Don’t miss this month’s Pittsburgh Secular Freethinkers Meetup.

Here is the description from Andrew the organizer:

For September, we will discuss Gnosticism, a belief system in which knowledge or “gnosis” leads to salvation. This isn’t scientific knowledge or rational knowledge, nor is it philosophy. It is an awareness and understanding of reality that goes against much of what is found in mainstream Western religion.

Although Gnosticism, as an actual religious practice, technically started as an early form of Christianity, it bears much in common with Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism. It most likely came from the pluralistic environment of Alexandria, Egypt, where Platonism, Pagan mystery religion, and mystical Judaism influenced thinkers and religious practitioners of the day.

I have been fascinated with Gnosticism, both in its early forms and its latter day revivals. The influence of Gnosticism can be seen in many modern forms, from the psychology of C. G. Jung to movies like The Matrix and The Truman Show.

Gnostics have an outlook that antagonizes both the traditional Christian and the Atheist. I have to admit there is something both challenging and liberating in learning about them. I think that secularists can appreciate how Gnostics use myth and ritual as ways of understanding reality, yet are not tied down to literal beliefs and dogmas.

This article by Stephan A. Hoeller, Bishop of the Ecclesia Gnostica (one of the largest modern Gnostic churches), gives a good summary of Gnostic ideas:
www.gnosis.org/gnintro.htm

You can also find a vast amount of information on the main website (gnosis.org), including the entire Nag Hammadi Library (ancient texts found in 1945, many of which are Gnostic scriptures such as “The Secret Book of John,” “The Gospel of Philip,” “The Gospel of Truth,” and “The Hypostasis of the Archons”).

Check out the Freethinkers Meetup page for the location and more details.

Hint: Look for the Greater Pittsburgh Association of Agnostic, Deists… Something, Something.  It’ll have a giant head, orange sun and a blue monkey.

My first experience with Pittsburgh’s skeptic community was via the first-and-only meeting of the now-dissolved Pittsburgh Atheist Meetup. The Atheist Meetup was great. We talked about everything from Monty Python’s Life of Brian to our own personal conversion stories (which all seemed to start with either “I was raised Catholic and…,” or “I read Dawkins and…”). At the time I’d never had an experience quite like it, ten atheists just sharing ideas, experiences and, if I remember correctly, a few Pope jokes.

It was at the Atheist Meetup that I learned of the Greater Pittsburgh Association of Deists and Agnostics, which thankfully has now changed it’s name to the Pittsburgh Secular Freethinkers. The Freethinkers is a monthly Meetup of secularists who get together to discuss a monthly topic (most of the time we talk about everything but the topic).

Then about three months ago, Laura started up a Pittsburgh chapter of Drinking Skeptically… Which is AWESOME. Now, because this is my first post and you don’t know me very well, you don’t know how rarely I toss around the word awesome. In my world only four things are awesome.

Things that are awesome:

• Child Birth
• The Grand Canyon
• Cup Noodles
• Drinking Skeptically

I’m not going to explain the first three; its obvious why they’re awesome. But what makes Drinking Skeptically so awesome is its simplicity: Skeptics + Booze.

It was at the first Drinking Skeptically get-together that I learned of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Center for Inquiry (CFI), and my knowledge of Pittsburgh‘s skeptical community continued to grow like a snow ball.

Now, I haven’t actually attended a CFI event yet, but I’m sure I will because they have so many events. Pot lucks, socials, movie nights, book clubs, educational workshops… I hear those daffy disbelievers even went canoeing.

At one point I intended to attend CFI’s book club in the South Hills (next meeting is Sept. 13). I’d even picked up Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class and thumbed through it, but couldn’t make the meeting due to work-related responsibilities (nuts).

Six months ago I was starving to get together with some like minded skeptics. Now, I’m hoping that this blog will help even more of Pittsburgh’s freethinkers find the community I have.

But to prevent myself from ending on too sappy a note, I’d like to point out to everyone that my high school chem teacher is a pedo (no, I did not go to Catholic school).