Gnostic vs Orthodox

Philip K. Dick’s Valis contains quite a bit of commentary that I find fundamental in understanding gnostic thought. Dick, in his interpretation of Gnosticism, points to an intellectual error for the fall of man (and hence our short lives of toil, pain and labour) rather than the usual orthodox position of moral failure. Interestingly enough, Dick created his own gnostic mythology (which reads like a modern version of the already bizarre gnostic cosmogony, replacing gods with aliens). Two versions of the Gnostic creation myth are depicted Figure 1 – they are extremely idealistic and more abstract the the biblical creation myth, which might point to early Gnostics being more of an esoteric cult.