Being in your 30's is an odd thing. A decade ago I'd be out partying on a Friday night. Now I consider sitting in my kitchen with a couple of beers watching an academic video-essay about Gnosticism to be a great start to the weekend.
As someone in their 30's, I prefer to sit in my kitchen with a couple of beers watching an academic video-essay about Gnosticism... and then go party and tell people about Sabaoth. Always a great conversation starter.
The next time someone asks you 'how's life?', don't respond 'my experience has convinced Me that this universe could only be the product of a malevolent being'
"People said there had to be a Supreme being because otherwise how could the universe exist?" "But since the universe was a bit of a mess, it was obvious that the Supreme Being hadn't in fact made it. If he had made it he would, being Supreme, have made a much better job of it." "Or, to put it another way, the existence of a badly put-together watch proved the existence of a blind watchmaker." "This suggested that the Universe had probably been put together in a bit of a rush by an underling while the Supreme Being wasn't looking" -Terry Prachett "Small Gods"
Utter nonsense from a fool. The fact that we can measure the universe with math proves nothing is badly put-together. Everything had to be perfect for us to even be here. There's too many perfect consequences.
Dr. Sledge, really appreciate your take on all of this stuff. I feel like too many channels that get suggested to me by the algorithm are looking at gnostic christianity as a means to convert people and in all reality, I just want to learn about it objectively. Really appreciate your content. Keep it up!!
As a Catholic, an Esoterica fan, and a Neon Genesis Evangelion fan, whenever Eva is mentioned I have to pause and make sure I'm thinking of the right Evangelion.
Question. As a fan of this channel, how do you still believe in a god when he's discussed the origins of said god from combinations of other religions/deities?
@@H0n3yMonstah Good question and one I've grappled with on and off even before I watched the Yahweh episodes (the first one was my literal introduction to his channel which was recommended to me after I watched a Wendigoon video of all things.) I've always had a complicated relationship with God and religion in general but I've personally found no reason to antagonize Catholicism despite me various disagreements with it. Though iunno I don't feel too comfortable talking about my complicated feelings on it in a comments section. Do you have a Discord?
Love that you often use Blake for your scrolling images. Personal favorite when it comes to artists. Also grabbed that book from the library and looking forward to diving in. One of the main reasons I follow this channel is for all the great recommendations!
One thing that really intrigues me about the Gnostics and their Demiurge is how much of a parallel it has to quantum mechanics. The double-slit experiment directly shows that subatomic particles exist originally in a state of superposition, where some concepts are reversed - if there’s a glass of water on the table, i can pick it up, i can nudge the glass, i can drink it, i can knock it off the table shattering it, or do nothing at all. They’re just possibilities, the glass is still sitting stoically on the table now trying not to be nervous about my intentions. But in the quantum realm it’s quite literally reversed - those various possibilities are the “reality matrix” of the glass, without physically existing in any one of those states. That’s what the experiment directly shows but what that directly implies is that everything originally exists in such a state of “superposition”. Because, what is the macroscopic world if not trillions of layers of quantum-scale operations? It seems that the experiment effectively proves that, basically, the physical world is a second-order projection from a more primal state. There’s no “Demiurge” that I know of lurking in the equations but who knows, maybe the shifty bastard will pop out somewhere and give us all a good lighthearted scare.
More specifically, I think that that would constitute a parallel to Platonic idealism, i.e. to Plato's "theory of Forms", where all material objects are considered to merely be imperfect imitations of "Forms" that exist in a higher, "more real" transcendent realm. Of course, Gnosticism was definitely influenced by Platonic ideas - specifically Middle Platonism, as mentioned in this video.
@@platinumdragon3007 Well, true knowledge does come from reason it seems. The platonic forms come back to haunt us. Anyone who has taken any time to reason through existence has come to the same conclusion that there is more than what meets the eye. I’m not sure of much, but I am certain that what we experience as reality is about an accurate representation of the cosmos and his majesty eternity as the experiences of a gnat.
So God is the father of Satan and christ who are the reality matrix of this world That's a fun way to look at it So God is pure love and disgust flippy flopping and this rhythm of flippy flopping is generating time and the unfolding universe is shedding from the dance
I'd need you to connect to actual quantum mechanics not metaphors. Thr double slit shows wave propogation and interference... I think you're reaching much further than you are actually grasping.
As a practicing Buddhist…. This concept isn’t too far of a jump from my beliefs. I mean this place at times can feel like a Prison. Concepts like the Demiurgos or Archons aren’t that much of a leap….
Here in Japan I've been working on this English educational program for kids, and this year the theme is space. At the end of the work day, as I put away the decorations I've made that day, I noticed a very striking image of a giant green space worm I had placed on top of the sun. In that moment, I realized I had accidentally created the Demiurge.
@@ProbablyOnLSD69 Hahaha. Jokes aside, the true God itself never has created anything bad. It does not create, it emanates in alignment with the natural (neutral) state of infinity, which is goodness aka life. God is "good", it's in the word as well. Contrary to our conditioning and brainwashing since birth, God does not sit in sky, speak to humans in human made languages, judge people and hand out rewards and punishments of "hellfire" like some toddler tantrum. Only an imperfect and flawed being would create imperfect creations like humans and then literally judge them on said imperfections it created in the very first place. God has no imperfections. Otherwise it wouldn't be God. Only conscious beings have the "desire" to create anything, because they are lacking *something* within themselves, and are thus not aligned with their own piece of God within them. When you are apart of God, you are thus apart of everything (and nothing at the same), so you don't lack anything and have zero desires since you already know that you are everything. They (archonic beings and jinns) are devoid of God (goodness). The opposite of God, is Dog. The devilish Dog aka Demiurge who created the human body and all religions. Hence why Sirius is also called the "dog star" and its speculated that the Archons reside/come from Sirius. The "Dogon tribe" (yes that's their actual name) from Africa has immense knowledge of both Sirius A and B. They have a very interesting story and religion where eons ago beings from Sirius came and taught them. Our God source (the heart and its eye the pineal gland) has been trapped by the ego and Demiurgic mind or lizard brain quite literally. This is all by design by that demonic craftsman every religion is unknowingly worshipping. Us humans also suffer so much because we've been brainwashed to believe God is an external being and separate from us. Rather it is inside of us, and outside of us. We are in infinity, and infinity is in us.
If you watch a lot of David Lynch movies, the idea of a sinister/dark diety behind the scenes is very present in the storylines. I wonder if there's a connection to the Demiurge in some way. Lynch is a proponent of transcendental thought and it wouldn't surprise me if such an idea made it into his works.
Nah its best to learn about what millions and millions of other believe. Especially when they control certain aspects of society. Unless one wants to live like a monk in a cave we are bound to the system of control and it makes for more ease maneuvering throughout that system informed. @PatriarchOfCork
Good! It's a very fear based cult, probably one of the religions on the planet. I'm talking specifically about southern baptism, even though most of Christianity is a fear based cult, Baptists seem to be the worst of the worst IMO. Keep overcoming.
You haven't even encountered some of the weirdest stuff of Gnosticism. At least from a modern christian perspective. Lucifer is a distinct and opposed being to Satan and the Demiurge in some interpretations of Gnosticism.
It's like the idea of knowing you're going to mess up, but dad can fix it... I feel like demiurge is just another example of people trying to explain something they can't understand in it's fullness... Separating the image from the being is difficult, but the being is more than the image.
@@adinocc2042 gnostic teachings definitely have their high points. Take the -ism off and keep going... If you believe that you're truly eternal then there's a creator somewhere that made you that way with reason and for a purpose. If you were someone else outside of that purpose, you wouldn't be looking for Him/It or even trying to understand. Keep going.
What are your own personal beliefs? I don't think I've ever watched/listened/learned anything that was so intriguing. Not to mention so clearly spoken! Thank you for sharing and spreading this knowledge!
According to his personal website, prof. Justin Sledge considers himself part of the Jewish Reconstructonist movement. While at the same time, he does not believe in any Gods, at a personal level. Quoting from his FAQ section: "- Do you believe in God? I don't find the conception of god(s) either metaphysically convincing or mythologically desirable, i.e., I have no good reasons to think such beings exist and, given what I have learned about the lot of them, I hope none of them do. - What are your religious beliefs? Are you a rabbi? I am Jewish, belong to the Reconstructionist movement, and closely align myself with the teachings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, z”l. I’m not a rabbi but I am married to one".
It's always interesting to me when the people who study religions and different esoterica are atheists. Let alone married to a Rabbi (albeit Reconstruction)! What do they do with all the knowledge that many theists would love to have?!
Thank you Dr. Sledge! I feel Marcion was fundamentally right about the necessity to think about Christianity as an all new religion, independent of Judaism and its sacred texts. I feel it would have more sense than the final mix we had with the name of Catholicism, and then all the variety of Biblical "Christianity" we suffer right now.
I agree. Constantine and his priest class messed up by including parts of the Torah into the Christian Bible. They are incompatible. Marcion was too wise to be such a fool about this mistake. Likely Constantine thought that he could get more converts to Catholicism if he tried to blend the two faiths.
@@markrodriguez2132 I find it curious that people think that G-d is a racist that makes contracts with a small tribe in the Middle East and ignores the other 99% of the world's population. ""I LOVE YOUR TINY TRIBE MORE THAN ALL THE OTHER BEINGS ON THE PLANET."" Yeah, right.
