While there are certain aspects of Gnostic thought that I find a bit loopy, I do agree with their concept of The Demiurge as an explanation for why Deity often comes across as a giant Cosmic Pol-Pot....or "Sky Stalin" as I prefer to call it.
It also makes it easier for Abrahamics of the sane variety....most "mainliners", non-frums, Moderate and Progressive believers....to be devoted to their faith in spite of the stupider stuff.
Most of these folks don't know about Gnosticism or The Demiurge, of course. However, they do understand context and non-literalism....
* The Flood was likely a big epic local one involving The Mediterranean. Long ago, the geology was a bit different and the sea apparently would flood a lot. Another theory is that it's all a myth and based on part of the Gilgamesh story.
* Egypt didn't have slaves building their monuments. Exodus likely involved a labor dispute involving willing paid Hebrew employees of the Pharaohs, some natural disasters related to the eruption of Santorini and a migration across the REED sea that took a couple of weeks (with a quick camp-out at Mount Sinai where Moses wrote the Decalogue).
* It's also possible that all that Hebrew/Canaanite Genocide stuff was an allegory rather than a literal genocidal war. There's no archeological evidence that any of it happened as described in the Tanakh and it's likely that most of the Tanakh we know today was written after the Babylonian exile. "We slaughtered a race of immoral monster people" is a lot more exciting and "epic" than "We were Canaanites and we slowly turned our anything-goes-more-or-less Deities and culture into a moralistic one for a Monotheistic Deity".
Bible-God is only a monster because some stuffy religious authorities made it so. That's how I interpret the concept of Demiurge!
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And Demiurge can apply to any faith....Even "Pagan" ones. Ever seen the Greco-Roman Pantheon? Demiurgic to the CORE! They were in fact, LITERALLY Demiurges (which means 'half-maker').
The TRUE Creator Deities of the Greeks and Romans were the Primordial ones and the Titans. The Olympians are merely the Deities of Patriarchal Civilization and were written to be an excuse for the wealthy and powerful to screw over the little guy!
In reality; The Olympians NEVER Conquered the Old Ones before them...for the latter are the Universe and Nature itself! Zeus (and cohorts) would be constantly punished by the forces of Nemesis and the Furies for his slimy indiscretions! The Olympians would be forever subject to the Primordials and Titans (who thought that screwing around with humanity for no good reason was stupid). The Supreme Mother Gaia is The True Leader/Head/Ruler/Grand Potentate of the Classical Pantheon, not Zeus/Jupiter!
My big "Berserk Buttons" are Unchecked Misogyny, Rape, Injustice and Powerful People Behaving Badly With Impunity! Reading The Classical Myths literally makes me angry!
There's such potential for coolness and beauty but it's marred by the fact that the Olympians are such jerkasses and they're considered right and just for being jerkasses! I understand that they represent both Good and Evil but they seem more evil than good. Shouldn't they at least reflect most of humanity (Most of them good but morally grey, some kind of naughty and a few evil)?
IMHO; The Olympians were written that way because of Patriarchy, human hubris, and to give rulers the excuse to be jerks.
If one is to belong to a modern NeoPagan revival of said religions....and they believe in modern values, logic and decency....The Greco-Roman myths NEED TO BE REWRITTEN TO REFLECT THAT REALITY! Besides; The old myths were often rewritten and reinterpreted even back then.
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I, for one, am a NeoPagan, Universal, Interfaith and a Spiritual Pantheist. All myths I interpret allegorically and non-Demiurgically. Anything Demiurgic, I reject.
Since the world's religions aren't going to die anytime soon (and often said faiths are very much a part of the very cultures who practice them) I propose the concept of Demiurge be made universal and applied to all spiritual paths! The Demiurge will be equated with The Devil/Mara/Error/Evil/Etc. and seen as on-par as Ebola and serial killers. Something filthy and shameful! Anything that promotes....
* Sexual prudery.
* Bigotry (Ethnicity, Color, Creed, Sex, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Disability, etc.).
* Brutality, torture and war crimes.
* "Social Darwinism".
* Hatred of Logic, Reason and Science.
* Rejection of Grey Thinking.
* Oppression.
....Will be DEMIURGIC and therefore TABOO!
Thus; It will be easier to take a more peaceful, egalitarian approach to even the most "Conservative of Faiths". Being "Liberal Cafeteria Faithful" wont be a bad thing since they're only "cherry-picking" the genuinely "Deity-Inspired" stuff and rejecting the "Human-Made Falsehoods".
