We may look around us today and observe that black-and-white thinking is everywhere. This tendency to think in absolutes, in all-or-nothing terms, is called binary thinking. Others may refer to this thinking style as Manichean thinking.
The Parthian prophet Mani (216–274 CE), who was born into a Jewish Christian Gnostic sect, claimed the teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus were incomplete and that their messages had been corrupted and misinterpreted.
Jesus was one of the four prophets of the faith, along with Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha and Mani.
At a young age, Mani began preaching and presented his dualistic interpretation of the world as one of light and darkness, good and evil.
Manichaeism spread rapidly from the east to the west and reached Rome through the apostle Psattiq, by 280 C.E.
This religious system saw the world as a conflict between light and darkness and had a rigid adherence to doctrine and resistance to changing beliefs, even in the light of new evidence.
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| Manichaean priests, writing at their desks. Eighth or ninth century manuscript from Gaochang, Tarim Basin, China. |
This cognitive distortion, often called confirmation bias, can become a systemic way of thinking and make it difficult to engage in critical reflection, see that people and situations may have a mix of positives and negatives or inhibit the ability to change your mind.
Even though Manichaeism is a now-extinct religion, the tendency to think in terms of opposing categories: good and evil, is very prevalent and this often distorts our perception of reality.
Polarised thinking, viewing the world through a binary lens, without shades of grey inclines us to see people, groups and ideas as either, good or bad.
The world is complex and unpredictable and so are people. Everywhere we find messiness, paradox, contradiction and hypocrisy: Even in ourselves.