@@markrodriguez2132 So you believe that G-d makes contracts with a tiny tribe from the eastern Mediterranean region to the exclusion of the other 99% of the people in the world? How nice. I would never assume that the all powerful would be a räçi$T. Interesting....
@@markrodriguez2132 Yes, I've heard the same hundreds of times until I realized it had no sense. Only empty words to justify the kidnapping of the Jewish sacred texts by the Christians, from a time when Christian proselytism was still carried out among Jewish people at the Roman empire, and it was necessary to demonstrate them through hermeneutics that Jesus was truly their expected Messiah.
i always feel the need to thank you. Information is so wide spread and hard to gather. Especially if you don't have a full overview / roadmap of what to do when and how
@@HappyHermitt Why would a Christian spend any time on the internet? Is that the ideal christian life? Why do people always ask absurd degrees of commitment from people with fringe views but not from people with common ones? It's ridiculous. No one ever embodies the picture-perfect stereotypical ideal version of their belief system.
@@PaulaHawk99 Socrates has a great argument about “care of the soul” before death because if there was nothing or nihil, then evil would get away with things upon death. So perhaps “Goodness” in your thoughts and actions and treatment of others, is the “way out.”
i think of the imbalance between pleasure and pain being evidence of a malevolent (mostly) creator of this place. the pain of being eaten alive outweighs the pleasure of eating something alive by staggeringly, exponentially more. pain is dreadfully easy to receive whereas pleasure is hopelessly fleeting. even neutral states become boring and thus painful if enough time passes.
Initially, I rejected this "demiurge" idea because I asked myself, "but what about the beauty in this world, or when Jesus worships the creator during the sermon on the mount?" but then I read it again, and I noticed he says "your heavenly Father", and he doesn't say "my heavenly father"... Very subtle. Could this really be true? Matthew 5 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how **God** clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith?"
Isn't that just an obvious result of evolution? Being injured reduces your fitness and thus ability to pass on your genes or help your relatives pass on theirs and dying makes it completely impossible for you to do so, meanwhile eating something just keeps you going. Therefore the incentive to avoid being maimed or dying would always end up being much higher than the incentive to just stay alive, otherwise we might do stupid things like eating our own limbs. It's just simple natural selection, an animal that is more strongly motivated to stay alive and unharmed is more likely to pass on its genes than one that is less motivated to do so. And you can't achieve the same with reward systems because if an animal was rewarded for avoiding harm then it would never be willing to risk harm in exchange for a greater reward, plus it's generally just simpler to figure out what you need to avoid to stay alive than it is to figure out what you need to seek.
Just picked up Dr Litwa's book. Read the first 30 pages or so and so far it's a great read. Actually like going back and forth with this episode and the book. Helps to grasp the idea presented.
@@TheEsotericaChannel if Ole Red/horned one WAS a hipster and thinks he is the ONE, then we got news for him, that there are others who think they're the ONE, and it's difficult to tell them apart in their perceived one and only-ness which is basically their loneliness because they can't seem to strike out and think outside of their self-built box/unable to not paint themselves into a corner/break out of their perceived reality prison. The Hipster curse. I suspect they never got to break their hip like the human Jacob did when the latter wrestled an angel. Would love to find the historical conceptualization of the levels of the soul and the four worlds of the Kabbalah and how the Daimon emerged as a concept in antiquity.
A very fascinating turn of events culminated into all of this. The early schisms between Christianity and Judaism compounded with pagan sentiments towards Judaism made way for a story involving Jesus that appeared in the last bit of the first century to have a line within it that people to this day couldn't come to agreement on whether it was about The Devil or a supposed Father of The Devil... Then a guy named Marcion, a Christian many call a heretic, showed up and saw the God of the OT as evil and the God of Christianity as good. Given the schisms present already and the amount of churches he had, people agreeing with him, he probably wasn't the first to have this idea but he certainly popularized it. Fascinating stuff... Considering all the people who were martyred by religious institutions for professing scientific truths, I see a very clear parallel here in how easy it is to read like Marcion with regard to just about everything in Abrahamic faith. People who professed a true knowledge of how things are, the Giordano Brunos of the world, who had truth ringing out long after their demises at the hands of religious institutions. I think that Marcion had the pattern correct but applied it in the wrong place. His true pattern was applied within the bounds of the heart hardening mechanism he discovered, this realm of subjectivity where anyone could have chimed in and said "No thanks. Anyone I don't like is The Devil and I don't like you." Then his ideas rang out through his detractors alone... This true pattern here cannot be erased, it's seemingly placed by the aeons as evidence for their power. All these institutions can do is carry The Devil in their words in response to truthful accusations, carry powerful illusions in their words by claiming these Giordano Brunos were Devils and all their undeniable truths were actually convincing lies. When confronted with Evolution they might carry powerful illusions and lies in their words by claiming dinosaur bones are a powerful illusion and a lie. I have sapped all of these words of their power, this is a vaccine of sorts so a mind's immune system may later detect them and combat them before they result in an infection. These institutions are indeed the source of all of these illusions. The natural laws, laws one is unable to defy in all encompassing fashion, purvey the entirety of all things. They predate theories such as The Big Bang because these theories are constructed with them in mind. They are seemingly atemporal, primordial, without a creator. Any egregore borne of human fragility owes itself to these laws, these laws that allowed words of both the OT and the NT to be carried with conviction. There is seemingly only one inerrant verse to quote in the entirety of all things, and that is the universe. The universe allowed for every verse to be uttered, for every false lie with true implications. At the end of the day the world is only positive on truth, it never goes into negative. These Abrahamic deities are deeply flawed. I'm hesitant to call them evil because my morality is relative to objectives. Essentially, what is practical for achieving an objective is good and what is impractical is bad. Each individual likely has a separate objective that may be similar, and can only have one objective at a time. Those objectives may oscillate very quickly and might construct the illusion of something simultaneously being bad and good, but only if one is multiple people at the same time is there such a thing... and I consider that an impossibility. There are multiple exogoods and exobads, exoneutrals even, but there is only one good at a given moment. If they do exactly what I expect them to, then they're good... That's a whole spiel though, very inspiring video. Thanks for another banger Dr. Sledge.
i got a copy of that book mentioned in part I - Facing the Abusing God, and I don't think I can get through it. It's just too difficult a read. But what I've got from it so far is that it is suggested that God is beyond ethics, therefor is under no obligation to behave ethically, yet is still perfect and good in all things. I recall something like this from my southern Baptist upbringing and remember thinking how awful that sounded. One moment he might be blessing you, the next he forces you to sin and then ends your life, and judges you to be unworthy and off to hekk with you. Jesus was supposed to come in at some point and somehow make that better.
Great Episode! You should look at the Mandaean version. The light being (demiurge) is called Ptahil. (Coincidently the creator god of the Memphis triad in Egypt is called Ptah. This god thought in his heart and spoke everything into being). Ptahil with the seven demons, (children of Ruha, the seven planets, the old Mesopotamian gods) out of clay creates Adam. Adam did not live until his soul (and the souls of all humans) is delivered from the light world. Waiting for the episode about us Mandaeans. 😊
Given that you're wonderful religion is still very active and given that I only cover historical stuff I probably won't cover it anytime soon. Not for lack of admiration but because this channel covers historical topics and you're amazing religion is very much not mere history
@@TheEsotericaChannel It would definitely give some historical insights, but I understand that it might be sensitive to discuss a still living tradition.
For some reason whenever I see Mandaean baptism or read prayers from the Qolasta I end up crying profusely. Theres some unexplainable beauty to it. One of my favorite prayers would have to be “prayer of the witnesses at the Jordan”
There is no normal version. There are many brands of Christianity and Judaism throughout history and the world. Two thousand years provides countless examples.
@@iatebambismom He did a video on the Pistis Sophia. It could be argued that in Gnosticism or in some forms of western Kabbalah or occultism it meets your criteria. Is Satanism a subset of Christianity or Judaism? What kind of God does Job have in his book in OT?
I'm a Christian. Although not a religious one. And I think Marcion has some great points, if you read the Torah literally. BUT... I think we should read it using its symbolic meaning (the various degrees of them). I have jewish ancestry, and I don't know how people can read all those texts in a literal sense (we can... using historical context, but...). And, part of the old testment is also inspired by other myths and legends of the old. So... yeah... I'm a Christian who believes in the moral/spiritual values and massage of Christ, but i'm also a Christian who understands that I don't know a lot of the symbolic meaning retained in these old texts. I think we can find some astrological correspondences with all the myths/legends/messages/symbols presented to us in the scriptures. And maybe that's why they are so relatable to us all. Oh... and thank you for your work. And also - not relatable-, but you have a very sexy voice😊.
" GOD" can only be good, fore the creation of the internet has been allowed to exist Which has allowed access to such fabulous academia as has been so expertly presented here for heretics (me)or other. Great work Dr. Sledge.
If our direct creator is not God, then I think it's reasonable to assume our direct creator is imperfect. That wouldn't make this creator evil though imo. Maybe our direct creator is learning and trying to make a better creation each iteration using information obtained from previous iterations. As a software engineer, I can't even begin to imagine how complicated and challenging programming an entire realty could be. I doubt I could do even a fraction as good a job as the one who directly created all of this. An interesting question to ponder: Why does our direct creator have to be 100% perfect and who are we to demand that? If God is allowing this being to create, then I'm sure not going to question it.
