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Archive-name: gnosis/newsgroup-faq
Last-modified: 22 Dec 1995 Version: 1.1.3 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge soc.religion.gnosis-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) This FAQ is a monthly posting in support of the newsgroup soc.religion.gnosis. It is maintained by dean@netcom.com (Dean Edwards). Send comments to srg-request@alumni.caltech.edu Contents I. Who are the moderators of soc.religion.gnosis? II. Submissions address and mailing list III.The Charter of soc.religion.gnosis IV. Why is this news group in the soc.religion hierarchy? V. Where does the word "gnosis" come from and what does it mean? VI. Submissions Details VII. Comments on Etiquette VIII. Comments on Flames *************************** I. Who are the MODERATORS? deane@netcom.com (Dean Edwards) iraj@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Iraj Mughal) (resigned) mimir@io.com (Al Billings) (resigned) ciaran@phoenix.aldhfn.org (Skip Watson) (resigned) Technical Moderator: Asim Mughal(mughal@alumni.caltech.edu) II. WHAT IS THE SUBMISSION ADDRESS AND IS THERE MAILING LIST ACCESS? Submissions/postings for soc.religion.gnosis should be sent to: srg@alumni.caltech.edu Administrative material and queries should be sent to: srg-request@alumni.caltech.edu Mailing List: No, soc.religion.gnosis does not have e-mail support for those that do *not* have any access to the actual newsgroup at this time. III. CHARTER OF SOC.RELIGION.GNOSIS ****************************************************************** Charter I. PURPOSE A. The purpose of 'soc.religion.gnosis' is to provide a place for the serious discussion and exchange of questions, ideas, experience, views, and information about of the historical and contemporary trends, techniques. practice and development of gnosis and gnosticism, its related literature, and corresponding concepts such as satvika-jnana (Sanskrit), Ma'rifat (Arabic), and certain associated aspects of mystical ecstasy. Gnosis is the direct experience or 'knowledge' of the fullness of the Divine Being. It focuses on the illumination of the spirit by the realms beyond the physical and psychic levels. Everyone is invited to take part in this discussion. B. For more information see the gnosis-overview, which has been posted to this newsgroup and to news.answers. In addition another FAQ, soc.religion.gnosis FAQ, will be regularly posted to this newsgroup. II. MODERATOR POLICIES A. Anyone with an interest in gnosis is welcomed and encouraged to submit articles to soc.religion.gnosis. (See additional details below.) Moderators will only return submissions that violate this charter. Any returned article will have an explanation attached to it about which charter provision was violated. B. There shall be one to five moderators for soc.religion.gnosis. In addition, there shall also be a technical moderator whose function shall be to manage the software script and hardware support necessary to maintain the newsgroup. C. The newsgroup will be subject to conventions of network etiquette. In practice, the moderators will reject personal attacks (flames) directed at individuals, and also similarly inflammatory attacks directed at religious institutions, and articles which use offensive language. These guidelines are intended to regulate only the tone of the discussions, and not their contents. This instruction is not intended to limit discussion and debate. Vigorous discussion and criticism are encouraged, flames are not. D. Submission which discusses established gnostic concepts or the concept of the Demiurge (the creator god) shall be posted, so long as they do not otherwise violate the conditions of the charter for soc.religion.gnosis. E. Repetitive postings (such as multiple responses to one request for a book reference) may also be rejected. Any rejected article will be returned to the sender with an explanation. F. Administrative communications, comments and inquiries should be mailed to the moderator(s) rather than being posted to the group. The administrative address shall be posted to the newsgroup from time to time and made available in soc.religion.gnosis-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). G. From time to time a moderator may choose to give up his or her duties as a moderator. In such an event the moderators should select a suitable replacement. The retiring moderator may take part in this selection if he or she has not yet given up their responsibilities as moderator. This charter shall reflect the current list of moderators and submissions and administrative email addresses. III. SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES A. Guidelines for submissions will be regularly posted to news.answers in an soc.religion.gnosis FAQ. B. Readers of soc.religion.gnosis submit articles to the moderators by email. Articles should be sent to srg@aldhfn. Administrative comments and requests should be sent to srg-request@alumni.caltech.edu The initial moderators will be deane@netcom.com (Dean Edwards) iraj@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Iraj Mughal) murple@ukelele.gcr.com (Craig Schenk) (resigned 3-95) The initial technical moderator (responsible for hardware and software support was: ciaran@aldhfn.ORG (Skip Watson) He has been replaced by Asim Mughal (mughal@alumni.caltech.edu) C. A current list of moderators and addresses will be included in a soc.religion.gnosis Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) to be posted to soc.religion.gnosis, selected 'answers' and other relevent newsgroups. Future editions of this charter will include the current list of moderators and addresses. IV. ETIQUETTE A. See the gnosis-overview article, which is regularly posted to news.answers and other selected newgroups. B. It is also recommended that the articles on network etiquette posted to news.newusers.questions be read. For information concerning excessive flames and personal attacks see above comments. Also useful are: Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community