Gnosti-wha?

I have always been a fact based person, facts are straight forward and easy to comprehend and use. I admit that before college I had almost no experience with philosophy, so when I was given this assignment I...well..broke down and cried like a little girl (in a psychological sort of way).

First off Gnosticism is not a Platonic philosophy, it is a religious philosophy of sorts. Reading the first paragraph on Gnosticism on Wikipedia makes me feel like I'm reading something from L. Ron Hubbard.

So after struggling with the text I have this info:

1. Gnosticism is heretical Christian.
2. Gnosticism is Muslim.
3. Gnosticism is Jewish.
4. World peace would be achievable if we all followed Gnosticism.

AFTER further reading I came up with this,

Did the heretical Christians believe in dualism with one supreme "good" Archon (ruler, God) and another lower, more "bad" Archon that attempts to overthrow and destroy the good? The followers of Gnosticism believe in heaven and hell and finally how old is gnosticism?

To be honest Gnosticism sounds like a Christian offshoot attempting a weak attempt to return to polytheism, and with that in mind is it just a philosophy that Greek and Roman polytheistic worshipers came up with so that they could find middle ground between the coming battle over Rome and Christianity?

The Matrix has some similarity's with Gnosticism, the concept of our souls being trapped in a material world is similar to what Gnosticism preaches. But questions come out, is the crew of the Nebakanezer the lowly evil god trying to destroy the material world? I believe that they are in a sense. In their minds they are doing man a favor but isn't the Matrix itself the last part down a long chain of techno-evolution in which we are in right now? Another thing comes to mind over the dualism issue, is Agent Smith the lowly archon and Neo, the hero to millions in Zion, the good natured archon?

So with closing I have found Gnosticism a interesting topic, but like I said in my opening statements I have never been one for string philosophy. Hopefully down the road of life I will find a greater appreciation for philosophy, then I will attempt to revisit Gnosticism and hopefully find some enlightenment.