One of the features common to many religions is the idea of dualism, or, more precisely, good-evil dualism. This is a religious world-view that sees an on-going struggle or battle between good and evil both in the world and within the soul. With regard to the afterlife, dualism is often expressed in the concepts of heaven and hell. The concept of good-evil dualism is found in cultures and religions throughout the world. A few examples are described below.
One of the classic examples of good-evil dualism can be seen in the work of the Persian prophet Zoroaster (this is the Greek version of his name; in Avestan it is Zarathustra) who preached that there was only one god: Ahura Mazda (the Wise Lord) who was the creator of all things and the source of goodness. Only good emanates from Ahura Mazda, thus evil is seen as having a different source. According to Zoroastrian beliefs there is a struggle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu who is seen as a destructive force.
The ancient Persian deities, known as daewas, were described by Zoroaster as not being worthy of worship, as they are spirits of destruction.
Zoroastrianism envisions a great struggle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu after the creation of the world. Angra Mainyu defiled Ahura Mazda’s creation by bringing earthquakes which created deep valleys in the once beautiful, unscarred surface of the earth. Angra Mainyu forced the sun away from its ideal position so that today it only reaches this position once each day at noon. After the prophet Zoroaster was born, the struggle between these forces began to turn in favor of goodness.
Ahura Mazda created humanity so that they could take part in the great struggle between good and evil. For this purpose, the people were given free will. Each individual has a moral responsibility for each action taken and every person has the opportunity to reinforce goodness in the world. When all humans choose good (asha) over evil (druj), then Ahura Mazda will triumph over Angra Mainyu and with this Heaven and Earth will unite.
Another example of dualism can be seen among the Navajo Indians of North America. In Navajo culture people are born with bi-polar opposites: good and evil. Evil, described as a small grain of dust placed at the back of a person’s head, causes evil thoughts, bad dreams, and mistakes. According to Frank Waters, in his book Masked Gods: Navaho and Pueblo Ceremonial:
“Everybody releases a ghost at death no matter how good he is, for some evil must have become attached to him through thoughts or unintentional deeds.”
Waters goes on to say:
“A Navaho ghost, then, is the embodiment after death of the evil in man’s life.”
In some of the polytheistic cultures, there are good gods and bad gods. For example, among the Maya, benevolent gods bring rain, fertility, and good fortune, while malevolent gods are the cause of sickness, death, famine, and natural disasters.
With the advent of monotheism, there has also been a dualist tendency to see certain religions as good and others as evil. Generally this is expressed in the ethnocentric idea that our god is good while the god(s) of others are bad; our religion is good while other religions are bad or false or evil.
When the first Christian missionaries came to North America they often viewed Native American religions as a form of evil, which they characterized as being inspired by Satan. Elizabeth White, in an article about Jesuit missionaries and Salish Indians published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, writes:
“Catholicism represented the good, true, right, and divine; Native religion signified the bad, false, wrong, and diabolical. Priests of the Catholic faith conducted God’s work; medicine men of the Native religion worked for the Devil.”
More recently, many Christian Protestant fundamentalists characterize Islam as an evil religion. Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson has this to say about Muslims:
“These people are crazed fanatics and I want to say it now: I believe it’s motivated by demonic power, it is satanic and it’s time to recognize what we’re dealing with.”
Jerry Boykin also sees Islam as evil:
“We’ve got to love the Muslims enough to stand up against the evil that we see them perpetrating in the name of Allah, but at the same time we’ve got to offer them the Gospel of Jesus Christ in one way or another.”
Conservative Christian writer
Gina Miller also describes Islam as Satanic:
“Islam is a demonic, militant-political-religious ideology born of the children of Ishmael, and like them, it has greatly proliferated. It is one of Satan’s premiere deceptions, tyrannically ensnaring countless millions of people.”
With regard to the duality of good and evil among the Muslim Malay villagers in Rusembilan, Thailand, ethnographer Thomas Fraser, in his monograph
Fisherman of South Thailand: The Malay Villagers, writes:
“When God created Adam and Eve, Satan, still in good favor, was granted his request for immortality and unlimited fertility. Even after his expulsion from Paradise and the destruction of his magnificent heavenly palaces on account of his deception of the first human couple, Satan retained his gifts, and in addition, was granted the power to deceive all those who neglected to follow the Law of God. In his work since that time, Satan has created a vast number of offspring to assist in his deceptions.”
Dualism is sometimes a convenient way of explaining why there is evil in the world and why bad things happen.