Gnostics believed the material world is evil and was created by an inferior, ignorant deity called the demiurge.

Gnostics had a very different view of our world. They believed that spirit is good, but all physical matter is bad. In their stories, our physical universe was not made by the true, supreme God. Instead, a lower, foolish creator called the demiurge built it. This lower creator trapped tiny sparks of divine light inside human bodies, making the physical world a prison we need to escape.