u/pectusexcavatam

Nothing is real is my favourite boards of canada song and I made a connection between gnosticism that may just be me grasping at straws but here is the argument:

Gnosticism is a heresy of Christianity where the God of the old testament is actually an evil demiurge and that the physical reality of the universe was created by it and is itself tainted and evil and so the goal of gnosticism is a rejection of the physical reality and achieving heaven through knowledge and mystical awakening and that new testament Jesus was like a messenger trying to break us from the physical reality that the Demiurge of old testament created.

This would explain why old testament god is so wrathful and generally acts like an angry and emotional god smiting people and arguably condoning genocide and the such?

The demiurge in the lyrics is flirting with humans greed through the temptation of eternal physical pleasure of the afterlife a trick of demiurge and why it was not right.

This is my main gripe with a lot of organised religion when you are reading it feels transparently carrot and stick where they try to bribe you with descriptions of basic physical pleasures and strike fear into you with basic suffering. It just feels icky and not something that an all good and virtuous being would be part of.

im not super researched into gnosticism so i probably got some things wrong just going off memory from alex oconner podcasts lol.

I dont really see my interpration of this song anywhere online but I had gone through some stuff as a kid that was unpleasant not going to trauma dump or details lol but I remember years after it happened when you are involuntarily replaying the memories of it in your head youd try to convince yourself nothing is real over and over just trying to deny that reality exists as a cope to stop feeling it or rationalise it as a false memory or something and thats what the song reminds me of especially with the lyrics aswell with the need for comfort and willingness there.