The demiurge is evil because it has all the urges of the heavenly beings in the Plural while being unable to participate. It’s therefore super resentful and petty about that fact.
What a fascinating couple lectures! Listening to these lectures, along with alot of other professors have encouraged me to join Peterson Academy, where I can listen to even more lectures at work and work toward a certification other than my construction experience. Thank you so much for all the fascinating lectures and the time spent putting them together.
You are a beast of esoteric knowledge. Furthermore… you seem to have an uncanny perspective void of bias with a great sense of dry humor.🤣Love it brotha!
I love the channel. One of my favorite non-rot channels. But here's a rot question: what happens when a myth or religion gets RetConed? How do the previous beliefs get expunged?
I'm not entirely sure why but this video was very therapeutic. iirc the subconscious has been debunked? either way, I can't even exactly tell precisely why this video resulted in that. I just felt a weight off my shoulders and a sense of recognition of a certain belief I'd been carrying with me for most of my life and just don't really need to any more. Thanks Mate!
I'd love a copy of "Hipster Satan is judging your taste in music". That image is so meme-worthy. It's also from a most-excellent illumination. What manuscript is the image from?
31:18/32:10 - Maybe I'm just seeing weird connections but listening to Doc Sledge talk about Marcion's interpretation, makes me think of these lyrics from a Yakuza game of all things: We're breakin' the law! Breakin' the world, together! (Breakin' the world) Throwing out all tenderness! We're breakin' the rules! No cause, no choice, no going back to how it was! (Breakin' the world) No slowin' down because We'll keep our heads high, our fists raised 'till we die We're livin' by our own judgement!
Japanese RPGs are well-memed as always finding an excuse to "attack and dethrone God". Kiryu's rebellion against authority by means of being incredibly principled is not actually different from that. (And the Amon clan is obviously supernatural, like, come on.)
@@Duiker36 you should check out Moon Channel's take on Why you kill Gods in JRPGs. It's actually a pretty deep and surprisingly nuanced take; citing the powers that be and foreign influence taking the form of "Gods" that Japanese creatives are trying to encourage the youth to challenge in their fictions.
I have a theory that if you talk long enough to a Catholic, they'll admit to at least one heresy (according to Roman doctrine). Lately I'm thinking of adding: if you talk long enough to a Catholic, they'll admit to being at least a little bit gnostic.
I'm curious. If the Gnostics saw the god of the Old Testament as an evil being, how was it that they lived alongside and practiced within the churches of other Christians? I would think they wouldn't think very highly of their counterparts worshipping the demiurge.
I think, too that we forget that Jesus needed someone who would turn him in. Judas was CHOSEN by Jesus to rat him out. We look at Judas as a traitor but, he, in fact was Jesus's MVP. How could he martyr himself if everyone harbored Him? The show must go on! Decades ago I told people, if you're Christian. Stay out of the Old Testiment (obviously read it, but don't try to study it as scripture because it's not Christian scripture. It informs Christian scripture, but it's written for the people Chosen by the Creator of this realm to essentially help the Creator of the Cosmos and everything in it in creating the conditions necessary for the ascension the human soul and spirit. Through this rendering, we become unoccluded pure gems. Through coming back as volunteers (Bodhisattvas, healers, etc) we eventually all get caught again while here and thus light escapes a black hole and that allows for the endless peristaltic inhale and exhale of the ebb and Flo of the flotsam and jetsam in the xylum and phloum of eternal existence. @@TheEsotericaChannel
@@sovereignbrehon yea makes wonder is judas rosting forever in hell or rewarded for the actions? seems scrwed up if it was Gods plan but that required someone to suffer eternaly?
Gnostics didn't see the God of the Old Testament as evil they rejected the concept of the Old Testament portraying a single deity so there was no THE god to see as evil. Marcionites on the other hand are alleged to have been completely seperate from other Christians.
@@AC-dk4fp - I think one would be hard pressed to reach that conclusion if they have read the Gnostic creation myths discussed in this and the previous video.
Interesting. I felt that this "world" was a prison of sorts decades back. The whole of Earth feels like a sort of Cosmic Australia where many forms of life have been brought that do not necessarily belong. Notice how all of Life endures suffering from birth through to its finality. If there was a benevolent creator why would their entire system necessitate pain and suffering for all living things?
@@JimmyMatis-h9yI find it that people that are Antinatalist themselves can easily believe into Gnosticism it can follow up with Christianity that we’re living in the Devil’s kingdom which entails suffering and to lead to salvation we have to walk hand to hand into extinction. But anyway antinatalism is insane philosophy and not going to happen.
Another amazing presentation! Thank you Dr. Sledge. The late great Jos. Campbell wrote an essay 'No More Horizons' in which he talks about the obsoletion of what he called the "monster over the hill" answer used by peoples to explain the ills that befall their societies, making the point that there were no more horizons in the modern world to conceal the imaginary monsters. No longer can "the Jews", or any other monster, be blamed for the myriad ills plaguing the dying religions of today. We are living in a time that Campbell termed the 'conflagration of cultures', out of which would arise the next great religion. He said his biggest regret was his inability to stay alive to see the new global religion that will manifest. I've no doubt that this new great religion will be founded by divinely gifted minds of men and women such as you, Dr. Sledge. In fact, it's not hard for me to imagine that you could be one of the - if not the - founder of this great religion. And that's no joke.
While i appreciate someone trying to explain these things based on the way they were written, i find it hard to accept that we're left again and again with this good vs evil concept, and life, love, growth, and our bonds with others in life is always glazed over because the squeaky wheel got the grease... Sometimes I feel like we've been eating from the wrong tree.
@@nvbl2806 personally, and I just say this personally, I think it's crystal clear, I prefer not to try to bamboozle and instead focus on doing good in order to get good results, first because it forces reality checks to what we think is good, which is essential to avoid ending up doing all the sort of things which have marred faith through history, and secondly because good is no longer some abstract dependent on miracles and divine will but the work of men and that's plural on purpose, we rely on each other if we want things to work.
@@nvbl2806 is not sending a calamity upon a people a moral evil. For example if I could create a tsunami that killed thousands, would you say I had no moral responsibility?
This is just plain pleasure to listen to a real scholar on a mystic subject, much more than viewing some entertainer fantasy movie. What is interesting to me, is the idea of malevolent demiurge did not hold with the Jews, there is no single stream in Judaism with such a concept. Probably the reason is that a faith is something people need for optimistic reasons, even the Christian version of the evil God replaces it with updated benevolent version of Christ. It is interesting what kind of values such faith will develop in its followers if it was worshiped as a concept.
These Demiurge videos are over the top fascinating. (Perhaps because the idea of evil creator fits with my impression of the god of the Old Testament. 😊) Thank you! I’ll skip buying my lunch for a couple of weeks, I just had to have Litwa’s book. 😂Always enjoy your videos. Again, thank you.
Wouldn’t Marcion and the idea of the Demiurge be exemplary of (1) (a lot of) humanity’s tendency to “other-ise” anything that they can’t reconcile and/or 2) being unable to “square” the reputation of (a) “good” God with actions that can only be perceived as evil leading to a pessimistic/nihillistic view on the circumstances of life? A few points in this vid stuck out to me that led to the above question: - the way people demonize other people’s beliefs is a two way road… ie early Christian’s and their writings shows not as clear a distinction between their identity as Christian’s vs Jews. Perhaps this is a bit rough as a description but at that time there were Jews… and heretical/borderline heretical Jews (now known as Christians) depending on who you asked. How you get from this to the Christian persecution of Jews during the inquisition is History playing out from human tendency. At first the heretical Jews were ostracised by the branch it came from. Come the time of the Hebrew rebellions against the Roman’s, the Jews and Christian Hebrews/Israelites (I don’t know how best to refer to them) were unified in their efforts towards the Roman occupiers until the Jews declared one of its leaders (I think Barak) messiah, which was contrary to the Christian hebrews belief, who subsequently abandoned cooperation. Enemies become Frenemies become Enemies … - there seems to be a American evangelical Christian view underpinning the inability to square actions of God in Old Testament vs New. Rather than continuity, the view is Jesus is a reboot of what came before. - perhaps I misunderstood the latter part of the video, but if Marcion’s ideas of Jewish God Bad Christian God Good came from an understanding Jesus destroyed the old law, then perhaps he didn’t see all the scriptures. Book of Matthew has Jesus saying he came to fulfill the law not destroy it and from memory the letters of Paul do not contradict this when read in context… though I have seen translations of “abolish the law” when taking the verses one by one…. Contextually, especially in light of Matthew, it doesn’t square… and could be part of Marcion’s problem. - lastly, re John 8:44, if that was problematic for Marcion and others with similar thoughts, they need to backup and read the full exchange of who was being spoken to, how they thought of themselves and then why they were referred as their father being Satan. Tip: it wasn’t because they were Jews or a reference to a separation/distinction between gods. It would be a sad circumstance if this also contributed to that line of thinking as born of a terrible misunderstanding. Therefore, while I’m not firm on the idea, I can understand why Marcion’s ideas would be rejected for a … certain type of laziness… like the lack of effort to see ‘good’ in something (ie the consistency of Old vs New Testament perceptions of God rather than the inconsistency). If the idea of the demiurged is birthed out of hate for the Jews due to past tensions and conflicts and seemingly justified through a misunderstanding of scripture, then the demiurge is indeed a sad idea (not lame - cuz it’s metal as anything - but truly sad) I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed and rewound this a lot as I tried to understand the points… so maybe I have missed the point, to which I am very open to hearing counter points.
