Quote Originally Posted by Darkmatters View Post
Ok, good points. And I do concede that you're absolutely right, there are many different definitions of knowledge. I guess you're using the gnostic definition, which I'm not very familiar with. Hmmm.. you know, you could have actually taken a moment to google it and post it here, rather than expect everybody to look it up for themselves!

Let me google that real quick:



So yeah, you definitely mean something very different by knowledge than I do (or is your definition different from Gnosis?) Atheists tend to mean factual understanding that can be demonstrated to be true, whereas Gnosis seems to refer more to what I'd call faith or belief. So I guess we're both right in a sense - you certainly can say that intuition and emotion can provide knowledge in the gnostic sense, but I'm also right in differentiating that from the intellectual knowledge than an atheist would acknowledge as knowledge.

Lol now I've said the word too many times (mostly just in that last sentence!) and it's losing all sense of meaning...
No, my definition of knowledge is definitely not gnostic. In fact, gnostic ideas are very far from my own beliefs. "Gnosis taught a deliverance of man from the constraints of earthly existence" that is definitely not something I believe: I do not believe that earthly existence is something evil to be delivered from.

This definition provided on the following site is close to what my understanding of knowledge is “What is Knowledge?” | Thoughtful Christianity - and please note that for me this is the same knowledge that applies to religious truth as well as to scientific facts, I know them the same way: I use the same set of different tools to examine their truth claims, and for all subjects of knowledge doubt is equally appropriate and does not contradict knowledge at all. I do not know anything without the possibility of doubt.