Zoroastrians Fight Extinction

VOANews ^ | 12/23/03 | VOANews

[greenwolf]

But apart from academics and some 300-thosuand believers, few people know much about ancient Iranian prophet Zarathustra and his teaching. “Yet only one thousand years ago, millions, millions espoused Zarathustra’s monotheistic percepts in nations which stretched from (the ancient Chinese city of) Sian (western China) to the Eastern China across central Asia, northern India, Iran, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia up Greece in the west and Arabia, north Africa and Ethiopia in the south,” says Adi Davar, a board member of the World Zoroastrian Organization. Mr. Davar spoke at a recent seminar on Zoroastrian religion at the Library of Congress in Washington.

That would appear to offer some hope in the case of I-Slam; maybe it can go away too...

[eastforker]

I am bumping this to not lose sight of post 23,there is much to be pondered if September the 11th could have been, in the Islamic view,an attack on Christian beliefs.Maybe we shall find out tomorrow.

[thiscouldbemoreconfusing]

the msnbc link isn't working.

[Mitchell]

Ping to the ultimate anniversary theory.

[Once-Ler]

YOUR POST IS NUMBER 23!!!

Do you really think we believe this is a coincidence?
2+3=5
Jesus, having 5 letters, of which 2 are vowels and 3 consonents
2,3,5 are the first three prime numbers; they are also the 3rd,4th,and 5th numbers of the fibonnacci sequence, which is found quite frequently in nature
23 is the first prime number in which both digits are prime numbers and add up to another prime number.
The Earth's axis is currently tilted 23.5 degrees to the celestial equator
All humans recieved 23 chromosomes from his/her mother, and 23 chromosomes from his/her father
Within the DNA double helix, there are unexplained bonding irregularities every 23rd angstrom.
All humans have 23 vertebrae; also 23 joints in human arm
Blood circulates through the body in 23 seconds
there were 23 letters in the Latin alphabet... (22 in hebrew, 24 in greek) in English, W is the 23 letter... it is the only letter to be pronounced polysyllabically and has two points down, three up, and also it is double(2)U and has 3 syllables
The first two landings on the moon were Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 - 11 + 12= 23
The 22 trumps of the Tarot actually create a cycle of 23
In the final assault on the Death Star, Luke Skywalker is in Red 5. Red 2 and Red 3 start the bomb runs at 23 degrees. "Stay on target!"

[Rytwyng]

fascinating... bookmarking for future reference.

[Skywalk]

I disagree on your chronology of monotheism.

I am almost rock-sure in my belief(based on evidence, mind you) that Akhenaton was the first to propose a truly monotheistic religion. The Biblical canon(Old Testament) as we know it was not established until 400 BCE. The similarity of the "Mosaic Law" to the Code of Hammurabi should be attributed to the Hebrew way of "re-telling" stories. The Epic of Gilgamesh and its flood is no doubt older than the Biblical flood. Hammurabi likely predates the Moses we know in the Bible. After all, there was a REAL code of Hammurabi that has contemporary sourcing, the Mosaic law does not have a contemporary source to corroborate its existence.

The fact that King Sargon sounds extremely similar to the finding of the baby Moses, and indeed a similarity to the birth of Jesus is more evidence of this Hebrew tradition. There simply is no evidence that a King Herod ever ordered the deaths of infant boys up to age 3, and in fact, the Romans would not have tolerated such blind cruelty for the superstitious rantings of an old puppet-king.

If there ever was a captivity in Egypt, it is not likely that it was all Hebrews, but it is possible that the alleged "adopted" son, Moses, was actually a REAL Egyptian who did the adopting and became their religious leader.

Moses--Ramosses. Similarity in names?

In any event, it's clear from the Bible itself that the idea that only one God EXISTED was a much later invention of the Jews/Israelites. Heck, we have the Jahwist and the Priestly and the Elohist(and one other, right?) They even call God by different names(Elohim vs Yawheh) Jews would offer sacrifices to other Gods so long as they were not in the land of Israel(early on.) If this were not true, the Egyptian priests would not have matched Moses "miracles" step-for-step until the Plagues.

The God of Israel is THEIR God, no one else's until the later development of a truly monotheistic system.

[Skywalk]

I'm partial to Melkor or Morgoth...or Sauron ;)

[little jeremiah]

It is inconceivable that the founder of the first monotheistic faith...

The writer of this article must not know anything about the vast body of Vedic literature, which predates Zarathustra by millenia, and espouse monotheism. What is generally known as Hinduism is a remnant of the ancient Vedic culture. But since the Vedic scriptures are available for study still, one can read them and clearly understand that monotheism is the foundation of Hinduism. The many gods and goddesses recognized in Hinduism are not the Supreme Godhead, who is recognized as their source and their Master. Also, many Hindus currently understand monotheism as the highest truth of their religion.

[Frank_2001]

Good article!

[mel]

bump for later reading

[stripes1776]

The Zoroastrians prided themselves on their beards

The Zoroastrian men that I know don't have beards. They have clean-shaven faces. The picture they have in their living room of Zoroaster does have a beard, I suppose in the same way that pictures of Jesus usually show him with a beard. But I believe their priest who officiates at their fire temple does have a beard.

[Cronos]

I've got to admit I can sense my favouring of Mosaic law as being the foundation of the first monotheistic religion is prejudiced, but there are fallacies in your arguments.

The Mosses- Ramesses is a glaring one -- both names are English renditions of Middle Eastern names and are both incorrect. Moses is really Musa -- a very Egyptian name while it is Ramesess not Ramosses.

Elohim means lord -- it's derived from old Canaanite (phoenician to you Greeks) term for The High god of the Canaanites -- El.

Yhwh was supposed to be the personal name of the Hebrew (Hebaru = wanderers) God. So El would mean God, while Yhwh would be the name of God.

[Cronos]

But, what you have pointed out about King Sargon I of Assyria is true, and the same story is repeated in the story of Cyrus the great (another one of my pet peeves, I refuse to call Alexander great -- he was lucky that's it), about an infant found in the bull-rushes.

Most of the themese of Judaism derive from Sumerian religions (the flood which is reflected in the Sumerian tale of Gilgamesh and the flood of Manu in the Rig Vedas) and the babe in the bull-rushes story.

[Cronos]

23?

But the answer to the question : "what's the meaning of life the universe, everything is 42

[Cronos]

Quite true, and as I state -- Hinduism is intrinsically related to the precursor of Zoroastrianism. So Zoroaster was a reformer like Gautama Buddha (strange how's he's always potrayed as Chinese when he was Indian) was the reformer of hinduism and Christ was a reformer too.

[Cronos]

Aingra Mainyu. Is that not just the most evil name for an evil spirit!? I'm fascinated by this stuff as well.

No, not really, Zoroastrianism is really Dualist -- there are two divinities -- good and evil, locked in Battle. That's why the old TEstament doesn't really mention the devil, except for the strange book of Job (which does have common points in "The lamentations of the Suffering Peasant" -- a Sumerian tale dating abck to 3000BC +) and our inference in Genesis.

[Cronos]

Alexander's Persian conquests were hardly a blink in that nation's history -- the Seleucids were soon overthrown by the Parthians. Do note that Trajan DID defeat the Parthians and installed a client King at Ctesiphon. The Roman Empire could have spread further east -- by becoming more dualist and federalist, oh, but that's again revisionist history which never works.