Zoroastrianism & Religious Exchange

Somewhere on the grasslands of Central Asia, possibly around 1200 BCE — though scholars have argued for dates as early as 1500 BCE and as late as 600 BCE — a priest broke with everything his people believed. His name was Zarathustra, known to the Greeks and to us as An ancient Iranian prophet and religious reformer, traditionally dated between 1500 and 600 BCE (the exact period remains one of the most debated questions in ancient history). He rejected the polytheistic religion of the old Iranian tradition and taught that one supreme god, Ahura Mazda, was the source of all goodness and truth. His teachings formed the foundation of Zoroastrianism.. He was, by the standards of his time and place, a heretic.

The old Iranian religion was much like those of other Indo-European peoples: a sprawling pantheon of gods, animal sacrifice, ritual intoxication using a sacred drink called haoma, and a priestly class that mediated between humans and the divine. It bore a family resemblance to the Vedic religion of India, since both traditions descended from a common Indo-Iranian ancestor. The priests performed their rituals, the warriors fought, the farmers farmed, and the gods received their offerings. The system had worked for centuries.

Zoroaster looked at this system and saw something rotten. The old gods, he declared, were not gods at all but daevas — demons, deceivers. The animal sacrifices were cruel and meaningless. The haoma rituals fogged the mind when clarity was what the world needed. There was one god, one supreme being, and his name was The supreme deity in Zoroastrianism, whose name means "Wise Lord" in Old Avestan. Ahura Mazda is the creator of all good things: truth, light, and order. He stands in eternal opposition to Angra Mainyu (the "Destructive Spirit"), and the cosmic struggle between them defines Zoroastrian theology. — the "Wise Lord" — and he alone deserved worship.