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Description: Gnosticism and Manichaeism took some of Plato's ideas and shape them into their dualistic credo, thus setting off a storm of protest by the Neoplatonists who condemned Gnostic distortion of the teachings of Plato. Plotinus believed that the teachings of Gnostics were horrible because hey apparently followed the teachings of Plato and had some compatible views on the origin and nature of the cosmos with Platonism, but "Gnostic myth" actually twisted Plato's original teachings, and ultimately turned against him. Neoplatonists had a generally cheerful and optimistic view of the world as opposed to the Gnostics who despised it. Evil does not exist, it is just a "lack or deficit of Goodness" according to Neoplatonism. The only source of evil for Neoplatonists is being in the state of distance from the One, as a result of turning to the excessive material pleasures downwards and not toward superior spiritual reality upwards. Augustine became Neoplatonist in indirect way, and we know that Neoplatonistic texts helped in his transition to Christianity. He used the Platonic writings to attack Manichaeism, a sect which he once belonged. He came across Neoplatonic works of Plotinus and Ambrose written in Latin that helped him to change his Manichaean way of thinking about good and evil. Augustine said that Manichaean God is not true God because He is vulnerable to evil, stating that a true God is omnipotent and can't be affected in any way. After Augustine encountered Neoplatonic teachings he called Manichean teachings extremely simplified, pointing out that people are not found in every life situation torn between just two alternatives: good and evil, since people have multiple, complex and complicated desires and needs. According to Augustine we do not have two substances in us that are in war with each other, light and darkness, good and evil, but the problem is in our will that longs for a multitude of things that we want, of which only some are good. In this way he formulated his doctrine of good and evil influenced by Neoplatonism which was completely different from the dualistic approach we find in Gnosticim and Manichaeism.