Zoroastrianism
The origin of Zoroastrianism was in ancient Persia where people were polytheistic. The founder of this religion has been said to live sometime between 1700 and 600 BCE, but this has been debated. There are also conflicts on when this religion has started. This is significant to the religion because since Persia was polytheistic, this new religion brought the new idea of having one God an evil spirit with similar powers. (Battle good vs. evil)In this religion a very important figure is the Zoroaster, who is the prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism. He is known most likely to have been Persian and he is believed to be alive between the 1700 and 600 BCE.
Zoroaster`s life bears a striking resemblance to the life of Jesus of Nazareth, Zoroaster was conceived by a flash of light and born to a young virgin.
For Zoroastrians, God (called Ahura Mazda), is the beginning of the end,the creator of everything visible and invisible.Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster spent the rest their lives preaching, teaching, and fighting to convince people of the power of one God.
Zoroastrians believe that there is one God named Ahura Mazda that governs the universe. They believe that his main rival is AngraMainyu, who is an evil spirit with similar powers, and denied the truth and represents the forces of evil.Ahura Mazda and AngraMainyu had a 12 000 year battle, representing good vs evil, where Ahura Mazda was at an advantage because he has more power than AngraMainyu. The main believes which are that there are really 2 deities. One is supreme and represents good and the other has less power and represents evil. This, therefore, answers the questions ‘If God is good, why is there evil in the world?’.
Some of the key practices in this religion involve celebrating a coming-of-age, and all the young Parsis would have to do this process at a specific age depending on where they lived.In Persia, they would do this ceremony when they are 10 years old. During this ceremony, a shirt is given to them and it is supposed to be worn for their whole life.
For the purification rituals, a dog is involved in the ritual and it takes several days to complete.During this ritual, they will touch the dog’s left ear. By doing this, they believe that the dog’s gaze will send evil spirits away.
The religious texts for this religion which areAvestan: Ahura Mazda was the creator of 21 nasks. 2 copies of it were created, one was put into the house of archives, and another was put into imperial treasury.Alexander was on a conquest of Persia, and while on that conquest the Avesta was burned and they were all placed in different locations and the Greeks could use them.
Shapur 1 sent out priests to find the text portions of the Avesta, which were in the Greek’s possessions and the scripts were secured underneath in the Greek’s possessions.
Pahlavi: it was created in the 9th and 10th century and it contains Zoroastrian books.
Zoroastrianism believes in some very important symbol and images in their religion. One of themincludes the symbol of fire because they believe that fire is what helps them be alive. With no source of fire then there is no life and if it turns off, they obviously immediately turn it back on. Also an image of the God on top three rows of feathers. Each row represents good words, good thoughts, or good deeds.
Lastly Zoroastrianism has influence the world in many way, there are approximately 140 000 Zoroastrians in the world today. The majority of them live in either India or Iran, the centre of the Zoroastrian culture are in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The Zoroastrian population in North America is around12 000. Even though Ontario has a very small community of them, it is noticeable and a religious group. In fact, other than in India and Iran, Ontario has the next largest community of Zoroastrians, with a population of 4000 people.
Another important influence on the world and overall impact is that the idea of Satan as God`s rival, so prominent in Judeo-Christian culture, were likely influenced by the Zoroastrians around the time of Babylonian exile.