You seem to fail to understand that Gnosticism is not a religion the same way Hinduism is not a religion. It is just an umbrella term for a serious of cults which spread about with some core tenets.
I understand that just fine, which is why I brought up different groups that had different beliefs but all were united around the same core concept.
You seem to fail to understand that "Gnosticism" was an actual movement with rituals and established concepts based on varying interpretations of these core concepts, and you seem to fail to understand how to answer basic questions I asked that poked holes in your attempt to equate pre-Christian Gnosticism to ideas that were directly lifted Platonism. Which they weren't.
You are making this overly complex by creating an almost doctrinal religion out of Gnosticism
Oh, sorry to hear you don't like actual basic history that disproves your revisionism.
Were you hoping to come up with your own definition and interpretation of Gnosticism that had absolutely nothing to do with the original concepts? Why even use the word "Gnosticism" to begin with if there's absolutely no structure or foundation to begin with? How can it be an "Ism" in the sense of the religious movement? Might as well just change it to a construct of general philosophy like Agnosticism.
Just because a form of something has changed does not mean it excludes itself from its originator.
That's exactly what you're saying about Gnosticism, yet you insist that Gnosticism directly lifted it from Platonism, but when pressed to prove your example, you refuse.
If this was the case then Methodism, Catholicism, Baptists and Pentecostalism would all be different religions with nothing to do with each other.
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The differences between Gnosticism and Platonism are far, far more than that of different Christian sects. You are proving your total lack of familiarity with both actual Gnosticism and Platonism. Stop embarassing yourself.
Your logic as to how to separate these things makes no utter sense.
But it makes sense to separate ancient Gnostic cults from your idea of Gnosis. I can see why it makes no sense to you, since you're trying to force fit it to ancient Platonism, and you're simply dodging and dancing away from even attempting to substantiate your claim that there's much similarity besides the word "Demiurge".
All religions as of now originate from their predecessors. Gnosticism had a predecessor as well, this is undeniable fact.
That predecessor stemmed in Judaism. Where did you get the idea that I said that Gnosticism didn't have an original movement? Did you not read what I said about how I believe the original Nazarenes were the first "Gnostics"?
If you're going to try to prove that there was an actual religious movement based around similar-to-Platonic concepts before the Nazarenes, good luck proving that, but please don't try forcing your baseless speculation on me against the basic evidence because they both have the word "Demiurge".
Hey, I've got an idea, with your logic, let's call Christianity Platonic too since they both have the word "Logos" and have a similar idea.
