DISCUSSIONS ABOUT ZOROASTRIANISM
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# 22) Q: But the Persian King Cyrus is God's shepherd and choosen one, in the Bible !!!, Why did Jahweh made his signature through the history of the Jews in general and the one Jew, Jezus in particular ? My point is that if Zarathustraism was and is a complete religion and/or philosophy, why didn't God leave it that way ?

A: Yahweh is the name given to 'their' god by the Jews. Originally, Yahweh is NOT the God of the World, but the god of the Jews. Genesis 1 speaks of Elohim creating the Earth - Elohim means gods. It was not until Isaiah, a prophet of the Jewish Exile, that Yahweh acquires Universality. That happened under direct influence of Persian religion.

Yahweh makes his signature, as you say, through the Jews, because he was the Tribalist god of the Jews. But in reality , Monotheists, do not believe that there is a god of the Jews and gods of other peoples. Allah, Yahweh, Mazda, etc., are all names for the One and Only God. The reason Yahweh, Allah and Mazda appear different, is because different cultures created different religions in an attempt to define this One and Only God. The Jews and the Arabs, chose to picture God, at least originally, as a capricious, jealous wrathful deity. Indeed, Joshua pictures Yahweh ordering Genocide, Moses pictures him punishing the Israelites with 40 years of wondering in the Sinai, so that all the elders that reveled would die in the desert.

Zarathushtra does not see God as a Tyrant King, creating fallible creatures and then torturing them for an eternity when they do fail, like in Christian theology. Mazda is the friend of and creator of mankind which S/He treats as the adults, S/He would like us to become, with respect and freedom to choose. It is the consequences of our bad choices that punish us and that only, because the Cosmos , being the creature of Mazda, is ethical, like S/He is ethical. But even this is not for our chastisement, or for revenge, but so that we may learn how to choose right and not wrong. There is no eternal punishment, there is no sin that enslaves us, there is no fallen human race, incapable of doing right. None of these things are present in Mazdayasna.

The signature of Mazda is written in His/Her creation and what good it has and will achieve, is only because it has, and hopefully will increasingly, adhered to Her/His Right Order, willingly and by its own free choice. History is just the story of the human race. It is written by humans and changes its point of view according to the point of view of the one who is writing it. For example, to a Muslim it is Allah's signature that can be seen in history. To a Mazdayasni, on the other hand, the history of all people tells the story of man's struggle, to realize what God is truly about and to put away wrongfulness and replace it with Righteousness.

As to God leaving Zoroastrianism 'complete'. Zoroastrianism, like all religions, is a man made tool to teach man to harmonize his life with God's Right Order. It is a Vision or Conceptualization of HOW God is, indeed of How S/He must be in order to be God. So are all other religions. God does not have to complete anything - S/He is already complete. It is us that must become complete. In order to do so, we must exercise our free will and choose. When we choose wrong, eventually the consequences of our choices will catch up to us. So it was the wrongful choices of Mazdayasnis,
Christians. Jews and Muslims, which deviated their religion from its original teachings.

Zarathushtra's religion was deviated from the original. This deviation sowed the seeds, that took it from the Worlds greatest religion in numbers, to a distinct minority. Other religions, including Christianity and Judaism, have experienced the same consequences. That is why there was a reformation and a Hundred Years War, that is why the Jews have so many sects, that is why Christianity is on the wane in many parts of the West. That is also why Islam went from the most civilized to the most backward and if it continues in its present course, it will either reform or perish.

These are the facts of Asha, God's order, and not the vagaries of human history. That does not mean much - its 'reality' changes with the nature of its writer. To the American, Indian Discovery means genocide. To the Arabs, the conquering and brutalization of most of the Middle East and Central Asia, was an Act of God. To Christians, the supposed coming of Jesus will end history, but yet 2000 years have gone by and Jesus is nowhere to be seen. History is just the story of man. God is interested not in History as such, but in righteousness.

# 23) Q: Is there a particular day of the week/month, that is set aside for communal worship? What is the manner/form of worship for both the communal and individual? Are Mazda, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, different names for different conceptions of the one God?

A: Zarathushtra did not establish a day, but very probably, his successors worshipped on Sunday. Later on a system was created in which the name of the months were given names of the different reintroduced gods, the same gods that Zarathushtra called the creations of an evil mind.

This is part of the prostituting of the original message. It looks from some writings that a tribe that was close to Zarathushtra's people, geographically and linguistically, might have conquered them, some three hundred years after Zarathushtra.

In any case, the changed religion also worshipped on Sundays , but it also worshipped on the days were the name of day , (some deity's name , now a 'minor god' under Dadar (creator) Ahura Mazda) and the name of the months (named also for these deities or for deidified and personalized attributes
of God) coincided.

Nowadays, most Zarathushtrians that are so called "progressive' believe that these deities (some times called Yazatas, meaning adorable ones or one's worthy of adoration) are merely aspects of Mazda like the so called Amesha Spentas. Most others do not believe in these Yazatas, since Zarathushtra does not use the word, nor does he name any other 'gods' at all and some believe that they are actually minor gods.

The Parsis basically have their priest perform ceremonies and lead prayers. Sometimes only the priests pray and the congregation sits on silence. The Iranians have a meeting more like a Western prayer meeting, except that every one covers their heads and there is little participation from the congregation. Unfortunately, since Shia Islam considers music and singing not religious; the Iranis do not use music in their services, except as 'cultural' acts and not as part of worship. Restorationists have a service that is hardly different in structure from a conservative Evangelical service.

In my considered opinion, yes Mazda, Yahweh and Allah are names different cultures give to one and the same God. However, as you mentioned, their conceptions of this God is different. The Abrahamic God being, should I say, Authoritative, Miraculous, and , pardon me, more than a little contradictory, Mazda being, friend, companion, creator and rather logical.

Some have called Mazda distant, because S/He is said to commune with man through mind. However Mazda is so close to all living, that without Him/Her nothing will live. For example Mazda is Asha, that is Asha as an aspect of Her/His character. S/He is its source. Asha is/are the Laws (both physical and ethical), that rule, sustain and promote the Cosmos. One of these laws, Osmosis, sustains all living breathing organisms. Everytime you take a breath God as Asha and Asha as Osmosis, allows the oxygen in the air to pass to your blood and then to all your body. In other words, God is present in every one of our breaths.

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