Zoroastrianism
Central Belief
Central to Zoroastrianism is the emphasis on moral choice, to choose the responsibility and duty for which one is in the mortal world, or to give up this duty and so facilitate the work of druj. Similarly, predestination is rejected in Zoroastrian teaching. Humans bear responsibility for all situations they are in, and in the way they act toward one another. Reward, punishment, happiness, and grief all depend on how individuals live their lives.
History
With possible roots dating back to the second millennium BCE, Zoroastrianism enters recorded history in the 5th-century BCE, and along with a Mithraic Medianprototype and a Zurvanist Sassanid successor it served as the state religion of the pre-Islamic Iranian empires for more than a millennium, from around 600 BCE to 650 CE. Zoroastrianism was suppressed from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633–654.
Inspiration
I am a worshipper of God
A Zarathushtrian in worship of God
These pledges and intents I do declare:
I pledge my thoughts to good thoughts
I pledge my speech to good words
I pledge my actions to good deeds
I pledge myself to the highest discerning belief in worship of God
Sacrad Text
Avesta
Special Days
Nowruz – New Year’s Day
Region
Primarily in Iran and Persia at this time there are less than 200,000 practicing Zoroastrians
Additional Information
Place appropriate links to outside resources here.
With possible roots dating back to the second millennium BCE, Zoroastrianism enters recorded history in the 5th-century BCE, and along with a Mithraic Medianprototype and a Zurvanist Sassanid successor it served as the state religion of the pre-Islamic Iranian empires for more than a millennium, from around 600 BCE to 650 CE. Zoroastrianism was suppressed from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633–654. Recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians at around 190,000, with most living in India and in Iran and their number is declining. Besides the Zoroastrian diaspora, the older Mithraic faith Yazdânism is still practiced amongst Kurds.
Zoroaster proclaimed that there is only one God, the singularly creative and sustaining force of the Universe, and that human beings are given a right of choice, and because of cause and effect are also responsible for the consequences of their choices
Central to Zoroastrianism is the emphasis on moral choice, to choose the responsibility and duty for which one is in the mortal world, or to give up this duty and so facilitate the work of druj. Similarly, predestination is rejected in Zoroastrian teaching. Humans bear responsibility for all situations they are in, and in the way they act toward one another. Reward, punishment, happiness, and grief all depend on how individuals live their lives.
Faravahar – also a symbol of Iran
In Zoroastrianism, good transpires for those who do righteous deeds. Those who do evil have themselves to blame for their ruin. Zoroastrian morality is then to be summed up in the simple phrase, “good thoughts, good words, good deeds”