My theory is that they believe in gnosticism, but worship the demiurge, believing that it will reward them with material wealth in this universe for keeping others trapped, and to further that, they want to lead people into being gay or cutting off their dicks because it is the most hylician thing a person can do.
@Humpleupagus@memes_1336@billy_hughes dunno about that. They might actually be the proponents of the heretical notion of two genders that are actually biological thing you can't do anything about.
@billy_hughes@Humpleupagus@ThatCrazyDude@memes_1336 To the gnostics we are all pale versions of a finer reality. At the top is the Monad, and the Monad emanates a divine light. This light descends and degrades through various stages and levels until it becomes the coarse material realm. At the bottom is the Earth created by the Demiurge which traps us in the material form.
Gnostics traditionally attempted to transcend the material and become perfect spiritual beings.
Most gnostics view the demiurge as negative force, so the religion of Pride could be seen as a kind on inverted gnosticism, one that acknowledges a spiritual realm but is focused solely on material pleasures and advancement. Perhaps we should call them Demiurgists.
Gnosticism is an ancient christian sect. They believe that god created the universe, but this is a kind of pocket dimension created by an evil/misguided lesser being called the demiurge and we're all trapped here. They believed that through prayer and meditation you could achieve an enlightened state and exit the material realm upon death.
Incidentally this wasn't an idea that originates in early christianity, it's the core of most native european religions, and possibly eurasian ones in general.
The gnostics categorised people in three tiers (hylics, psychics and pneumatics). The hylics are the lowest of the three and are trapped in material thought, thinking solely about pleasure and pain. The psychics are those who are on the path to enlightenment and the pneumatics are those that have achieved it.