Agreed! My thirst for knowledge is never quenched! I found this channel researching who was Lilith and why she was not mentioned in the KJV bible, next thing I knew, it was 6 hours later 😂
I can very much appriciate your neutral and objective aproach to theological mysteries! I watched part 1 and 2 of this series and have some remarks. All the scriptures and accounts you lay out, are in line with the idea that at least the abrahamic religions were derived through the following of the patreon god of ivrahim who let himself be known as yehova (ivrahim interrestingly enough being of mesopatamian origin). And yehova probably being one of the pantheon of rivaling and related gods that all civilisations seemed to commonly worship beforehand, perhaps ante-deluvial. I cant help but note though, from a historical perspective, (at the risk of sounding anti-'semitic', and I do appoligize in advance), I wonder rather or not the exodus was an example of jewish colonists (mainly from greece) being expulsed because of too succesfull attainment of land and lending and pawning of goods and coinage with excessive interest, which they allegedly would have practiced in Egypt. Moses having been of a certain 'divine' lineage and having been taken in by the Pharaonic court as a prince of their own, does suggest that there was a complex and rivalling interconnection between 'royal' families and cultures. This may not be true though, or may not have been practiced particulairly by the jewish people, but rather blamed on them. After all this contradicts the idea that the jews where slave-labourors incapable of leaving Egypt. Besides that, I wonder about the meaning of deities being animal-headed in the egyptian hieroglyphs. Could it be that the kind of animal indicated certain characteristics or qualities that came with the alloted role or performed tasks of each god. So as to arrive at the notion that Seth was the god in charge of labour, donkey's being the animal that bares the load of work. Again, I am sorry if I offend anyone by entertaining the notion of expulsion because of excessive usury, rather than exodus by order of their lord yahwee. Offending is not my intention, exchanging knowledge is. Very much open to (constructive😅) feedback! Thank you for your work! This stuff is fascinating!❤
As a fellow Jew, this one made me sad. Every time you paused for "the jews" everybody round here thought that was funny. I just felt the weight of all that tragedy and blood shed weigning on me more and more. עד שימחה ה' דמעה מעל כל פנים
Hey Dr Sledge, at 11:20 minutes in or so there is a graphic drawing displaying Paul (I Guess) but why is there a subdued pyramid in the background? Interesting at the least.
The concept of an architect God, either "evil" or simply mechanical in its functionality, may be older than we normally consider. The dualism aspect however seems to come to the front during ancient gnosticism, made fundamental during early Christian gnositicsm. The pneuma concept, as well as the emanations from the Monad, makes concept such as angel and Gods difficult to seperate. At any event, wisdom was the lack of complete understanding, and Sophia is thus the cause of Yaldabaoth, the aborted God of the material, a crude emanation of the divine ruled by a blind God. Interesting stuff.
10:38 "This is the game of «everyone I don't like is the devil» (...) We still play that game, «everyone I don't like is fascist, or communist or woke or whatever»." Even here, where a very niche subject is studied, I get how important History is to inform us about the current times. Edit: Damn, I speak too early, what comes next is more important.
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Hey you said that your merch was black metal themed. Do you listen to black metal?
This Subject Should
Never Have
A FINAL EPISODE/ SEGMENT.
🤘🤘🤘
Being in your 30's is an odd thing. A decade ago I'd be out partying on a Friday night. Now I consider sitting in my kitchen with a couple of beers watching an academic video-essay about Gnosticism to be a great start to the weekend.
@@charlieboone1298 we need to start an esoterica watch party on Fridays through zoom! Who's down?
Age tends to cause partying lifestyle to feel much less fulfilling 🙂
Yeah, just wait 😂
As someone in their 30's, I prefer to sit in my kitchen with a couple of beers watching an academic video-essay about Gnosticism... and then go party and tell people about Sabaoth. Always a great conversation starter.
I'm 27 and I'm already like that lol
The next time someone asks you 'how's life?', don't respond 'my experience has convinced Me that this universe could only be the product of a malevolent being'
Honesty is the best policy lol jk
R’lyeh Chtulu!😂
@@louisnemzer6801 but I must….😤
But the look on their face could be pretty good.
I'm absolutely stealing that line
"People said there had to be a Supreme being because otherwise how could the universe exist?"
"But since the universe was a bit of a mess, it was obvious that the Supreme Being hadn't in fact made it. If he had made it he would, being Supreme, have made a much better job of it."
"Or, to put it another way, the existence of a badly put-together watch proved the existence of a blind watchmaker."
"This suggested that the Universe had probably been put together in a bit of a rush by an underling while the Supreme Being wasn't looking"
-Terry Prachett "Small Gods"
Utter nonsense from a fool. The fact that we can measure the universe with math proves nothing is badly put-together. Everything had to be perfect for us to even be here. There's too many perfect consequences.
That’s a Terry Pratchett quote good sir
He writes comedy and he is possibly the best to ever do it
So show some respect
@@lochnessmonster5149 It’s a joke 😂
@@lochnessmonster5149 Even if it wasn't a joke, if a vehicles chassis is sound, but the other components are faulty, you still have a lemon
@@lochnessmonster5149What about the horrific parasites and diseases?
Very demiurgic of you to make us wait this long for part 2!
I'd say pretty....what tf really....I mean WHY? Good grief.
not very pleroma of u bro
Dr. Sledge, really appreciate your take on all of this stuff. I feel like too many channels that get suggested to me by the algorithm are looking at gnostic christianity as a means to convert people and in all reality, I just want to learn about it objectively. Really appreciate your content. Keep it up!!
Yeah we just educate around here, no preaching
As a Catholic, an Esoterica fan, and a Neon Genesis Evangelion fan, whenever Eva is mentioned I have to pause and make sure I'm thinking of the right Evangelion.
😊😅 same as an Orthodox, Esoterica, Evangelion fan.
Question. As a fan of this channel, how do you still believe in a god when he's discussed the origins of said god from combinations of other religions/deities?
@@H0n3yMonstah Good question and one I've grappled with on and off even before I watched the Yahweh episodes (the first one was my literal introduction to his channel which was recommended to me after I watched a Wendigoon video of all things.)
I've always had a complicated relationship with God and religion in general but I've personally found no reason to antagonize Catholicism despite me various disagreements with it. Though iunno I don't feel too comfortable talking about my complicated feelings on it in a comments section. Do you have a Discord?
Evangelion mentioned 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ what the fuck is going on?? 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ Am i worth anything 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
@@coalgolem4697 I will say that the tree of life stuff at End of Evangelion started making sense after I started watching esoterica LMAO
Love that you often use Blake for your scrolling images. Personal favorite when it comes to artists. Also grabbed that book from the library and looking forward to diving in. One of the main reasons I follow this channel is for all the great recommendations!
Maybe Blake should be thought of as a Lost Gnostic.
One thing that really intrigues me about the Gnostics and their Demiurge is how much of a parallel it has to quantum mechanics. The double-slit experiment directly shows that subatomic particles exist originally in a state of superposition, where some concepts are reversed - if there’s a glass of water on the table, i can pick it up, i can nudge the glass, i can drink it, i can knock it off the table shattering it, or do nothing at all. They’re just possibilities, the glass is still sitting stoically on the table now trying not to be nervous about my intentions.
But in the quantum realm it’s quite literally reversed - those various possibilities are the “reality matrix” of the glass, without physically existing in any one of those states.
That’s what the experiment directly shows but what that directly implies is that everything originally exists in such a state of “superposition”. Because, what is the macroscopic world if not trillions of layers of quantum-scale operations? It seems that the experiment effectively proves that, basically, the physical world is a second-order projection from a more primal state.
There’s no “Demiurge” that I know of lurking in the equations but who knows, maybe the shifty bastard will pop out somewhere and give us all a good lighthearted scare.
More specifically, I think that that would constitute a parallel to Platonic idealism, i.e. to Plato's "theory of Forms", where all material objects are considered to merely be imperfect imitations of "Forms" that exist in a higher, "more real" transcendent realm. Of course, Gnosticism was definitely influenced by Platonic ideas - specifically Middle Platonism, as mentioned in this video.
@@platinumdragon3007
Well, true knowledge does come from reason it seems. The platonic forms come back to haunt us. Anyone who has taken any time to reason through existence has come to the same conclusion that there is more than what meets the eye. I’m not sure of much, but I am certain that what we experience as reality is about an accurate representation of the cosmos and his majesty eternity as the experiences of a gnat.
So God is the father of Satan and christ who are the reality matrix of this world
That's a fun way to look at it
So God is pure love and disgust flippy flopping and this rhythm of flippy flopping is generating time and the unfolding universe is shedding from the dance
So basically what you're telling us is that you're Schrodinger's cat, always trying to knock the glass off the table? The glass is Seneca?
I'd need you to connect to actual quantum mechanics not metaphors. Thr double slit shows wave propogation and interference... I think you're reaching much further than you are actually grasping.
As a practicing Buddhist….
This concept isn’t too far of a jump from my beliefs.
