Unverifiable personal gnosis

{{paganism}}
'''Unverifiable personal gnosis''' (UPG)<ref name=UPG>[https://hellenicfaith.com/personal-gnosis/ Personal gnosis]</ref> is a [[neopaganism|neopagan]] concept. The general idea of UPG is that some insights into divinity and the universe come unbidden to a particular individual, and cannot be tested or verified by anyone else. This is most often the case with neopagans who feel "called" to a particular god or pantheon.

When someone's UPG is mild and irrelevant to anyone else, most neopagans are willing to go along with it.  For instance, when someone with a strong interest in and knowledge of a particular pantheon feels called by a member of that pantheon, most neopagans will go along and moreso if the attributes given to the god(ddess) in question are the ones most people expect on him/her<ref>Say, the goddess [[Hecate]] carrying one or two torch(es) and dressed in either Classical Greece fashion or the standard fantasy sorceress attire of a robe with a hood.</ref>. However, every neopagan has their personal limits.  (Usually, when the UPG in question starts giving [[Cultural appropriation|completely culturally inconsistent attributes to a deity]], other neopagans start to avoid the person in question.)

Sometimes, however, a neopagan will attempt to push their particular UPG on a whole group. This usually becomes either a [[cult]] or a really lonely neopagan.  

Of course, strict [[rationalists]] will consider the whole idea to be a [[Bullshit|pile of bunk]]. Even some of the more rational neopagans look askance at the whole idea (even while secretly accepting it){{cn}}, while others tend instead to subscribe to the [[Socrates|Socratic]] saying, {{wpl|I know that I know nothing|"I know that I know nothing."}}

[[Irony|Curiously]], though, if you slap the label "[[Holy Spirit]]" on this insight, you get a pretty accurate parallel in the core pillar of the belief system of that bastion of [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Deceit|"reasonable faith"]], [[William Lane Craig]]:
{{cquote|The way in which I know Christianity is true is [[Blind faith|first and foremost]] on the basis of the [[Woo|witness]] of the Holy Spirit in my [[Emotional appeal|heart]]. And [[Argument by assertion|this gives]] me a [[Begging the question|self-authenticating means]] of knowing Christianity is true [[Unfalsifiable|wholly apart from]] the evidence. And therefore, even if [[Hand wave|in some historically contingent circumstances]] [[Absence of evidence|the evidence]] [[Escape hatch|that I have available to me]] should turn against Christianity, I do not think that this controverts the [[Bullshit|witness]] of the Holy Spirit.||| William Lane Craig, [[Christian apologetics|"professional philosopher"]]<ref name=DealingWithDoubt>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-fDyPU3wlQ&feature=youtu.be ''Dealing with Doubt'']. In this (in)famous interview "professional philosopher" Craig also claims that the [[Satan|Devil]] is real and responsible for instilling doubt about the truth of Christianity and explains to his fellow believers how to deal with such doubts. Basically, the faithful should trust their private experience of the Holy Spirit and, eventually, evidence will turn up to vindicate their religious beliefs.</ref>}}

==Verified personal gnosis==
According to one pagan site, '''verifiable personal gnosis''' is an UPG "backed up by accurate historical sources" (i.e., the insight corresponds to how the god(dess) appears in such kind of sources and the Neopagan knows nothing beforehand.)<ref name=UPG/> This is nonsensical because the example given is itself [[Mythology|mythological]] ("Zeus is associated with lightning").<ref name=UPG/> Rather, VPG is an [[appeal to ancient wisdom]], where there is some documentation of what ancient people believed.

==Shared Personal Gnosis==
'''Shared Personal Gnosis''' (SPG) is the same as Unverifiable Personal Gnosis, but when such insights are shared by other Neopagans who do not know one to each other.<ref name=UPG/>

==See also==
*[[Falsifiability]]
*[[Non-Overlapping Magisteria]]
*[[Prophet]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Paganism]]

Categories: Paganism