Theism and Gnosticism

After a fascinating conversation with Andrew about the nature of Theism and Gnosticism, I decided to write a little primer.

Theism is the presence in a person of a belief in a god or gods.

Gnosticism is the presence in a person of the knowledge of god or gods.

A person can be described as a Theist or an Atheist, i.e. someone who believes in a god or gods or does not believe respectively. And a person can be Gnostic or Agnostic, i.e. someone who knows there is a god or does not know if there is a god.

Therefore a person can be one of four types:

Gnostic Theist: someone who believes in a god and knows there is a god.
Gnostic Atheist: someone who does not believe in a god and knows there is no god.
Agnostic Theist: someone who believes in a god but does not know for sure.
Agnostic Atheist: someone who does not believe in a god but does not know for sure.

(I can already here you saying "how can anyone be a Gnostic anything?" Well, my interpretation of it is that a Gnostic is someone who believes that they have knowledge (either intellectual or spiritual) of god.)