I mean this place at times can feel like a Prison.
Concepts like the Demiurgos or Archons aren’t that much of a leap….
It's almost like multiple theologies circle around one great truth!
@@Stig92 and the faiths that have the opposing view?
Where can i learn about the bhavacakra (wheel of life)? Any books you recommend?
The leading modern theory is not that the physical universe is a prison, but the earth itself. And a certain group of people act as its warden.
@@Zugetzu "leading modern theory" lmfao
Whenever I hear "Demiurge", I instantly think Messugah! which is coincidentally one of my favorite bands.
"Just trust this, nemesis, to sign and seal extinction"
I cast summon Dire Bear
The best part of that story is just specific all the details are. Really makes for a good bears mauling children story.
Awesome to see you two connecting on any capacity. Your sharing of the Wandering of Ulysses by Taylor, was superb material.
Thou shan’t shame a bald man - God, probably
“Bald ass motherfucker…”
- Those kids, 10 seconds before, probably.
Here in Japan I've been working on this English educational program for kids, and this year the theme is space. At the end of the work day, as I put away the decorations I've made that day, I noticed a very striking image of a giant green space worm I had placed on top of the sun. In that moment, I realized I had accidentally created the Demiurge.
Who amongst hasn’t accidentally created the demiurge a time or two?
@@ProbablyOnLSD69 Hahaha. Jokes aside, the true God itself never has created anything bad. It does not create, it emanates in alignment with the natural (neutral) state of infinity, which is goodness aka life. God is "good", it's in the word as well. Contrary to our conditioning and brainwashing since birth, God does not sit in sky, speak to humans in human made languages, judge people and hand out rewards and punishments of "hellfire" like some toddler tantrum. Only an imperfect and flawed being would create imperfect creations like humans and then literally judge them on said imperfections it created in the very first place. God has no imperfections. Otherwise it wouldn't be God. Only conscious beings have the "desire" to create anything, because they are lacking *something* within themselves, and are thus not aligned with their own piece of God within them. When you are apart of God, you are thus apart of everything (and nothing at the same), so you don't lack anything and have zero desires since you already know that you are everything. They (archonic beings and jinns) are devoid of God (goodness). The opposite of God, is Dog. The devilish Dog aka Demiurge who created the human body and all religions. Hence why Sirius is also called the "dog star" and its speculated that the Archons reside/come from Sirius. The "Dogon tribe" (yes that's their actual name) from Africa has immense knowledge of both Sirius A and B. They have a very interesting story and religion where eons ago beings from Sirius came and taught them. Our God source (the heart and its eye the pineal gland) has been trapped by the ego and Demiurgic mind or lizard brain quite literally. This is all by design by that demonic craftsman every religion is unknowingly worshipping. Us humans also suffer so much because we've been brainwashed to believe God is an external being and separate from us. Rather it is inside of us, and outside of us. We are in infinity, and infinity is in us.
Budget Neon Genesis Evangelion.
I appreciate how you present topics without bias and immerse yourself in the subject matter as if you truly believe in it
He doesn't believe, he knows
You mean he gnos.
@@antonyroberts4438
The look around the room as you say “cosmic warden of this prison” is chilling 🙇
Great. We're a project of lower management. Sounds about right.
It was great working with you.
This one cracked me up, thank you 😂
Ol Yaldy Baldy at it again
Hahaha ha I nearly spat my drink at this Yaldy Baldy lmfao
This comment had me folded over at work lmao
Y'alldabaoth
Marcion Class - bc-6561.freshlearn.com/introducing-Marcion
use code ESOTERICA10 for 20% off this course!
Sláinte
Everyone I hate is the devil. Put that on a shirt and I’d buy it.
If you watch a lot of David Lynch movies, the idea of a sinister/dark diety behind the scenes is very present in the storylines. I wonder if there's a connection to the Demiurge in some way. Lynch is a proponent of transcendental thought and it wouldn't surprise me if such an idea made it into his works.
This is common below all religions.
I mean, the characters are, in fact, trapped within a physical matter created by an evil demon. We call it "the director".
Just like the matrix
Deconstructing from a strict southern Baptist upbringing. I find your videos fascinating!💜
You're going in the wrong direction.
Nah its best to learn about what millions and millions of other believe. Especially when they control certain aspects of society. Unless one wants to live like a monk in a cave we are bound to the system of control and it makes for more ease maneuvering throughout that system informed. @PatriarchOfCork
Good! It's a very fear based cult, probably one of the religions on the planet. I'm talking specifically about southern baptism, even though most of Christianity is a fear based cult, Baptists seem to be the worst of the worst IMO. Keep overcoming.
@@PatriarchOfCorkvery compelling! Wow!
Best of luck. I guess you know about 'The Line' an others already. Be kind to yourself.
Satan: "I'm not the Demiurge, I'm the Demiurge's son. I'm only Demiurging until the Demiurge comes.😂
You haven't even encountered some of the weirdest stuff of Gnosticism. At least from a modern christian perspective. Lucifer is a distinct and opposed being to Satan and the Demiurge in some interpretations of Gnosticism.
It's like the idea of knowing you're going to mess up, but dad can fix it... I feel like demiurge is just another example of people trying to explain something they can't understand in it's fullness... Separating the image from the being is difficult, but the being is more than the image.
@@dannturbo I think you may have something there.
@@timothystamm3200 I look forward to learning more about Gnosticism
@@adinocc2042 gnostic teachings definitely have their high points. Take the -ism off and keep going... If you believe that you're truly eternal then there's a creator somewhere that made you that way with reason and for a purpose. If you were someone else outside of that purpose, you wouldn't be looking for Him/It or even trying to understand. Keep going.
I agree, we are in prison. But fortunately your episodes are a peek out the window if there were one.
'Peek.' Just sayin'... lol
Peep is a better word 😈
Yes. You nailed it !
What are your own personal beliefs? I don't think I've ever watched/listened/learned anything that was so intriguing. Not to mention so clearly spoken! Thank you for sharing and spreading this knowledge!
Check his personal website. That one comes in the FAQ. 😊
Bro wears the hat of The “Chosen”. Unless he’s mocking them, fair to say he’s Jewish.
According to his personal website, prof. Justin Sledge considers himself part of the Jewish Reconstructonist movement. While at the same time, he does not believe in any Gods, at a personal level.
Quoting from his FAQ section:
"- Do you believe in God?
I don't find the conception of god(s) either metaphysically convincing or mythologically desirable, i.e., I have no good reasons to think such beings exist and, given what I have learned about the lot of them, I hope none of them do.
- What are your religious beliefs? Are you a rabbi?
I am Jewish, belong to the Reconstructionist movement, and closely align myself with the teachings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, z”l. I’m not a rabbi but I am married to one".
It's always interesting to me when the people who study religions and different esoterica are atheists. Let alone married to a Rabbi (albeit Reconstruction)! What do they do with all the knowledge that many theists would love to have?!
Thank you Dr. Sledge! I feel Marcion was fundamentally right about the necessity to think about Christianity as an all new religion, independent of Judaism and its sacred texts. I feel it would have more sense than the final mix we had with the name of Catholicism, and then all the variety of Biblical "Christianity" we suffer right now.
I agree. Constantine and his priest class messed up by including parts of the Torah into the Christian Bible. They are incompatible. Marcion was too wise to be such a fool about this mistake. Likely Constantine thought that he could get more converts to Catholicism if he tried to blend the two faiths.
Is is not though. Jesus came to fulfill the old law in The New Covenant...which is based on the old one.
@@markrodriguez2132
I find it curious that people think that G-d is a racist that makes contracts with a small tribe in the Middle East and ignores the other 99% of the world's population.
""I LOVE YOUR TINY TRIBE MORE THAN ALL THE OTHER BEINGS ON THE PLANET.""
Yeah, right.
@@markrodriguez2132
So you believe that G-d makes contracts with a tiny tribe from the eastern Mediterranean region to the exclusion of the other 99% of the people in the world? How nice. I would never assume that the all powerful would be a räçi$T. Interesting....
@@markrodriguez2132 Yes, I've heard the same hundreds of times until I realized it had no sense. Only empty words to justify the kidnapping of the Jewish sacred texts by the Christians, from a time when Christian proselytism was still carried out among Jewish people at the Roman empire, and it was necessary to demonstrate them through hermeneutics that Jesus was truly their expected Messiah.
Nice, been waiting months for this!
This channel is truly a gem. Sorry, i can be "backbiting."
Your erudition is something to aspire towards
love the pause between every iteration of "...The Jews"
I kept imagining how things would have turned out if this was adopted as the orthodox view / the parallel universe equivalent of the catholic church
Even More Antisemitism would probably be an unpleasant consequence. Hopefully it wouldn’t get too bad.
Pause for the algorithm. The father of the devil...
i always feel the need to thank you. Information is so wide spread and hard to gather. Especially if you don't have a full overview / roadmap of what to do when and how
This reminds me of the simulation hypothesis that states that our universe is a simulation. The architect of this simulation can certainly be evil.
Yes and we are breaking out of the matrix all at once.. what a time to be alive 🎉
Holodeck try to escape room
I'm personally a big fan of stories involving evil AIs so this is right up my alley.
As a Gnostic, I was just watching the other videos yesterday! Thank you!
😂
A gnostic wouldn't be on RUclips or even an internet device.
