Zoroastrinism Essay, Research Paper

Zoroastrinism is a small religion made up of about 140,000 people. even though there is only a small amount of people practicing this religion, zoroastrinism has made a great impact on the religious world. it has brought beliefs such as god, satin, the soul, heaven and hell, saviors, final judgement and resurection to many other world wide religions. it is one of the oldest religions still alive, and was the first monotheistic religion. the religion was founded by zoroasthra. no noe exactly knows when zoroasthra lived, but historians generally date his life to be sometime between 1000 and 1500 bc on the basis of his style of writting. he lived in persia, which is modern day iran. he started out preaching monotheism in a polytheistic world, and was attacked by his preachings. he finally won support by the king, and in various parts of persia zoroastrinism became a state of religion in the 7th century ce. when folowers of islam invaded persia in 650 ce, most of the zoroastrins fled to india, where they are now located today. The zoroastrin holy book is called the “avesta.” this book includes the origional works of their founder zoroasthra, and a series of five hymns called “gathas.” the five gathas are sacred poetry, directed twards the workship of their one god. at a later date the remaining parts of the avesta were written. these deal with the laws of ritual and practice, with the traditions of faith.