New Religions: Zoroastrianism
Zoroastriansim is a very interesting religion. First of all, I find it odd that most Westerns scholars had not heard of the religions. This may have been because it was tagged, as a foreign religion and it was too primitive to be considered legitimate. However, once merchants and travellers began to return with accounts of the followers, people began to become interested. What is also interesting and unique is that most of the hymns were actually from Zoroaster himself. Unfortunately, his believers distorted his teaching because when scholars attempted to translate the hymns, the followers claimed that they were wrong and inaccurate. This is ironic that these people claimed to be such faithful people, yet they could not even understand the teachings. How can you claim to be part of a religion if you do not even understand what you believe in?
What is also interesting is the fact that the origination of the followers, began from a period of violence and oppression. Could it be that they had nowhere else to turn and, therefore, resorted to Zoroaster’s religion? This might have been done in such a rush that they couldn’t even translate the teachings properly!
