Religious Dualism: Some Logical and Philosophical Difficulties

AFLOROAEI - Religious Dualism: Some Logical and Philosophical Difficulties
good» while the other one is «the evil». Consequently, the
former will be responsible for a „good” creation, the latter for
an „evil” one, and man, as an individual or as part of a
community, will have to choose between them” 4 . He will focus
on the older assumption that Iran could have been the native
country of religious dualism 5 . However, he realises that this
hypothesis is difficult to prove (taking into consideration the
research conducted by specialists such as Carsten Colpe, H. M.
Schenke and Gilles Quispel). There is also made an assumption
that the dualist representations are in direct relation with the
religious history of Judaism 6 . Dualist concepts and
representations were observed, on the one hand, in the ancient
Greek or Mediterranean culture and, on the other hand, in the
Indian culture 7 . A provisional conclusion is that dualist
representations can be found in many cultures, none of them
having directly influenced the others.
In another work, The Dictionary of Religions, conceived by
Mircea Eliade and completed by Ioan Petru Culianu in 1990, it
is stated that the term „dualism” does not characterise only
one Iranian religious doctrine or another. „Later on, scholars
discovered that dualist myths are spread worldwide and suffer
innumerable changes at all cultural levels and in a great number of
religions, from those studied by ethnology to the „great religions” such
as Buddhism, Christianity, Greek religion, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism
etc.” 8 . A generally accepted definition of dualism is: ”an
opposition of two principles”. It is mentioned that this formula
„involves judgement based on moral values (good/evil) and a
hierarchical organisation of reality at all levels: cosmological,
anthropological, ethical etc”. We also find that „two types of religious
dualism have been traditionally recognised: the radical dualism, which
states the existence of two co-eternal principles, responsible for the
whole creation; and the moderate or monarchical dualism (which does
not question the monarchical authority of a supreme creator),
supporting the idea that the second principle appears later and has its
4 Ioan P. Couliano, Les gnoses dualistes d’Occident. Histoire et mythes,
Plon, 1990, chap. I, 1.
5 Ibidem, chap. I. 3.
6 Ibidem.
7 Ibidem, I.6.
8 Mircea Eliade, Ioan Petru Couliano, Dictionnaire des religions, Plon,
1990, § 12.1.
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