This is a well worth read in that it begins to break down a stereotype of Iran in these troubled times. The Persians are one of the most mannered people as well as educated and have a deep and ancient history behind them. They will treat any guest with great hospitality. The more we understand about a culture the more we will find its beauty and the more we will understand ourselves in context of the world. Persian culture has much depth. Thank you for the article.
Zoroastrianism was remarkable in the ancient world for its monotheistic basis and its good vs. evil and truth vs. falsehood belief system. It was not pure Good/Evil Dualism, which posits coequal forces of Good and Evil locked in an eternal struggle. It taught that Ahura Mazda, the good, wise and supreme creator, would ultimately defeat Angra Mainyu, the destructive, evil spirit of the cosmos. And humans would participate in the battle and the ultimate victory through moral agency, the free will determinism that stands on good and bad choices and behaviors. What is most remarkable are the similarities between Zoroastrianism and Judaism and the fact that both appear to have developed somewhat in parallel. I use the word “somewhat” because it is possible that Zoroaster and Moses were contemporaries, or at the very least they were both alive in the 2nd millennium BC. Abraham, the father of Judaism, predates both of them by 400-800 years. But Judaism was a tiny religion prior to Moses; only 70 “Jewish” forbears made the trip from Canaan to Egypt around 1800 BC. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt some 400 years later they numbered between 2 and 3 million.
So the question becomes: when a religion claims to know true God, on what basis does the religion make that claim? How can we evaluate these claims? An important question since religious beliefs move cultures.
This article is a documentary of the ability of the human mind to invent gods. The question is: how do we really know what is true? Is there a real God who wants to be known, and if so, how does God reveal God to us? especially since it is so obvious that a multitude of crazy gods invented from the human mind cannot be true.
To this, I want to add that the Zoroastrians exist to this day. In Iran, they are not numerous but they exist. What is more common, is to meet people (mainly Muslim, but I wasn't asking) who proudly wear the symbols of that religion as jewellery - as something dear to them, because Zoroastrianism represent their tradition and history.
One day I was driving a long-distance bus to Isfahan, and made friends with a local boy who couldn't speak any language and I couldn't speak his. But we drank countless teas together and we showed each other our family pictures on mobile phones. When the moment came to bid farewell, the boy took the most precious thing he had on his neck and gave it to me. And that was a steel necklace of Ahura Mazda. I still have it.
I want to write a story about it, because writing about Iran is timely. The Western society has very wrong idea about Iranians as extremist religious thugs, which is not the case. I wrote another story about my meeting with another religious minority in Iran, the Baha'i: https://nomadicmind.substack.com/p/too-much-said
Thanks for sharing and thanks Lydia for your interesting writing. I also posted some articles about this ancient civilization in this region. I suspect you guys find it interesting as well. Feel free to check it out and comment if you would like to. One of the related work of my writing:
This is a well worth read in that it begins to break down a stereotype of Iran in these troubled times. The Persians are one of the most mannered people as well as educated and have a deep and ancient history behind them. They will treat any guest with great hospitality. The more we understand about a culture the more we will find its beauty and the more we will understand ourselves in context of the world. Persian culture has much depth. Thank you for the article.
Zoroastrianism was remarkable in the ancient world for its monotheistic basis and its good vs. evil and truth vs. falsehood belief system. It was not pure Good/Evil Dualism, which posits coequal forces of Good and Evil locked in an eternal struggle. It taught that Ahura Mazda, the good, wise and supreme creator, would ultimately defeat Angra Mainyu, the destructive, evil spirit of the cosmos. And humans would participate in the battle and the ultimate victory through moral agency, the free will determinism that stands on good and bad choices and behaviors. What is most remarkable are the similarities between Zoroastrianism and Judaism and the fact that both appear to have developed somewhat in parallel. I use the word “somewhat” because it is possible that Zoroaster and Moses were contemporaries, or at the very least they were both alive in the 2nd millennium BC. Abraham, the father of Judaism, predates both of them by 400-800 years. But Judaism was a tiny religion prior to Moses; only 70 “Jewish” forbears made the trip from Canaan to Egypt around 1800 BC. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt some 400 years later they numbered between 2 and 3 million.
Ancient Iran? Did you mean Persia?
So the question becomes: when a religion claims to know true God, on what basis does the religion make that claim? How can we evaluate these claims? An important question since religious beliefs move cultures.
This article is a documentary of the ability of the human mind to invent gods. The question is: how do we really know what is true? Is there a real God who wants to be known, and if so, how does God reveal God to us? especially since it is so obvious that a multitude of crazy gods invented from the human mind cannot be true.
A very good question!...
To this, I want to add that the Zoroastrians exist to this day. In Iran, they are not numerous but they exist. What is more common, is to meet people (mainly Muslim, but I wasn't asking) who proudly wear the symbols of that religion as jewellery - as something dear to them, because Zoroastrianism represent their tradition and history.
One day I was driving a long-distance bus to Isfahan, and made friends with a local boy who couldn't speak any language and I couldn't speak his. But we drank countless teas together and we showed each other our family pictures on mobile phones. When the moment came to bid farewell, the boy took the most precious thing he had on his neck and gave it to me. And that was a steel necklace of Ahura Mazda. I still have it.
I want to write a story about it, because writing about Iran is timely. The Western society has very wrong idea about Iranians as extremist religious thugs, which is not the case. I wrote another story about my meeting with another religious minority in Iran, the Baha'i: https://nomadicmind.substack.com/p/too-much-said
Thanks for sharing and thanks Lydia for your interesting writing. I also posted some articles about this ancient civilization in this region. I suspect you guys find it interesting as well. Feel free to check it out and comment if you would like to. One of the related work of my writing:
https://kianzarzari.substack.com/p/what-we-burn-before-we-begin-again?r=70k2ar&utm_medium=ios