Posted on 02/06/2006 9:40:03 AM PST by presidio9
After trying for four years to have a baby, Khorshed Bulsara called on her fellow Zoroastrians for help. She tapped into a new fertility clinic whose mission is to save one of the world's oldest religions.
Her doctor waved off concerns that Parsis, as Zoroastrians are known in India, may suffer fertility problems linked to generations of inbreeding within a tiny and highly insular community. She put Ms. Bulsara through a battery of tests, prescribed fertility drugs and began an expensive program of in vitro fertilization.
To defray costs, a local Parsi organization and anonymous Parsi donors gave the couple about $2,500.
The investment paid off. In September, Ms. Bulsara delivered Parsi triplets. "There is a way to fulfill one's dream of having a beautiful family through the wonders of technology and the undoubted power of prayers," said her husband, Khushro Bulsara.
There are fewer than 200,000 Zoroastrians in the world, experts say. Most are in India and Iran, the religion's birthplace. The numbers are clearly dwindling in India. According to the 2001 census -- the latest figures available -- India's Parsi population had fallen to 69,601 from 76,382 a decade earlier.
To replenish their ranks, followers of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, who is thought to have lived about 3,500 years ago, are extolling not just the modern benefits of fertility clinics but also those of Internet dating.
The high-technology push to connect and reproduce Parsis comes as education and work opportunities pull a younger generation into the global work force, delaying love, marriage and children. Like other ethnic
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Thus Surfed Zarathustra
Ahura Mazda still lives, apparently, in the hearts of 200,000.
BTTT
LOL
What, they don't want to "celebrate diversity"?
Heh. Very clever!
Some Biblical scholars believe the Magi who visited Jesus were Zororastrians.
Who knows?
Internet dating?
Well, whatever!
Dying Religion Ping!
Freddie Mercury was a full Parsi. His funeral was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest. Unfortunately, for some reason or other, Freddie did not have children. He was fruitful, but did not multiply.
BTW, if yoiu read the whole article you might have noticed its failure to mention that Orthodox Zoroastrianism forbids conversion.
Didn't they "invent" individual judgment/accountability, Heaven and Hell as locations of paradise and anti-paradise, the final last judgment of all, and everlasting life in the afterlife?
It's really a shame that the Zoroastrian religion doesn't allow converts. The course of history in the Middle East might have been much brighter if Zoroastrianism, rather than Islam, had come to dominate the region. But with a "no converts" policy, it didn't stand a chance. Probably the result of an off-the-cuff comment by an early leader of the religion, which made sense in the limited context of the time and place, but which he'd take back in heartbeat if he had a chnace.
Emphasis on "fruit."
LOL! I hope that pun was intended.
The only reason this religion is dying is because of persecution by a certain Religion Of Peace® that promises to kill anyone who doesn't agree with them or criticizes them in any fashion. From what I understand, Zoroastrianism is a gentle religion that has no quarrel with the Jews. Historically, King Cyrus is supposed to have returned the Jews to Israel after the Babylonian Captivity, and helped them rebuild because in religion and outlook they seemed so compatible. To this day you will find more people who accept Jews in Iran than anywhere else in the region.
Also -- note they call them Parsis. Anytime you see the word "Pars" you can think "Pers", pronounced like "pears", and it means Persia. With the language "Farsi", change the F to a P, pronounce it as above, and you see you have the Farsian - Parsian - Persian language of Persia.
Indeed. Mithraism, which predates Christianity and has many tenets Christians believe to be theirs (virgin birth, dying for mankind's sins, resurrection, etc.), is an outgrowth of Zoroastrianism.
Christianity does not lay claim to any of its "tenets." What you meant to say is that Zoroastrianism has many similarities to Judiasm & Christianity.
No. I meant to say exactly what I said.
Just trying to protect you from your own ignorance.
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