the story of what happened is, God the original, spirit, created a group of "angels" so to speak that where also in sprirt form just like him/her(god is multi-gendered). They were called angels, Im just using that term for simplicity.

So, one of these angels lost sight of "the light" of the orginal true God and created an offspring for herself. This offspring ended up being God the creator of matter universe and since he (this god is masculine, with the head of a lion and the body of a serpant/or man not sure) thought that he just came into exisintance thought he was the real God and only God.

So what so interesting about this story?

The gnostic's believe that the serpent, in the garden of eden, was good, not bad. And he liberated Adam and Eve from their stupidity when he told them to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. See, God the creator of matter, wanted them to be stupid and just worship him.

But they believe Jesus Christ was trying to liberate the Jews and the rest of humanity also. By teaching the knowledge of the true God(the original).



Anyway I found it a really good read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic

Whats even moer interesting is if you read the lost gospels, this is what is taught, gnostism. And its also where Mary Magnelane is considered the main apostle of Christ.

Its also a strange thing that the Catholic church had that religion wiped out...

that's pretty interesting. Alot of strange things have happened with Christianity over the years. For instance, Christ died out sometime in the first century AD (I think everyone can agree on that one, assuming they admit Christ ever existed), but no real Christian writing have been recovered until several hundred years after that. At that point more Christian writing showed up, but the message was much changed.

Not to mention the church during the middle ages. All religious texts were in latin, which on the clergy could read, so the church had complete control of all religious texts and could've done anything they pleased. Trim a little here, add a little there, drop that story, add this other one...who knows.

The history of the Catholic church makes an interesting read, even for someone like me.

I could start a whole new thread on the catholic church and how it is really and extention of paganism but I dont feel like it right now.

I do believe Jesus(which isnt even his real name) exisited and no matter if he was the son of god and could heal people or not, his message is whats important. HIs life style and point of view in matters. Its possible part of his message has been changed. But there are certain parts of his message that are universal and resemble buddisa/taoism. Its his message of peace, loving your neighbor, peace with nature, being kind to others, charity, not being possesive to material items, etc, that are what is most important because you dont have to believe in God to understand that those things are good.

I think the most important thing jesus ever said and the most misunderstood thing he ever said was this

"the kingdom of God is within you" Luke 17:20.

This is partly why I don't mind most religions. They try and preach peace and a sense of community to people and some followers twist that.

Heh...I wrote a few papers on Gnosticism and even a part of my thesis was indirectly about it (the later work of Philip Dick is overtly Gnostic in its influences). So yes, I am (very) familiar with it. It's pretty neat and -at its time- very advanced.

For one thing they regarded women as equals (even superiors in a way) because they did not know heriditary sin because of the reason you mentioned. Which led to interesting situations when they went into debate with the Catholic church and the church's representatives refused to adress a woman. heh.

Anyhoo, most gnosticism we know of, including the anecdote I just mentioned, is from the Cathars. If you ever have a chance try to visit Montségur. The ruins, anyway. It's cool.


Ironically enough one of the most intruiging things about gnosticism is its lack of remaining texts. The Catholic church was véry thorough in destroying as much as they could of gnostic teachings, effectively wiping almost all traces left in Europe itself. And then they found the Nag Hammadi.

Blah...too much to talk about. Suffice to say: Gnosticism is interesting, if anything.

Interesting.
the Cathars where wiped out by the king of France at the time (under orders from the cathoic church). The castle where they where also housed the Knights Templar. There is a rumor that a few Cathars or Templars escaped the attack by scaling down the back rock faces to the castle. Supposedly when they escaped they had something with them(the holy grail, the lost gospels, or the secret of the grail).

Saw it on Discovery channel.