Rules for posting to Usenet (End of charter.) ************************************ IV. Why is this news group in the soc.religion hierarchy? The topic of soc.religion.gnosis is 'gnosis.' It is in the 'soc.religion' hierarchy. While gnosis itself is not a religion, it is a religious experience par excellence. This was the appropriate hierarchy for discussion of gnosis. (deane@netcom.com). V. Where does the word "gnosis" come from and what does it mean? Gnosis involves direct "knowledge" and experience of the sacred beyond the limitations of the physical and psychic states. It does not rely exclusively on faith, belief or study od sacred texts. Soul, in its essence, is a divine spark and the Call to gnosis (sometimes referred to as the Call of Soul) is the awakening to that spiritual potential. In many systems this is facilitated by a great revealer whose origin is in the highest heavens. Gnosis comes from a Greek word meaning 'to know' in the sense of 'to be acquainted'. Gnosis in a more specific religious sense refers to the knowledge of God and the fullness of the true spiritual realms through direct personal experience. Similar terms are jnana (Sanskrit) and ma'rifat (Arabic). A gnostic is someone who has had such an experience or who has been initiated into a tradition which provides access to such personal revelations. A gnostic religious-philosophical movement flourished during the first centuries of the current era. Although much of the academic interest in gnosis has focused on the early Chrisian versions, gnosis itself is an experience found at the heart of every religious tradition and cannot be singled out as applying to only one such tradition. An active debate among scholars about the origins of gnosisticism and gnosis is a major focus of academic research and discussion. (deane@netcom.com) Dean Edwards VI. SUBMISSIONS DETAILS: A. At USENET sites that provide automatic mailing in support of moderated newsgroups, posting to soc.religion.gnosis will transparently email the article to the moderators. At other sites articles will need to be mailed explicitly to the moderators. B. The moderators attempt to handle each incoming article in a timely manner, either posting it publicly or responding to its author privately within four days of receipt. If a post has resulted in neither of these actions after four days, it should be assumed that one's site is not configured to support submissions to moderated groups, and the article should be resubmitted by mail to the above address. C. Please provide a signature with your name and correct e-mail address (preferably in Internet format) at the end of your article; do not rely on the article header's From: field to identify you, as this will not necessarily contain your correct e-mail address. (This language is taken from the soc.religion.bahai faq.) VII. COMMENTS ON ETIQUETTE The following suggestions are offered for your consideration before posting. A. An option in requests for specific information (how do I reach someone, where is this quotation to be found, etc.) is to ask explicitly that all replies be mailed directly to the poster, who may then post a summary if it is of general interest. This would result in only 2 messages (or perhaps just one) being seen by all subscribers, which could be desirable in some contexts. Likewise, responses to such requests may, in some cases, be most appropriately addressed just to the original poster. B. Please use line lengths of no more than 70. This keeps your text within the 80 character per line limit of most terminals, in both your initial article and in any follow-up articles, where it is customary to prefix each line of quotation from another article with a few additional characters to indicate the material is quoted. Please be merciful to email mail systems by limiting articles to 50 KiloBytes in length. Posts that exceed this limit should either be pared down or subdivided; or one could submit an announcement of the item instead, asking that readers respond via private mail in order to obtain the actual item. (Note: some email gateways have only an 8K gateway!) C. If you quote a previously posted article, please limit the amount of quoted text that you include. One may generally assume that readers have already seen an article to which one is responding. Therefore, you need only quote as much as required for establishing a context. D. Please choose your Subject: heading carefully! E. If responding to an earlier article, it is not best to respond to each paragraph therein. Rather, if there one statement that succinctly summarizes the earlier viewpoint, use that or a paraphrase instead. F. It is useful if articles are written in such a manner that it is relatively easy to discern fact from opinion. VIII. COMMENTS ON FLAMES: The newsgroup will be subject to conventions of network etiquette. In practice, the moderators will reject personal attacks (flames) directed at individuals, similarly inflammatory attacks directed at religious institutions. For point of reference, this charter will define a flame as the following: offensive insults on ones intellect, mentality, physical appearance, race, and other human characteristics. Flammatory attacks on institutions would be comprised of the following: offensive and degrading slurs aimed at the institution which includes the parameters defined under flame above. Offensive and degrading language aimed at a person, people, and institution will not be acceptable. Mild profanity will pass the moderators if it is not offensive or inflammatory. This will allow for open and free discussion although without extreme flames. Moderation will be relaxed. These guidelines are intended to regulate only the tone of the discussions, and not their contents. This instruction is not intended to limit discussion and debate. Vigorous discussion and criticism are encouraged, flames are not. (rsahebi@netcom.com) Note: Send comments to srg-request@alumni.caltech.edu END OF FAQ User Contributions:
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