Term Papers on Zoroaster

Term Paper Title	Zoroaster
# of Words	2845
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	11.38

Zoroaster

                                Introduction

         Some time in the history of the universe, no one is quite sure
    when, there was born a man.  This man would eventually be the first to
    found a monotheistic religion.  The name of this man is Zoroaster; the
    name is actually a corruption of Zarathushtra.  Zoroaster's birth date,
    along with whether his religion is actually monotheistic, is a subject
    of great debate.  The opinions concerning his birth, and consequently
    about the beginning of this great religion, range from as early as 6000
    years before Plato to as late as 500 B.C.E. In any case he was born
    somewhere in Iran, although whether in the East or West is also
    arguable.  In the early writings the people belonging to this religion
    are called Zarathustris; the system he taught is called Mazdaism. The
    present day followers are called Parsees.  Zoroaster removed the
    multiplicity of deities from religion and created a faith in which
    there were two, or perhaps, one God.  All other higher beings were
    regarded as demons, or evil spirits.  No one knows for sure the
    different stages of popularity that Zoroastrianism experienced.  We do
    know that at the time of Darius I, 558?-486 B.C.E., it was protected by
    royalty.  Later, however, Zoroastrians were continually chased by the
    members of the Islamic religion through Kathiawar in India, and Surat,
    and finally they settled again in Bombay.  The universe is the
    battleground.  The opponents are Mazda Ahura, later to be known as
    Ahura Mazda, and Anra Mainyu, later call ed Ahriman.  Ahura Mazda is
    the good force and the bad is Ahriman.  The battle will last till Ahura
    Mazda defeats Ahriman in the year 12,000 (we are now presumably around
    11,500).  This is the world and its future in accordance with
    Zoroastrian beliefs.
                                 Zoroaster

         Zoroaster had a very non-conforming mind and was forced to flee
    his parents' house without his parents' consent because of the rebuking
    he gave to those who sacrificed cattle or drank intoxicating haoma.  He
    fled to the mountains and gave himself to God.  Sometime between the
    ages of thirty and forty an angel appeared to him and brought him to
    the throne of the highest God, Ahura Mazda.  After this occurred, the
    prophet tried for twelve years to convert people, but to no available.
    During this period many visions were revaled to him.  A milestone in
    the progression of the religion occurred when Zoroaster converted
    Vishtaspa,the king of Persia. He also converted the king's son,
    brother, counsellor, and grand vizier.  Zoroaster married, along with
    two other women, the counsellor's daughter.  Zoroaster was killed at
    the age of seventy-seven by Ardshataspa, a neighboring prince, who
    invaded Vishtaspa's capital.  According to the Parsees, Vishtaspa is
    the father of Darius, who reigned from 521-485 B.C.E. Another view
    holds that Zoroaster lived 258 years before Alexander the Great; he
    would have therefore lived between 570 and 500 B.C.E. The Greeks tend
    to place him six thousand years before Plato.  Ahura Mazda, while not
    necessarily discovered by Zoroaster, was found on an inscription dating
    around 714 B.C.E.  In ancient Persia, before Zoraoster's reforms,
    religion was polytheistic.  Zoroaster objected to these dieties and
    referred to them as demons.  Many of the rituals and Gods that he
    removed were later reinstated due to the fact that the people were
    still emotionally attached to them.  We can see this from the fact that
    on the epigraphs of Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-358 B.C.E.) the Mithras
    and Anahita, ancient gods, are mentioned.  Temples and images of God
    were also introduced into the religion at a later date.

                            Zoroastrian Beliefs

         The Zoroastrian religion is based on the fundamental concept of a
    cons...

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