Posted on 08/25/2007 5:36:51 PM PDT by freedom44
Fire, the source of heat and light is not only revered in ancient Indo-Iranian rituals but also in modern day Zoroastrianism and Hinduism.
Zoroastrianism, which dominated the Sassanid Empire, is the religion ascribed to the ancient Persian prophet, Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), who lived 3500 years ago.
Fire (Atar), together with clean water (Aban), are considered agents of ritual purity in the Zoroastrian religion.
Despite the Zoroastrian respect for any form of fire, they do not worship it, rather it is used as a medium to communicate with God, whom they call Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom, the source of order and precision in the universe.
Standing before a sacred fire, Zoroastrians pay homage to a creation that represents life and the power of Ahura Mazda.
There are three kinds of sacred fires in Zoroastrianism, each standing for one sector of ancient society: Atash Dadgah, Adur Aduran, and Atash Behram.
Atash Dadgah is associated with the householder class and burns in houses and during celebrations such as weddings.
Adur Aduran is connected with the warrior class and burns constantly in fire temples. It is called the 'Fire of Fires' because it is made up of embers gathered from different fires belonging to different social classes, to symbolize social unity.
The highly revered Atash Behram is related to kings and the royal family. It must initially originate from lightning and is composed of embers gathered from the hearth of a thousand and one different occupations in society.
Atash Behram in Iran's Yazd. Atash Behran is called the 'Fire of Victory' and is kept in an undecorated temple, visible only to the worshippers.
Although there have been numerous fire temples in Iran, three are believed to have existed since the beginning of creation: Adur Burzen-Mihr, Adur Farnbag, and Adur Gushnasp, known as the 'Royal Fires'.
The 'Royal Fires' were also associated with social classes: Adur Farnbag with the highest class of priesthood, Adur Gushnasp with the warrior class, and Adur Burzen-Mihr with the lowest class of herdsmen and farmers.
In the olden days, fire temples were not only places of worship but also courts, treatment and learning centers.
GGG ping
Interesting - Zoroastrianism also is monotheistic, has good and evil, a flood story and incorporates many of the peoples of the Bible in its history.
“More Moslems came, and soon a small mosque was built, which attracted yet others. As long as Zoroastrians remained in the majority, their lives were tolerable; but once the Moslems became the more numerous, a petty but pervasive harassment was apt to develop. This was partly verbal, with taunts about fire-worship, and comments on how few Zoroastrians there were in the world, and how many Moslems, who must therefore posses the truth; and also on how many material advantages lay with Islam. The harassment was often also physical; boys fought, and gangs of youth waylaid and bullied individual Zoroastrians. They also diverted themselves by climbing into the local tower of silence and desecrating it, and they might even break into the fire-temple and seek to pollute or extinguish the sacred flame. Those with criminal leanings found too that a religious minority provided tempting opportunities for theft, pilfering from the open fields, and sometimes rape and arson. Those Zoroastrians who resisted all these pressures often preferred therefore in the end to sell out and move to some other place where their co-religionists were still relatively numerous, and they could live at peace; and so another village was lost to the old faith.”
Boyce, A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism, pp. 7-8;
Turns out that fire is an non-mysterious chemical reaction.
The whole frigging time, they were pointlessly playing games with oxidation.
One of the better known zoroastrians was Freddie Mercury.
btt
How does that differ from the symbolism of water (solubility) being a purifying agent?
The Persians tolerated local religions as a matter of expediency. They would honor local deities in exchange for loyalty. Very practical. Then along comes Zoroaster. As far as I understand it, the Persians did not politicize his religion.
Whatever the source of Zoroaster’s ideas, he definitely inherited Hammurabi’s attempt to monopolize the deities with his Marduk. Still, I’m guessing that monotheism didn’t take during this period because local conditions were disparate: uniformity of condition would more readily fuel monotheism. Instead, local religions and gods persisted along with local distinctions and outcomes.
Christ changed everything by separating this from the next world.
Doubt it since the Hebrew Jehovah...the God of both Jews and Christians...predated Zoroastrianism.
Exactly.
Uhm okay...thanks for ministering.
???
Wouldnt this belong in the religion section?
Hey stupid...the article puts Zoroastrianism at only 3500 years old.
Nice try though.
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Islam produced its greatest expansions when dealing with other civilizations or peoples who were disunited or torn by chaos. It was rarely successful when confronting a strong, unified people. Visigothic Spain was in sucessional turmoil when they Muslims took it over, France was ruled by what had become a quaint, insulated puppet dynasty - the Merovingens - when Islam invaded it, Sicily and Southern Italy were disunited and subjected to foreign rule, the Holy Land, Egypt and north Africa were in the turmoil of religious persecutions by the Byzantines when they fell to Islam, Byzantium had been weakened by a misdirected crusade and Frankish rule - together with other factors which allowed the Muslims to take it over, the invasion of the Balkans occurred when there was a power vacuum there, Persia fell to the Muslims when it was weakened by warfare with the Byzantines.
America and the west are culturally rotting from within, making us susceptible to the contagion of Islam. We have lost our sense of cultural identity, our pride of self, and the vigor of our own religious beliefs. Political correctness and liberalism are destroying us.
If we don't change, we will wind up just like the Zoroastrians.
I disagree.
Zoroaster lived before Moses. Moses is dated to about 1000 B.C. or so.
Also, there is cryptic evidence in the Bible that the early Israelites were indeed polytheistic. There is the dual term used in the Old Testament for God - Yahweh, a singular, and Elohim, a plural. There was evidence that the early Isrealites even thought God had a female consort. The constant referral to the threat of polytheistic cults arising in Israel indicated that there was a sizable percentage of the Israelites who had rejected or never really had been receptive to monotheism, as also indicated by the constant chiding by the various Prophets against this behavior.
Before the Babylonian Captivity, Yahweh was considered a the National God of the Israelites. AFTER the Babylonian Captivity, the Israelites came to view Yahweh more as the only real God rather than a mere tribal Deity.
During the Babylonian Captivity, the Israelites were exposed to Zoroastrianism, which was a pure monotheism. Zoroastrians view Ahura Mazda, the name they use for God, as the only true God, the God of everyone and everything. They also believe in an evil force, Ahriman, who seeks to deceive and mislead men from the truth, they believe in an afterlife, a last judgement, a resurrection of the dead, and angels. Finally, Zoroaster predicted the coming of a Saviour who would lead all men to the truth and redemption. Its believed by many scholars that the Three Wise Men of the New Testament were Zoroastrian priests looking for the promised Saviour. All of these were missing in early Old Testament writings - in whole or in part - and indeed, some of them are more common in Christianity today than in contemporary Judaism.
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