Zoroastrianism

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Zoroastrianism

• One of the Worlds Oldest Monotheistic Religions

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Founder - Zarathustra

• Zarathustra Persian Prophet
• Unclear dating on his birth Some Zoroastrians
  claim 6000 BCE! Others think 600 BCE modern
  historians date it to between 1500-1000 BCE
• Belief that his birth was predicted and evil
  forces tried to kill him as a child
• His message eventually won over the Persian king
  and it became the official religion of the
  Persian Empire until the 7th century CE (Islam
  replaced it)

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Zarathustra - Zoroaster

• In the west, he is known as Zoroaster
• In the east Zarathustra or Zaroshte

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Ptolemy Zoroaster
Ptolemy and Zoroaster in Raphaels School of
Athens A collection of the greatest minds of
all times painted for a Christian popes library
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Persian Empire at its peak
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• Modern-day Iran was once called Persia

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Faravahar Zoroastrian Symbol

• Ahura Mazda?
• God is supposed to not have form transcendent
• Fravashi The good part of the human soul given
  by Ahura Mazda at birth.

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Faravahar Zoroastrian Symbol

• One hand upwards striving for constant
  spiritual improvement
• Ring in hand loyalty and faithfulness
• Circle immortality of the soul repercussions
  of our actions
• Three rows of wing feathers good thoughts,
  words, and deeds
• Three sections tail feathers the opposite
• Two streamers Spenta Mainyu and Angra Mainyu
  spirits of good and evil Figure faces one and
  turns from the other

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Holy Scriptures

• Avesta Holy Book includes the original words
  of their founder Zarathushtra, preserved in a
  series of five hymns, called the Gathas.
• The Gathas are the basic source of the religion.
• The Gathas are abstract sacred poetry, directed
  towards
• worship of the One God,
• understanding of righteousness and cosmic order,
• promotion of social justice
• and individual choice between good and evil.

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Ahura Mazda The Only God

• A single god Ahura Mazda who is supreme.
• Communication between Himself and humans is by a
  number of Attributes, called Amesha Spentas or
  Bounteous Immortals.
• Within the Gathas, the original Zoroastrian
  sacred text, these Immortals are sometimes
  described as concepts, and are sometimes
  personified.

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Cosmic Dualism

• All powerful God Ahura Mazda who is the only
  deity worthy of being worshipped, and
• An evil spirit of violence and death, Angra
  Mainyu, who opposes Ahura Mazda.
• The resulting cosmic conflict involves the entire
  universe, including humanity who is required to
  choose which to follow.
• Evil, and the Spirit of Evil, will be completely
  destroyed at the end of time. Dualism will come
  to an end and Goodness will be all in all.
  Another school of thought perceives the battle
  between Good and Evil as an ethical dualism, set
  within the human consciousness.

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Zoroastrian Creed

• I curse the Daevas.
• I declare myself a Mazda-worshipper, a supporter
  of Zarathushtra, hostile to the Daevas, fond of
  Ahura's teaching, a praiser of the Amesha
  Spentas, a worshipper of the Amesha Spentas. I
  ascribe all good to Ahura Mazda, 'and all the
  best,' the Asha-owning one, splendid,
  xwarena-owning, whose is the cow, whose is Asha,
  whose is the light, 'may whose blissful areas be
  filled with light'.

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Zoroastrian Creed

• I choose the good Spenta Armaiti (Holy Spirit)
  for myself let her be mine. I renounce the theft
  and robbery of the cow, and the damaging and
  plundering of the Mazdayasnian settlements.

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Zoroastrian Prayer Continued

• I reject the authority of the Daevas, the wicked,
  no-good, lawless, evil-knowing, the most
  druj-like of beings, the foulest of beings, the
  most damaging of beings. I reject the Daevas and
  their comrades, I reject the demons (yatu) and
  their comrades I reject any who harm beings. I
  reject them with my thoughts, words, and deeds. I
  reject them publicly. Even as I reject the head
  (authorities), so too do I reject the hostile
  followers of the druj.

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• After death, a person's urvan (soul) is allowed
  three days to meditate on his/her past life.
• The soul is then judged by a troika Mithra,
  Sraosha and Rashnu.
• If the good thoughts, words and deeds outweigh
  the bad, then the soul is taken into Heaven.
  Otherwise, the soul is led to Hell.
• The universe will go through a total of three
  eras 1. Creation 2. The present world where
  good and evil are mixed. People's good works are
  seen as gradually transforming the world towards
  its heavenly ideal 3. A final state after this
  renovation when good and evil will be separated.
• Eventually, everything will be purified. Even the
  occupants of hell will be released.

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Zoroastrian Savior

• A Saoshyant (savior) will be born of a virgin,
  but of the lineage of the Prophet Zoroaster who
  will raise the dead and judge everyone in a final
  judgment.
• Sound familiar?

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Laurie Goodstein in NYT Article

• "While Zoroastrians once dominated an area
  stretching from what is now Rome and Greece to
  India and Russia, their global population has
  dwindled to 190,000 at most, and perhaps as few
  as 124,000, according to a survey in 2004 by the
  Fezana Journal The number is imprecise because of
  wildly diverging counts in Iran, once known as
  Persia -- the incubator of the faith."

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Modern Zoroastrianism

• Less than 200,000
• Do not attempt to evangelize/convert others but
  do try to keep their religion alive
• Parsis in India Zoroastrians whose ancestors
  fled Persia (Iran) when Islam became official
  religion
• Modern Zoroastrians believe that all religions
  converge on the same god and as long as they are
  good and loyal to their god, they will go to
  heaven

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• "The Zoroastrians' mobility and adaptability has
  contributed to their demographic crisis. They
  assimilate and intermarry, virtually disappearing
  into their adopted cultures. And since the faith
  encourages opportunities for women, many
  Zoroastrian women are working professionals who,
  like many other professional women, have few
  children or none." 1

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• '' 'Survival has become a community obsession,'
  said Dina McIntyre, an Indian-American lawyer in
  Chesapeake, Va., who has written and lectured
  widely on her religion."

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Connections with Other Monotheistic Religions

• Judaism
• Christianity
• Islam
• All with one god, good vs. evil, light vs. dark,
  messiah of virgin birth, final judgment in which
  good triumphs

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• Zoroastrianism began with an ancient prophet
  called Zarathustra. Hey, his name is Zoroaster in
  Greek, get?! Zoroastrianism! He was an Iranian
  prophet who lived about 1500 B.C. The Jews have
  been around a long time, more than three thousand
  years in fact. "The argument that Judaism
  borrowed from Zoroastrianism is, as yet,
  unproven. In fact, if any borrowing was done, it
  was quite possibly the other way around. In the
  first place, the evidence actually indicates that
  Zoroaster wasn't even born until about the time
  of the Babylonian Captivity. Kenneth Boa states
  that his dates are sometimes given as between 628
  to 551 B.C. If these dates are even relatively
  accurate then it is quite possible that Judaism
  did not borrow from Zoroastrianism. Rather, it
  may actually have been Zoroaster who borrowed
  from the religion of the Jewish captives in
  Babylon. It is certainly true that Zoroaster
  spoke of such things as the coming of a savior
  and the resurrection of the body and so on. But
  he may have borrowed these ideas from the Jewish
  captives in Babylon. Indeed, it appears that all
  of these ideas can be found in the Jewish
  Scriptures prior to the Babylonian Captivity."