But ok.
I find it interesting too.
@@HappyHermitt And why is that? Everyone doesn't have to follow something set in stone. There are many different types of Gnostics.
I consider myself a gnostic because i read believe and am blessed to read the gnostic gospels and text and kjv bible
@@HappyHermitt Why would a Christian spend any time on the internet? Is that the ideal christian life? Why do people always ask absurd degrees of commitment from people with fringe views but not from people with common ones? It's ridiculous. No one ever embodies the picture-perfect stereotypical ideal version of their belief system.
This is a dreadful Prison.
The question is:
How do we get out of it?
Are we captured at death, and recycled?
Thank you.
@@PaulaHawk99 Socrates has a great argument about “care of the soul” before death because if there was nothing or nihil, then evil would get away with things upon death. So perhaps “Goodness” in your thoughts and actions and treatment of others, is the “way out.”
Don't go towards the light, exit samsara
Choose now that you won't come back. Make a declaration
@@Stig92unless you can lucid dream, it's an unconscious process
@@Stig92 where does the dark go to?
Isaiah 45
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
i think of the imbalance between pleasure and pain being evidence of a malevolent (mostly) creator of this place. the pain of being eaten alive outweighs the pleasure of eating something alive by staggeringly, exponentially more. pain is dreadfully easy to receive whereas pleasure is hopelessly fleeting. even neutral states become boring and thus painful if enough time passes.
Initially, I rejected this "demiurge" idea because I asked myself, "but what about the beauty in this world, or when Jesus worships the creator during the sermon on the mount?" but then I read it again, and I noticed he says "your heavenly Father", and he doesn't say "my heavenly father"... Very subtle. Could this really be true?
Matthew 5 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how **God** clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith?"
@same5songseveryday ❤
@@same5songseveryday To me this sounds a lot like Zen Buddhism, also my favorite words of Christ.
Isn't that just an obvious result of evolution? Being injured reduces your fitness and thus ability to pass on your genes or help your relatives pass on theirs and dying makes it completely impossible for you to do so, meanwhile eating something just keeps you going. Therefore the incentive to avoid being maimed or dying would always end up being much higher than the incentive to just stay alive, otherwise we might do stupid things like eating our own limbs. It's just simple natural selection, an animal that is more strongly motivated to stay alive and unharmed is more likely to pass on its genes than one that is less motivated to do so. And you can't achieve the same with reward systems because if an animal was rewarded for avoiding harm then it would never be willing to risk harm in exchange for a greater reward, plus it's generally just simpler to figure out what you need to avoid to stay alive than it is to figure out what you need to seek.
Just picked up Dr Litwa's book. Read the first 30 pages or so and so far it's a great read. Actually like going back and forth with this episode and the book. Helps to grasp the idea presented.
Hipster Satan playing the long game?
Always, drinking PBR and listening to Weakling demos
Time for some Gnostic Drone Metal?
😂@@TheEsotericaChannel
hipster satan sounds like a lil trickster😅😅
@@TheEsotericaChannel if Ole Red/horned one WAS a hipster and thinks he is the ONE, then we got news for him, that there are others who think they're the ONE, and it's difficult to tell them apart in their perceived one and only-ness which is basically their loneliness because they can't seem to strike out and think outside of their self-built box/unable to not paint themselves into a corner/break out of their perceived reality prison. The Hipster curse. I suspect they never got to break their hip like the human Jacob did when the latter wrestled an angel. Would love to find the historical conceptualization of the levels of the soul and the four worlds of the Kabbalah and how the Daimon emerged as a concept in antiquity.
Don't panic. Sophia's on her way to save us from ignorance 🤘❤️
Sophia as in Wisdom.
I hope so ❤
It's literally Sophia's fault
She was the one who created Yaldaboath and cast it into chaos in the first place. Nah I’m glad she keeping quiet.
What's a building going to do?
AND Dr Sledge fixes my friday again, merci Bon Docteur.
A very fascinating turn of events culminated into all of this. The early schisms between Christianity and Judaism compounded with pagan sentiments towards Judaism made way for a story involving Jesus that appeared in the last bit of the first century to have a line within it that people to this day couldn't come to agreement on whether it was about The Devil or a supposed Father of The Devil... Then a guy named Marcion, a Christian many call a heretic, showed up and saw the God of the OT as evil and the God of Christianity as good. Given the schisms present already and the amount of churches he had, people agreeing with him, he probably wasn't the first to have this idea but he certainly popularized it. Fascinating stuff...
Considering all the people who were martyred by religious institutions for professing scientific truths, I see a very clear parallel here in how easy it is to read like Marcion with regard to just about everything in Abrahamic faith. People who professed a true knowledge of how things are, the Giordano Brunos of the world, who had truth ringing out long after their demises at the hands of religious institutions. I think that Marcion had the pattern correct but applied it in the wrong place. His true pattern was applied within the bounds of the heart hardening mechanism he discovered, this realm of subjectivity where anyone could have chimed in and said "No thanks. Anyone I don't like is The Devil and I don't like you." Then his ideas rang out through his detractors alone...
This true pattern here cannot be erased, it's seemingly placed by the aeons as evidence for their power. All these institutions can do is carry The Devil in their words in response to truthful accusations, carry powerful illusions in their words by claiming these Giordano Brunos were Devils and all their undeniable truths were actually convincing lies. When confronted with Evolution they might carry powerful illusions and lies in their words by claiming dinosaur bones are a powerful illusion and a lie. I have sapped all of these words of their power, this is a vaccine of sorts so a mind's immune system may later detect them and combat them before they result in an infection. These institutions are indeed the source of all of these illusions.
The natural laws, laws one is unable to defy in all encompassing fashion, purvey the entirety of all things. They predate theories such as The Big Bang because these theories are constructed with them in mind. They are seemingly atemporal, primordial, without a creator. Any egregore borne of human fragility owes itself to these laws, these laws that allowed words of both the OT and the NT to be carried with conviction. There is seemingly only one inerrant verse to quote in the entirety of all things, and that is the universe. The universe allowed for every verse to be uttered, for every false lie with true implications. At the end of the day the world is only positive on truth, it never goes into negative.
These Abrahamic deities are deeply flawed. I'm hesitant to call them evil because my morality is relative to objectives. Essentially, what is practical for achieving an objective is good and what is impractical is bad. Each individual likely has a separate objective that may be similar, and can only have one objective at a time. Those objectives may oscillate very quickly and might construct the illusion of something simultaneously being bad and good, but only if one is multiple people at the same time is there such a thing... and I consider that an impossibility. There are multiple exogoods and exobads, exoneutrals even, but there is only one good at a given moment. If they do exactly what I expect them to, then they're good...
That's a whole spiel though, very inspiring video. Thanks for another banger Dr. Sledge.
i got a copy of that book mentioned in part I - Facing the Abusing God, and I don't think I can get through it. It's just too difficult a read. But what I've got from it so far is that it is suggested that God is beyond ethics, therefor is under no obligation to behave ethically, yet is still perfect and good in all things. I recall something like this from my southern Baptist upbringing and remember thinking how awful that sounded. One moment he might be blessing you, the next he forces you to sin and then ends your life, and judges you to be unworthy and off to hekk with you. Jesus was supposed to come in at some point and somehow make that better.
He did make it better.
Want the new deal or the old one?
Old deal, bad.
Son's new deal, good.
@@markrodriguez2132 No, the deal is just the same just in different wrapping paper. It still stinks of shit.
@@bria243 Nein. Can be proven philosophically. Watch the movie Barabbas.
@@bria243 What's wrong with JC?
@@nahual_7x62 He couldn't breakdance.
Great Episode! You should look at the Mandaean version. The light being (demiurge) is called Ptahil. (Coincidently the creator god of the Memphis triad in Egypt is called Ptah. This god thought in his heart and spoke everything into being). Ptahil with the seven demons, (children of Ruha, the seven planets, the old Mesopotamian gods) out of clay creates Adam. Adam did not live until his soul (and the souls of all humans) is delivered from the light world.
Waiting for the episode about us Mandaeans. 😊
Given that you're wonderful religion is still very active and given that I only cover historical stuff I probably won't cover it anytime soon. Not for lack of admiration but because this channel covers historical topics and you're amazing religion is very much not mere history
@@TheEsotericaChannel It would definitely give some historical insights, but I understand that it might be sensitive to discuss a still living tradition.
Especially one that's faced such tremendous trauma and oppression
Hi, were could I find good sources about your religion? I would like to understand it and learn more! Thank you in advance!!
For some reason whenever I see Mandaean baptism or read prayers from the Qolasta I end up crying profusely. Theres some unexplainable beauty to it.
One of my favorite prayers would have to be “prayer of the witnesses at the Jordan”
OUTSTANDING 🤘❤🔥🤘 it has cooled off here in PA too thankfully, thank you for all your work doc!!
Looking around the world, the Gnostic perspective seems to make more sense.
Given the difference between the old and new testaments, it makes you wonder how this isn't the normal version of things.
There is no normal version.
There are many brands of Christianity and Judaism throughout history and the world.
Two thousand years provides countless examples.
@markrodriguez2132 Non of them have god as the bad guy, though, do they?
@@iatebambismom Yes, they do.
@markrodriguez2132 who?
@@iatebambismom He did a video on the Pistis Sophia.
