Modern gnosticism

"The core of the gnostic impulse is the belief that we are not really part of the creation, that we are not really creatures.  Put differently, it is the refusal to accept the fact that we are not God . . . So what is wrong with that? someone might respond.  Isn't that precisely our human calling and destiny, to be like God? . . . Yes, but the quintessence of original sin, as it is also reflected in gnosticism, is the desire to be like God on our own terms.  It is to deny our status as creatures and assume that we can be like God by nature rather than by the gift of divine grace." Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon.

No, I haven't been neglecting this wonderful book.  

And how are we most determined to try to be like God on our own terms?  I believe it may be in our insistence on defining for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.  What I want, what seems right to me, what I cannot help doing, the way I can't seem to help being, these things cannot possibly be wrong!  My experience - especially when consistent with that of those who I also know to be good, caring, loving people - must be more accurately revelatory of right and wrong than God's inspired word or the teaching of God's church.  In fact, to the degree to which they disagree with the experience of my enlightened self, Scripture and the Church must be outdated artifacts reflective of the ignorant perspective of a primitive, simplistic, and unenlightened people.

I have engaged in this arrogance. 

Yet I must be careful of the equal arrogance of judging those whom I might tend to believe are yet under its influence.  Christ's love alone matters, and in Him I need put all my trust.  He is God, the derelict on the cross somehow reconciling us to God in ways I do not understand, in areas that I may be unaware are in need of reconciling.  More . . . 

"Note that in everyday language the word 'creature' is hardly ever used today except negatively . . . This is a triumph of gnosticism in our popular culture.  It is the most elementary fact about what and who we are - creatures.  We are not the Creator; we are not God." 

We interpret our independence as the freedom to do what we want, what we think is in our best interest, even what we have decided is right, free from the restrictions that others might place upon us.  When our desires, interests, and judgments encounter an obstacle, we seek a way to make our conclusions okay.  And if that means diminishing God's authority in our lives, then that is no great loss to such modern thinkers as us, is it?