Almost all the religious myths relate that man “was created by God from dust of the ground”. The bible clearly says: “And the Lord God formed man of dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul”. It is saying here that god created the body and the soul of man. A physical material part, the body of dust, and an animic part, the breath of the creator, which we call soul. Now then, if man were only a body and a soul he would be like any other animal. Slightly more intelligent than the others maybe, but inside he would be more or less the same as an animal. Later we will see that after his so-called “fall”, man such as we know him today is more than a body and a soul. Although god created the body and the soul there is something else.
There is an uncreated Spirit, not created by god, which has been imprisoned, enclosed, in the soul of man. The bible doesn't say so because the bible speaks of that created by god, and god created the body and soul. But Gnostics maintain that man has a body, a soul and a Spirit. Where did this Spirit, not created by the creator god, come from? Why is It there? This is one of the next issues we will be looking into.
The man in Eden, this “paradise” in which god placed him, didn't know who he was, he was only carrying out orders. He was naming the animals for example, being a sort of administrator, or representative of the creator god. There, in this “paradise” which god had prepared for him, it was like he was asleep, he did not know who he was or where he had come from. Man became aware of who he was, found himself, only after what was called “the sin”, the Disobedience, when he ate the forbidden fruit and was thrown out of paradise. We will also be looking at this later on.
We have said that god created the body and the soul. For Gnostics, all creation is satanic, evil and originates from a satan creator, a satanic demiurge. So not only the body but also the soul of man is something evil and satanic.