It could be argued that in Gnosticism or in some forms of western Kabbalah or occultism it meets your criteria.
Is Satanism a subset of Christianity or Judaism?
What kind of God does Job have in his book in OT?
I'm a Christian. Although not a religious one. And I think Marcion has some great points, if you read the Torah literally. BUT... I think we should read it using its symbolic meaning (the various degrees of them). I have jewish ancestry, and I don't know how people can read all those texts in a literal sense (we can... using historical context, but...). And, part of the old testment is also inspired by other myths and legends of the old. So... yeah... I'm a Christian who believes in the moral/spiritual values and massage of Christ, but i'm also a Christian who understands that I don't know a lot of the symbolic meaning retained in these old texts. I think we can find some astrological correspondences with all the myths/legends/messages/symbols presented to us in the scriptures. And maybe that's why they are so relatable to us all. Oh... and thank you for your work. And also - not relatable-, but you have a very sexy voice😊.
Man I just recommended the original to a friend and wondered what happened to part 2, couldn't have timed it better!
Part 3 !!!! Love your videos just stumbled into this niche
" GOD" can only be good, fore the creation of the internet has been allowed to exist Which has allowed access to such fabulous academia as has been so expertly presented here for heretics (me)or other. Great work Dr. Sledge.
@@j.r.operhall6473 CP and TikTok exists on the internet, so yeah, no.
God is great and good
If our direct creator is not God, then I think it's reasonable to assume our direct creator is imperfect. That wouldn't make this creator evil though imo. Maybe our direct creator is learning and trying to make a better creation each iteration using information obtained from previous iterations. As a software engineer, I can't even begin to imagine how complicated and challenging programming an entire realty could be. I doubt I could do even a fraction as good a job as the one who directly created all of this.
An interesting question to ponder: Why does our direct creator have to be 100% perfect and who are we to demand that? If God is allowing this being to create, then I'm sure not going to question it.
I agree. The Monad is the real villain
The demiurge is evil because it has all the urges of the heavenly beings in the Plural while being unable to participate. It’s therefore super resentful and petty about that fact.
Been waiting for part 2 :)
This was great to watch, can't wait for the 3rd installment.
What a fascinating couple lectures! Listening to these lectures, along with alot of other professors have encouraged me to join Peterson Academy, where I can listen to even more lectures at work and work toward a certification other than my construction experience. Thank you so much for all the fascinating lectures and the time spent putting them together.
I’ve been waiting for part 2 for soo long
You are a beast of esoteric knowledge. Furthermore… you seem to have an uncanny perspective void of bias with a great sense of dry humor.🤣Love it brotha!
I love how you called his scepticism - “uncanny perspective void of bias”.
@@nathanielgillespie2627 You use the word "beast" as a compliment.
I love the channel. One of my favorite non-rot channels. But here's a rot question: what happens when a myth or religion gets RetConed? How do the previous beliefs get expunged?
I'm not entirely sure why but this video was very therapeutic. iirc the subconscious has been debunked? either way, I can't even exactly tell precisely why this video resulted in that. I just felt a weight off my shoulders and a sense of recognition of a certain belief I'd been carrying with me for most of my life and just don't really need to any more. Thanks Mate!
I'd love a copy of "Hipster Satan is judging your taste in music". That image is so meme-worthy.
It's also from a most-excellent illumination. What manuscript is the image from?
31:18/32:10 - Maybe I'm just seeing weird connections but listening to Doc Sledge talk about Marcion's interpretation, makes me think of these lyrics from a Yakuza game of all things:
We're breakin' the law!
Breakin' the world, together! (Breakin' the world)
Throwing out all tenderness!
We're breakin' the rules!
No cause, no choice, no going back to how it was! (Breakin' the world)
No slowin' down because
We'll keep our heads high, our fists raised 'till we die
We're livin' by our own judgement!
⚡️
Japanese RPGs are well-memed as always finding an excuse to "attack and dethrone God". Kiryu's rebellion against authority by means of being incredibly principled is not actually different from that. (And the Amon clan is obviously supernatural, like, come on.)
@@Duiker36 you should check out Moon Channel's take on Why you kill Gods in JRPGs. It's actually a pretty deep and surprisingly nuanced take; citing the powers that be and foreign influence taking the form of "Gods" that Japanese creatives are trying to encourage the youth to challenge in their fictions.
The plasticity of the mind is both a blessing and a curse.
Choose your beliefs carefully.
The mind won't argue.
Do you not argue with yourself?
@@kaylynnanson6231
Yes.
In the realm of beliefs there is contention.
Don’t choose any belief but to seek knowledge and maybe one day you will find the truth. Don’t ever label yourself.
@@RealistRatRace
OK.
Make sure to eat your vegetables and stay in school.
I have a theory that if you talk long enough to a Catholic, they'll admit to at least one heresy (according to Roman doctrine). Lately I'm thinking of adding: if you talk long enough to a Catholic, they'll admit to being at least a little bit gnostic.
I'm curious. If the Gnostics saw the god of the Old Testament as an evil being, how was it that they lived alongside and practiced within the churches of other Christians? I would think they wouldn't think very highly of their counterparts worshipping the demiurge.
Same way Christians lived among pagans and Jews. Aside from zealots most people just want to get along with their lives
I think, too that we forget that Jesus needed someone who would turn him in. Judas was CHOSEN by Jesus to rat him out.
We look at Judas as a traitor but, he, in fact was Jesus's MVP. How could he martyr himself if everyone harbored Him? The show must go on!
Decades ago I told people, if you're Christian. Stay out of the Old Testiment (obviously read it, but don't try to study it as scripture because it's not Christian scripture. It informs Christian scripture, but it's written for the people Chosen by the Creator of this realm to essentially help the Creator of the Cosmos and everything in it in creating the conditions necessary for the ascension the human soul and spirit. Through this rendering, we become unoccluded pure gems.
Through coming back as volunteers (Bodhisattvas, healers, etc) we eventually all get caught again while here and thus light escapes a black hole and that allows for the endless peristaltic inhale and exhale of the ebb and Flo of the flotsam and jetsam in the xylum and phloum of eternal existence.
@@TheEsotericaChannel
@@sovereignbrehon yea makes wonder is judas rosting forever in hell or rewarded for the actions? seems scrwed up if it was Gods plan but that required someone to suffer eternaly?
Gnostics didn't see the God of the Old Testament as evil they rejected the concept of the Old Testament portraying a single deity so there was no THE god to see as evil.
Marcionites on the other hand are alleged to have been completely seperate from other Christians.
@@AC-dk4fp - I think one would be hard pressed to reach that conclusion if they have read the Gnostic creation myths discussed in this and the previous video.
Interesting. I felt that this "world" was a prison of sorts decades back. The whole of Earth feels like a sort of Cosmic Australia where many forms of life have been brought that do not necessarily belong. Notice how all of Life endures suffering from birth through to its finality. If there was a benevolent creator why would their entire system necessitate pain and suffering for all living things?
A cosmic Australia is one of the best analogies I’ve ever heard and totally understand your words
nothing can extend its life (eat) without something else dying, even scavengers rely on death to live.
@@JimmyMatis-h9yI find it that people that are Antinatalist themselves can easily believe into Gnosticism it can follow up with Christianity that we’re living in the Devil’s kingdom which entails suffering and to lead to salvation we have to walk hand to hand into extinction. But anyway antinatalism is insane philosophy and not going to happen.
@@JimmyMatis-h9y The many autotrophs of this world would beg to differ.
I mean the majority of life is single celled and can't feel anything including suffering.
Another amazing presentation! Thank you Dr. Sledge. The late great Jos. Campbell wrote an essay 'No More Horizons' in which he talks about the obsoletion of what he called the "monster over the hill" answer used by peoples to explain the ills that befall their societies, making the point that there were no more horizons in the modern world to conceal the imaginary monsters. No longer can "the Jews", or any other monster, be blamed for the myriad ills plaguing the dying religions of today.
We are living in a time that Campbell termed the 'conflagration of cultures', out of which would arise the next great religion. He said his biggest regret was his inability to stay alive to see the new global religion that will manifest. I've no doubt that this new great religion will be founded by divinely gifted minds of men and women such as you, Dr. Sledge. In fact, it's not hard for me to imagine that you could be one of the - if not the - founder of this great religion. And that's no joke.
Newtypeism!
While i appreciate someone trying to explain these things based on the way they were written, i find it hard to accept that we're left again and again with this good vs evil concept, and life, love, growth, and our bonds with others in life is always glazed over because the squeaky wheel got the grease... Sometimes I feel like we've been eating from the wrong tree.
This video is not loading for some reason. I blame the demiurge
This is not only a very interesting Christian theology but probably more intellectually sound version of Christianity than what ended up surviving.
Also without a doubt a way more fun theology.
Cthulhu approved this message.
To dream of non-existences is a dream to far
Since my earliest memories until now I have never understood existences
Isaiah 45:7, baybay
Love the abundance of Blake in this one.
Keep up the great work, Dr Sledge 👏⚒️
I believe Isaiah 45:7 is supposed to be about Cyrus (A Calamity upon people) instead of moral evil.
