Online dating is saving the ancient Zoroastrian religion

Actually, Zoroastrianism did have a militant phase, when it was the state religion of the Sassanid Persians (226-651 A.D.). They didn’t make converts because non-Persians were turned off by the Zoroastrian custom of leaving the dead on towers for the vultures. Still, the creed’s emphasis on a constant struggle between good and evil made it useful for motivating warriors, and they tried conquering the lands on Persia’s western frontier, either in the Roman Empire or in Arabia. They failed in the end because Islam did an even better job of motivating warriors than they did, with its promises of rewards both in this world and the next.

“Why does your god go on and on about other gods?”

https://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/may-2012/seduced-by-the-high-places/

Even before Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan, Moses exhorted the Jews to “demolish all their high places … [or they] will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides” (Numbers 33:52, 55).

Why was God so concerned about these mythical Canaanite deities? Just look at some of the gods that people worshiped in these places:

El—supreme head of the Canaanite pantheon of gods, supposedly the father of creation.
Baal—lord of earth and rain (prerequisites for successful harvest in a dry land).

Ashtoreth—goddess of fertility. Canaanite farmers visited her shrines to mate with cult prostitutes to guarantee crop fertility.

Dagon—principal god of the Philistines. Dgn means grain in Hebrew and Ugaritic and is associated with wheat harvest. In 1 Chronicles 10: 8-10, when the Philistines found King Saul’s dead body on Mount Gilboa, they “fastened his head in the house of Dagon.”

Molech (Moloch, Milcom)—Ammonite god to whom children were sacrificed. At Gezer, archaeologists have found clay jars containing the charred bones of babies.

Chemosh—a Moabite deity, “honored with horribly cruel rites like those of Molech, to whom children were sacrificed in the fire” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary).

That’s just six of 26 major Canaanite gods and goddesses! High places were not harmless shrines—God’s people were seduced to flagrant sin at these altars. Isaiah rebuked them: “Are you not children of rebellion … who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter the children in the ravines?” (Isaiah 57:4-5).

The Israelites lived in a world, where polytheism was the norm, which is why polytheism is denounced so much. Meanwhile in Zoroastrianism, or at least some forms of it, Ahura Mazda (their wise diety of light) has an equal opposite, Ahriman/Angra Mainyu. They had angels and demons. Mazdism is an Avestani religion, which grew out of the pro-Aryan pantheon, just as Hinduism did. Evidence of Monotheistic Zoroastrian practices as being dominant are hard to find until after the Persians came in contact with the Jews. To put it another way, the modern monotheistic forms of Zoroastrianism are likely due to Jewish influence, just as Jews accepting demons and independent angels comes from Zoroastrian influence

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.