Talk:Zoroastrianism

Needs editing

The pronunciation should be removed. It's patronizing the reader to give an IPA transcription of any pronunciation that is entirely regular. Besides, if a reader is unable to pronounce "Zoroastrianism", they're unlikely to be able to make much sense of the IPA transcription.

Also, the statement that Zoroastrianism is the first monotheistic religion overlooks Ankhenaten's experiment in Egypt. Ankhenaten reigned 1353 BC – 1336 BC[2] or 1351– 1334 BC, per Wikipedia article "Ankhenaten".

Further, the Wikipedia article "Judaism" says that Judaism is the oldest surviving monotheistic religion. Perhaps the author of the article under discussion is too personally involved, hence hasn't taken a suitably dispassionate view?

With all respect, I have to say that this part of the article "Zoroastrianism" seems too "pro" instead of neutral. It's almost as if the author thinks he (or she) is involved in a dick war "my monotheistic religion is older than your monotheistic religion." That kind of attitude is out of place on Wikipedia. Or so it seems to me.

Floozybackloves (talk) 19:16, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

It is hard to tell which is the older religion. Although some sources make it seem that we know exactly when and where Zoroaster was born, in reality we aren't sure. There is a good 1000 year range of when he could have been born. Recent work on Ankhenaten may push back his dates further, thus we aren't really sure when he was born, either. In either case, we can't say exactly who was the first monotheist. It is the stuff of good debate but it will be a while before anyone can honestly say. 75.48.19.159 (talk) 07:41, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Many indigenous religions fe are also monotheistic, insofar as they know the concept of a single creator (or nonpersonal creating force) of the Universe. Imho there does not really exist a clear line of distinction between monotheism and polytheism.

The real distinction may be only a question of who is in charge. ;) 62.178.137.216 (talk) 13:44, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Blind Scholarship

The article is devoid of insight and is hopelessly one-sided. There is only one mention of Buddhism where it is stated that "However, many scholars[who?] assert the influence of Zoroastrianism (as well as later Manicheism) on elements of Buddhism, especially in terms of light symbolism." This is far from the truth. In fact the tacit assumtion of 99% of the scholars that Zoroastrianism is the oldest religion is untenable. If one rects the Nepalese frauds, it becomes clear that Zoroastrianism and Buddhism belong to the same milieu and were sister religions. The fact that there were many Buddhas before Gotama is not known to Frye, Boyce, Briant and other scholars. In his work 'Fihrist' al-Nadim also makes no mention of the Zoroastrians and states that the Shamaniya who regarded Buddha as their Prophet formed the majority of the people before Islam. A similar view is expressed by Al-beruni who was a greater scholar than Diodorus. The recently discovered Bactrian Buddhist texts mention six pre-Gotama Buddhas. Mary Boyce wrote much but had a very shallow perspective. Why does the Persepolis tablets make no mention of Zoroaster? The reason may be, as Ranajit Pal maintains in his book "Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander", p. 190. that Zoroaster was known by the name Devadatta among the Elamite scribes. Pal suggests that Damidada of the tablets may be Zoroaster. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mejda (talk • contribs) 07:36, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

Freddy Mercury

His parents were from India, but he was born on Zanzibar. Also, it's not very clear whether he truely believed in the religion. Nevertheless, I placed him in the "from India" section. Chrisrus (talk) 14:33, 16 October 2009 (UTC) His funeral was Zoroastrian, although his burial might not have been. Chrisrus (talk) 03:24, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

That's all good and dandy, but the final fact remains that he was a Zoroastrian for his entire life, and the fact that he was not a strong believer remains unknown. Many times, it feels as if Mercury had attempted to hide his faith and his heritage to mix in with British. However, I don't understand the point of concern here. Freddie Mercury was a Zoroastrian, born in Zanibar, who spent a great deal of his life in India, got a British passport and considered himself of British identity, and died in England. Therefore, he was Zoroastrian and can remain on this article, if that's what you are asking about. warrior4321 05:18, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I suppose I was just wondering why no one had added him to the article before me. Maybe he wasn't Indian enough for you all, or not Zoroastrian enough. I'm glad you seem to approve ofhis addition. Chrisrus (talk) 12:26, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Please help!

Can you hide the box that says that the page needs help on the days of November 6 - November 10? This would really help!

Danhomer (talk) 01:39, 6 November 2009 (UTC)danhomer

Please help!

Can you hide the box that says that the page needs help on the days of November 6 - November 10? This would really help!

Danhomer (talk) 01:39, 6 November 2009 (UTC)danhomer