Second Paradigm Revolution: Dualism 500 BCE to 300 CE

(March 3, 2025)  While dualism started innocently enough it has become one of the great curses of humanity amplifying the "us versus them" mentality. Dualism was an idea by a Pagan Persian priest called Zoroaster (by the Greeks). He observed that conscious experiences like smells were inherently good or bad. Therefore the divine realm was also inherently good or bad. (this assumption of inherent valuation of conscious experiences was only proved false in modern times by neuroscience). 

Zoroastrianism claimed these two realms were at war with each other until the end times when they would be united once again. Zoroastrianism was adopted as the religion of the Persian Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BCE) because this ideology ended up supporting empires. Their kings could portray themselves as the good guys fighting the evil other. The resulting empire spread dualism far and wide. This is also why Roman Emperor Constantine (306 to 337 CE) adopted it in its Christian form and why his successors forced it onto the Roman empire.

In the west, idea was inserted into Judaism and from there into Christianity and Islam. In the east it triggered the debates which led to the founding of Buddhism as a dualist religion whose followers seek to escape the imperfect material world. Buddhism in turn led to the counter ideology of Hinduism seen in the Bhagavad Gita which is a statement against the impossibility of defining absolute evil.

Mainstream classical culture also became dualist with its traditional nature based spirituality (Pythagorean, Orcus in classical times) being replaced by Stoicism. The anti-dualist reaction against Stoicism was Epicureanism and Skepticism (305 BCE and after) with its teaching that pleasure is not evil.

(July 3, 2022, updated March 17, 2025) Dualism within its conscious feeling context is first detected in the earliest Zoroastrian scriptures (Yasnas) known as the Gathas where Spenta Manyu (community supporter) is at odds with the Angra Manyu meaning “Anger supporter.” Anger is a conscious feeling. Also notice the perceptheism here in which divine powers are personified. 

Yet Zoroaster did not really like the consequences of his dualism because it meant splitting the Divine realm into Good and Evil halves at war with each other. Thus he came up with the end times idea which would reunite the two halves into an eternal whole:​

Because Zoroastrianism was lordified it separated divine powers into spirits and personified gods and goddesses. The spirits of nature, the daevas now became evil because they could not discern between Good and Evil. The religious culture of Zoroaster was fully lordified with the result that Divine powers were now thought of as impersonal spirits instead of as deity which could be optionally personified. This word became “devils” in English. As shown below, all those who follow Evil powers (druj) were to be killed and those doing the killing will be favored by lord Mazda.

Yet Good thoughts can also lead to the kingdom (dominion) of God (Ahura Mazda) on earth. Jesus seems to adopted this idea without the dualism:

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(July 9, 2022) One of the great ironies of history is that Christianity became apocalyptic while Jesus's authentic teachings show he was anti-apocalyptic. But, this shows the power of paradigms. This betrayal of Jesus began at the festival which Christians call Pentecost but which Jews call the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of the Leavened Bread held in July/August. It celebrated the wheat harvest and it was observed 50 days after Passover (Feast of the Unleavened Barley Bread) when Jesus was crucified. 

This linkage of the end times with the dead rising began in a section of the Hebrew Scripture book of Isaiah known to scholars as the "Little Apocalypse." It dates to shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE (Millar 1992). This section sought to explain why God allowed the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The conclusion was that God's chosen people had not lived up to their purpose by bringing a fuller, more spiritual life to the world: 

This high ideal of universal salvation started to be replaced by vengeful end times judgment after the dualist Zoroastrian Persians conquered Babylon in 539 BCE. This replacement was accelerated and amplified by the trials the Jews experienced under Hellenistic rule after the Persian defeat by Alexander in 332 BCE.

These Hellenistic induced tensions became apparent during the rule of the Hellenistic king Antiochus Epiphanes (ruled 175 to 164 BCE) who tried to Hellenize the Jews and in so doing eventually lead to the Maccabean revolt. During the troubles of his reign the Biblical book of Daniel was written 

The book of Daniel makes the first mention of an “anointed prince” (“christ” in Greek) yet this mention references a real historical event surrounding a prince commander of Antiochus Epiphanes. His “anointed prince,” Apollonius, attacked Jerusalem in 167 BCE killing most of its men and enslaving most of its women. 

After this victory Apollonius ordered the destruction of the outer city walls which was accomplished in seven weeks according to the Daniel text below. After that, he rebuilt the smaller and older center of Jerusalem for use as a base by his army. This fortification was completed in just over a year. About sixty-two weeks after his victory (the time interval again according to Daniel) Apollonius was killed in battle by a revolting Jewish army (Whitehorne 1992). The remnants of Apollonius’ army then destroyed their Jerusalem fortification before retreating. This event is described in the Daniel passage below:

A few generations later when the Maccabean revolt did not turn out to be as perfect as some expected, the historical “anointed one” (Hebrew “messiah”) in the above passage came to be interpreted as THE apocalyptic “Anointed One” or “Elect One” (capital letters) by those not knowing their history.

The end time idea became a part of Jewish culture during the times between the Biblical New and Old Testaments as evidenced by the books of the Pseudoepigraphia (2 Macc. 7:9, 14, 23; 12:44; 14:46, 2 Esdr. 7:32-44, 1 Enoch 51:1-5). Significantly, this Jewish apocalyptic literature was not included in the Bible because it shows the Jewish people coming out on top instead of the Christians.

What happened at Pentecost was recorded with some embellishments fifty years after the event in the book of Acts:

What is clear is that a mass emotional event occurred in those who believed that Jesus arose from the dead. This was interpreted as the coming down of divine spirits (collectively, the Holy Spirit). Thus was formed the core statement of faith of Christianity. If you believe that Jesus arose from the dead then you would receive the gift of the spirit and be saved from the coming apocalypse.

The observation that Gentiles could receive the Spirit like this was the main reason for admitting them into early Christianity as mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Galatians in chapters 2 and 3:1-5. Acts very explicitly records this justification:

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