@@nvbl2806 personally, and I just say this personally, I think it's crystal clear, I prefer not to try to bamboozle and instead focus on doing good in order to get good results, first because it forces reality checks to what we think is good, which is essential to avoid ending up doing all the sort of things which have marred faith through history, and secondly because good is no longer some abstract dependent on miracles and divine will but the work of men and that's plural on purpose, we rely on each other if we want things to work.
@@nvbl2806 is not sending a calamity upon a people a moral evil. For example if I could create a tsunami that killed thousands, would you say I had no moral responsibility?
@@Rory-co4vm The author of life may take it at any point for any reason is my PERSONAL stance.
@@nvbl2806 you answered a different question
this channel is pure gold
Thanks! Best series yet!
Enjoy all your video series. Love the professional quality and in depth presentation to things I may have otherwise had no interest in.
I just rewatched part 1 earlier - great timing.
It would be swell if there was an easy access link to part 1. Part 2 popped up in my feed and I was intrigued; but where do I find part 1?
Sky Ted Bunddy has to be the best thing I’ve heard in a while.
This is just plain pleasure to listen to a real scholar on a mystic subject, much more than viewing some entertainer fantasy movie.
What is interesting to me, is the idea of malevolent demiurge did not hold with the Jews, there is no single stream in Judaism with such a concept. Probably the reason is that a faith is something people need for optimistic reasons, even the Christian version of the evil God replaces it with updated benevolent version of Christ. It is interesting what kind of values such faith will develop in its followers if it was worshiped as a concept.
These Demiurge videos are over the top fascinating. (Perhaps because the idea of evil creator fits with my impression of the god of the Old Testament. 😊) Thank you! I’ll skip buying my lunch for a couple of weeks, I just had to have Litwa’s book. 😂Always enjoy your videos. Again, thank you.
'spoiler: it me' is one of the cutest memefications of a sinister figure. i'm here👏for👏it👏
Wouldn’t Marcion and the idea of the Demiurge be exemplary of (1) (a lot of) humanity’s tendency to “other-ise” anything that they can’t reconcile and/or 2) being unable to “square” the reputation of (a) “good” God with actions that can only be perceived as evil leading to a pessimistic/nihillistic view on the circumstances of life?
A few points in this vid stuck out to me that led to the above question:
- the way people demonize other people’s beliefs is a two way road… ie early Christian’s and their writings shows not as clear a distinction between their identity as Christian’s vs Jews. Perhaps this is a bit rough as a description but at that time there were Jews… and heretical/borderline heretical Jews (now known as Christians) depending on who you asked. How you get from this to the Christian persecution of Jews during the inquisition is History playing out from human tendency. At first the heretical Jews were ostracised by the branch it came from. Come the time of the Hebrew rebellions against the Roman’s, the Jews and Christian Hebrews/Israelites (I don’t know how best to refer to them) were unified in their efforts towards the Roman occupiers until the Jews declared one of its leaders (I think Barak) messiah, which was contrary to the Christian hebrews belief, who subsequently abandoned cooperation. Enemies become Frenemies become Enemies …
- there seems to be a American evangelical Christian view underpinning the inability to square actions of God in Old Testament vs New. Rather than continuity, the view is Jesus is a reboot of what came before.
- perhaps I misunderstood the latter part of the video, but if Marcion’s ideas of Jewish God Bad Christian God Good came from an understanding Jesus destroyed the old law, then perhaps he didn’t see all the scriptures. Book of Matthew has Jesus saying he came to fulfill the law not destroy it and from memory the letters of Paul do not contradict this when read in context… though I have seen translations of “abolish the law” when taking the verses one by one…. Contextually, especially in light of Matthew, it doesn’t square… and could be part of Marcion’s problem.
- lastly, re John 8:44, if that was problematic for Marcion and others with similar thoughts, they need to backup and read the full exchange of who was being spoken to, how they thought of themselves and then why they were referred as their father being Satan. Tip: it wasn’t because they were Jews or a reference to a separation/distinction between gods. It would be a sad circumstance if this also contributed to that line of thinking as born of a terrible misunderstanding.
Therefore, while I’m not firm on the idea, I can understand why Marcion’s ideas would be rejected for a … certain type of laziness… like the lack of effort to see ‘good’ in something (ie the consistency of Old vs New Testament perceptions of God rather than the inconsistency). If the idea of the demiurged is birthed out of hate for the Jews due to past tensions and conflicts and seemingly justified through a misunderstanding of scripture, then the demiurge is indeed a sad idea (not lame - cuz it’s metal as anything - but truly sad)
I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed and rewound this a lot as I tried to understand the points… so maybe I have missed the point, to which I am very open to hearing counter points.
Ohhh! I love Plato’s timaeus and critias!!!! Definitely in my top 5 favorite books of all time
I thank you mr sledge knowledge is the most important thing in life to me and your selfless teaching is blessing
Agreed! My thirst for knowledge is never quenched! I found this channel researching who was Lilith and why she was not mentioned in the KJV bible, next thing I knew, it was 6 hours later 😂
I can very much appriciate your neutral and objective aproach to theological mysteries!
I watched part 1 and 2 of this series and have some remarks.
All the scriptures and accounts you lay out, are in line with the idea that at least the abrahamic religions were derived through the following of the patreon god of ivrahim who let himself be known as yehova (ivrahim interrestingly enough being of mesopatamian origin). And yehova probably being one of the pantheon of rivaling and related gods that all civilisations seemed to commonly worship beforehand, perhaps ante-deluvial.
I cant help but note though, from a historical perspective, (at the risk of sounding anti-'semitic', and I do appoligize in advance), I wonder rather or not the exodus was an example of jewish colonists (mainly from greece) being expulsed because of too succesfull attainment of land and lending and pawning of goods and coinage with excessive interest, which they allegedly would have practiced in Egypt.
Moses having been of a certain 'divine' lineage and having been taken in by the Pharaonic court as a prince of their own, does suggest that there was a complex and rivalling interconnection between 'royal' families and cultures.
This may not be true though, or may not have been practiced particulairly by the jewish people, but rather blamed on them. After all this contradicts the idea that the jews where slave-labourors incapable of leaving Egypt.
Besides that, I wonder about the meaning of deities being animal-headed in the egyptian hieroglyphs. Could it be that the kind of animal indicated certain characteristics or qualities that came with the alloted role or performed tasks of each god. So as to arrive at the notion that Seth was the god in charge of labour, donkey's being the animal that bares the load of work.
Again, I am sorry if I offend anyone by entertaining the notion of expulsion because of excessive usury, rather than exodus by order of their lord yahwee. Offending is not my intention, exchanging knowledge is. Very much open to (constructive😅) feedback!
Thank you for your work! This stuff is fascinating!❤
As a fellow Jew, this one made me sad. Every time you paused for "the jews" everybody round here thought that was funny. I just felt the weight of all that tragedy and blood shed weigning on me more and more.
עד שימחה ה' דמעה מעל כל פנים
First as tragedy, then as farce as the rebbe said.
Hey Dr Sledge, at 11:20 minutes in or so there is a graphic drawing displaying Paul (I Guess) but why is there a subdued pyramid in the background? Interesting at the least.
It is the Pyramid of Cestius -seen in other old paintings as well.
Sky Ted Bundy 🤣🤣🤣
@randomchannel-px6ho humor is a very interesting concept in general
@@civilprotectionofficer858 is indeed cool like that
☠️
I have no lips but I must laugh!
Lmfaoo, comment of the day
The concept of an architect God, either "evil" or simply mechanical in its functionality, may be older than we normally consider. The dualism aspect however seems to come to the front during ancient gnosticism, made fundamental during early Christian gnositicsm. The pneuma concept, as well as the emanations from the Monad, makes concept such as angel and Gods difficult to seperate. At any event, wisdom was the lack of complete understanding, and Sophia is thus the cause of Yaldabaoth, the aborted God of the material, a crude emanation of the divine ruled by a blind God.
Interesting stuff.
New subscriber here, I really appreciate your content and I watched part 1
Looking for pt 1😭😭😭
*FOUND IT! Released Feb 2024 if anyone else is looking ✌️🥰
Thanks I asked my ex what the demiurge was but she wouldn't tell me
Lmao how come?
I'm in my late 60's, & just learning these these.
I know the maker, he is the one behind Hermes Trismegistus
Good, need that for another Kult Divinity Lost session.
What is that?
@@markrodriguez2132 TTRPG based loosely on Gnostic Mythology.
10:38 "This is the game of «everyone I don't like is the devil» (...) We still play that game, «everyone I don't like is fascist, or communist or woke or whatever»."
Even here, where a very niche subject is studied, I get how important History is to inform us about the current times.
Edit: Damn, I speak too early, what comes next is more important.
I have absolutely loved this series
Just like Star Wars. Never ends 😂
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
How do you open your mind to so much knowledge without questioning your own faith? Or reality in general.
He probably does and just isn't afraid of doing so.
@@hedgehog3180 ngl sometimes it’s too much and it gets to me…I’m religious but I love learning new knowledge. Double edge sword in a sense…
21:17 evangelion jumpscare
Do not touch the giant multi-eyed white lady 😊
Another awesome thumbnail for part 2!
I really love your content! Also I just imagined you in a black metal shirt 😅
Simultaneously stimulating and relaxing.
I wonder what would have happened if gnosticism survived.
It did - Mandaeism
Not Christian gnostics, Mandeans survive but they definitely don’t consider themselves Christian.
You go hard! Crunching videos out like no body's business man