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Zoroastrianism A Religion

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Consider the question of whether Judaism is essentially a religion, a race, a culture, or something else. Support your response by making reference to key events, individuals, or beliefs as they relate to the origin and historical development of Judaism.
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When it comes to the discussion as to what constitutes as Judaism, I believe that it is important to remember that the discussion as to what is Judaism is quite debatable. The discussion of what constitutes Judaism as it comes to the Jewish identity has brought many different many different definitions among those who have studied relevant fields. Additionally, when attempting …show more content…

At that time most within the area of Persia followed the various deities of the Irano-Aryan religion, however, Zarathustra brought up a different faith system (Bekhrad, 2017). His belief system firstly placed emphasis on the idea of monotheism (as opposed to the polytheism of Irano-Aryan religion) since he felt there was only one god named Ahura Mazda who was worthy of their worship (Bekhrad, 2017). While the concept of monotheism was the central point within Zoroastrianism, other theological aspects which were present in his religious thought includes Angra Mainyu (the evil spirit who in some aspects was like Satan), heaven and hell, and a collection of scripture called Avesta (Corduan, 2015). Zoroastrianism had a strong influence on other religious movements and played a role in part in shaping the theology which they held (Bekhrad, 2017). The first example of this would have to be with regards to the Jewish religion since it shows many parallels with Zoroastrianism's beliefs (Bekhrad, 2017). Such examples of these similarities would have to include that of monotheism (God and Ahura Mazda), the idea of a collection of scriptures (Torah and Avesta), and belief in upcoming messianic figures (the Messiah and Sayoshant) (Corduan, 2015). Such influence is likely to have occurred since the Jews and the Persians are known to have had relations with each other and likely they passed along theological ideas (Bekhrad, 2017). A second way that Zoroastrianism influenced a religion would have to be that of Islam (Stepaniants, 2002). Such influence again can be seen with certain parallels between the two religions, but the method of influence is different. During the Muslim conquests that occurred in the Middle Ages, one of the consequences was that they gained power

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