Zoroastrians Fight Extinction

VOANews ^ | 12/23/03 | VOANews

[Liberal Classic]

Three Kings bump.

[freedom44]

on or off iran ping.

[Guillermo]

Rohinton Mistry wrote a couple of books which touches upon the Zoroasters in India...interesting reading. "A Fine Balance" is an excellent novel.

[GeronL]

Muslims are scratching their heads.... wait... it was not a Zionist Conspiracy afterall... it was a Zoroastrian Conspiracy!!

[WackyKat]

Zoroastrianism had a tremendous impact on both Judaism and Christianity-especially on Christian ideas about the end of the world.

The Parsis leave the bodies of their dead on the top of towers to be eaten by vultures.

Cool, and very-eco-friendly!

[jocon307]

Great post, thanks! I've always wondered about this religion, I'm glad to hear it isn't completely defunct. Maybe once the Mullahs get tossed in Iran it will have a revival.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Zoroastrians, and Parsis in particular, are a fascinating people. Many of them are not particularly religious... and they tend to be smart as all get-out. This makes them ideal marriage partners for people of other cultures... contributing to the decline problem.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[SedVictaCatoni]

General information: The "Three Wise Men" who journeyed to Bethlehem were of course magi, Zoroastrian priests and scholars.

Our word "magic" comes from magi.

[skinkinthegrass]

Great post

...thanks from here too... :)

[Dionysius]

Isn't Rosicrucianism somehow related?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Who knows how many there were. It could have been two. It could have been dozens. When Daniel and his brethren were in captivity in Persia, they had ample chance to teach their hosts about the Torah, and thus they knew about the Messiah. The predicted star finally shone, and they said let's hop on our camels and get going to worship this Kid.

[SedVictaCatoni]

Who knows how many there were. It could have been two. It could have been dozens.

Well, I think that the New Testament account probably would have mentioned it if dozens of Persian mystics had abruptly showed up. That likely would have been the most startling sight ever to occur in Bethlehem.

[HiTech RedNeck]

In Bethlehem itself, maybe. But on the hillsides out in the country I beg to differ. Not some whizbang hairsplitting Jewish philosopher, but outcast ruffian redneck sheepherders (yeehaw!), those were the ones that God first picked to hear the news. Courtesy of a downright righteous passel of angels.

[DryFly]

Well it was an impressive enough caravan to get Herod's attention, seeing how he then ordered that all male children under two years of age be killed so that his rival would be eliminated.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Yeah, a band of three sounds like it would be a mite puny to have such an effect. Were these dudes particularly wealthy? Or would it take a large group to amass enough gold, frankincense, and myrrh to make a worthy gift?

[Post Toasties]

I'm sure the world would be a better place if all Muslims converted to Zoroastrianism. But, aside from that, I suppose I don't have a whole lot to say about this :)

[HiTech RedNeck]

[would it take a large group to amass enough gold, frankincense, and myrrh to make a worthy gift?] (They reached into their "treasures"... doesn't sound quite like Bill Gates hauling out "small change" from his wallet)

[Centurion2000]

He bitterly complains that evil rulers attacked just and innocent people, that the rich robbed the poor, that judges produced false decisions in order to aid their benefactors.

Sounds like he met Clinton and the democratic party.

[tortoise]

Cool article. I always took Zoroasterianism to be a fairly sane religion as such things go, and with many ideas that would be very familiar to most modern monotheistic religions. As the article points out, nobody really knows precisely how old the religion is, but it is one of the older religions currently practiced and easily pre-dating both Christianity and Islam by a wide margin.