Sunday afternoon, I visited the local Zorastarian Cultural Center. Zoroaster (the Greek name) or Zarathustra (the Avestan or Persian name) was an ancient Iranian prophet and religious poet. More than that though he was the fore- runner to much that you'll find in the Judaeo-Christian religion and Zoroasterianism was the first monotheistic religion. All of this coming anywhere from 1200-550 BCE. Some will date portions of the religion to 6,000 BCE. I also visited a Jainism temple, but I'll leave that til later.

When I studied comparative religions in college, I was amazed at how much Christianity and Zoroastrianism had in common. It was one of the exponential jumps in times that came during the #more-56" Axial (Axis) Age . Here are some that I remember off the top of my head.

1-The first concept of monotheism
2-The beliefs in good and evil with free will, sin choices.
3-A heaven and a hell
4-An all loving good God (Ahura Mazda)
5-The concept of God being Light
6-The establishment of ranking angels and arch angels.
7-God will triumph in the end and all will be saved after being purified in the temporary hell .

And this was 600 years before Jesus arrived to put the exclamation point on who God was-is. There are many differences though. Fundamentalists get angry (what's new?) when you mention that there was anything before Jesus. All cultures, societies, and religions have been built on the shoulders of previous ages and contain some of their concepts. It's called progress.

Christianity isn't the first word in the sentence about spiritual matters. Jesus is the exclamation point though at the end of that sentence. Remember, God is most DEFINED in Jesus, but not CONFINED to Jesus. No one religion has a #more-1144" monopoly on God .

One of the things that I loved about Zoroastrianism then and now is that they don't beat you up with law(s), are not judgmental, believe that one comes to salvation in God from wherever fate and destiny birthed you, and they feel that we're here to do GOOD and ENJOY LIFE. That means no fasting, no celibacy, or long drawn out monastic withdrawal from society and life.

Any of this resonate with you?