Wednesday Wisdom

One of the oldest monotheistic (One God) religions which arose a short time historically after Judaism was one called Zoroastrianism. It was founded by the Persian prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) sometime between 1500 and 1000 BC in ancient Iran. It became the dominant faith of several Persian empires, including the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian. They worshiped of Ahura Mazda, the supreme god representing truth, light, and goodness. They believed the universe is a battleground between Ahura Mazda (good) and Angra Mainyu (evil) and that humans have free will to choose which side to support. Fire represented divine light of truth, and they lived by an ethical triad of “Good thoughts, Good words and Good deeds”. The concept of heaven or hell was accepted where souls cross the Chivat Bridge and are judged by their deeds, the righteous pass on and the wicked fall into darkness.

In the third century a prophet named Mani was born near al-Mada'in, Iraq, which was then part of the Parthian Empire, soon to be taken over by the Sasanian Empire. This Iranian prophet was the founder of the major dualistic religion known as Manichaeism. Around AD 242, Mani formally began his public preaching career, proclaiming himself to be the "Apostle of Jesus Christ" and the final successor in a line of prophets that included Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus. Mani sought to create a universal religion that transcended ethnical and linguistic boundaries, incorporating what he saw as the essential truths of all previous faiths. He believed his teachings were the complete, uncorrupted version of the truth revealed by God to all nations. The core of his religion was a complete dualism where two eternally opposed principles, the Kingdom of Light (Good/Spirit) and the Kingdom of Darkness (Evil/Matter) waged a constant war. Salvation was achieved through gnosis (knowledge) that would liberate the spiritual particles of light trapped within the material body.

Mani organized his followers into a structured church with two classes: the "Elect" (monastic core who followed strict ascetic rules) and the "Auditors" (laity who supported the Elect). Manichaeism's vigorous missionary efforts led to its rapid spread from the Middle East to North Africa (Hellenistic world) and eastward along the Silk Road toward China. Mani’s fortunes changed under the reign of Sasanian King Bahram I (reigned 273–276 AD in Persia. The powerful Zoroastrian clergy, led by the high priest Kartir, saw Manichaeism as a dangerous heresy and successfully instigated a persecution of the prophet and his followers. Mani was arrested, subjected to a prolonged trial (which his followers called the "Passion"), and subsequently executed.

When Arab Muslim armies conquered Persia around 651 AD, Islam replaced Zoroastrianism as the state religion of the region. Early Muslims often regarded Zoroastrians as “People of the Book” (like Jews and Christians), but they were still heavily taxed and socially pressured to convert. Zoroastrian communities shrank dramatically through conversion, persecution, and assimilation. Many Zoroastrians fled to India, where they became known as the Parsis (“Persians”). In Iran (Persia), small Zoroastrian enclaves survived in places like Yazd and Kerman, but often under hardship. Mani's life ended in martyrdom, but his religious and philosophical ideas endured for over a thousand years, influencing burgeoning religions like Christianity and Islam.

The organized religion is gone, the ideas resonated across time

The dualism of Mani's philosophy (Manichaeism) is its defining characteristic, proposing a fundamental, eternal separation between two opposing powers, the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness. This philosophical and religious system attempts to explain the problem of evil by asserting that the material world is inherently corrupt and the afterlife brings the light of truth.

St. Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus, 354–430 AD) was a brilliant Roman educated rhetorician from North Africa who, after a restless youth that included following Manichaeism, he experienced a profound conversion to Christianity. He became the Bishop of Hippo and one of the most influential theologians and philosophers in Western history. His monumental works, including Confessions and The City of God, profoundly shaped doctrines on grace, sin, the relationship between the Church and secular society, securing his legacy as an intellectual thought leader of the Church.

Augustine was a Manichaean "Elector" for nine years before converting to Christianity. His later writings against Manichaeism defined the Christian anti-heretical thought for centuries and, paradoxically, ensured Mani's philosophy remained a central intellectual reference point in Western thought. The most ironic part of his doctoral work and writings, was Augustine concept of “City of Man” and “City of God” which influenced St Augustine and reflects the “Dualism” of Mani. “The City of Man” is the love of self and those who seek glory in this world while “The City of God” is those who will love and serve God. Augustine’s “spiritual dualism” used the concept of man’s original sin and grace as its counter.

The modern tendency toward a “Manichaean view of the world,” in which everything is cast as either purely good or purely evil, feels divisive and oversimplified, lacking the logic needed to understand complex realities.

And now you know...

Thank you, Dad, for the gift of curiosity

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science.

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses.

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.