5 ms·
This seems like a means to introduce atheism/agnosticism in a more culturally acceptable way, I may be reading too much in to it though.
by Wohlf 5y ago
This seems like a means to introduce atheism/agnosticism in a more culturally acceptable way, I may be reading too much in to it though.
- zozbot234 5y agoZoroastrians are not atheist, they acknowledge Ahura Mazda as a god. (Ahura Mazda is also mentioned in the Vedas, as Mitra-Varuna.)
- Ar-Curunir 5y agoMore correctly, Mitra-Varuna is a compound referring to two independent gods, Mitra and Varuna. Mitra is also mentioned in the Avesta, separate from Ahura Mazda, and in a similar compound form. This has led some to believe that Varuna is to be identified with Ahura Mazda in the proto-Indo-Iranian religion, but this is debated.
- jelliclesfarm 5y agoMitra also appears in Manichaeism. The name Mehr or Meher comes from Mitra. Vedic Mitra was invoked along with other Vedic gods as far away as current day Syria/Turkey [..] Indic Mitra is first attested in a 14th century BCE Mitanni inscription in which an Indo-Aryan king of Mitanni invokes the gods Mitra, Indra, Varuna, and the Nasatyas as guarantors of his sworn obligations.[..] Also in the treaties signed by Mittanis and the Hittites. Mitra always appears with Varuna. In the beginning of Rig Veda, Varuna is the king of the Vedic gods and is resplendent and benevolent..but towards the end, he loses his luster and becomes a minor god..mean, dull and almost cruel as Indra becomes the new head after slaying Ahi , the serpent demon who captured Apas, the water goddess(apam-napat or apa also appears as a Zoroastrian deity) One theory is that this event of Indra rescuing apa from ahi by releasing her frozen waters(ahi froze the waters and indira used his lightning bolt/thunderbolt weapon vajra to melt the ice so she will flow down back from the frozen state) can be times to one of the ice ages ..and younger dryas event + the sedimentation layer might have been after that..which would have been due to thehastened melting of the ice when the comets burned down..causing the ‘great flooding’..an event that is recorded in every world mythology. Back to Ahura Mazda/Varuna split.. there were two priests classes..brighus and angiras..angiras took some books and went east..the brighus kept some of the Bhargava texts. Even today, the Vedas are bit complete and many parts of it are considered ‘lost’ Shri Jatindra Mohan Chatterji argues that Zend Avesta is the Bhargava Veda text. He asserts that the Bhargava Veda the missing Book of the Bhrigu Angirasa Samhita (The Hymns of Atharvan Zarathustra – Published by The Parsi Zoroastrian Association, Calcutta, 1967). The Indo-Iranians likely became divided because of differences in opinion about methods of worship and accent on certain principles. Likely leading to the split of the original Aryan land into India and Iran..east of river Sindhu became the land of Hindus.
- Ar-Curunir 5y ago> Shri Jatindra Mohan Chatterji argues that Zend Avesta is the Bhargava Veda text. He asserts that the Bhargava Veda the missing Book of the Bhrigu Angirasa Samhita (The Hymns of Atharvan Zarathustra – Published by The Parsi Zoroastrian Association, Calcutta, 1967). This is unlikely, as the the Vedas were composed after the Indian-Iranian split, and the last common ancestor of Avestan and Vedic is much before that.
- jelliclesfarm 5y agoSource?
- xaedes 5y ago> Ahi , the serpent demon who captured Apas, the water goddess > ahi froze the waters As for the serpent motive, I think it relates to the movement and shape of glaciers. Here are some pictures. Snake-like path of a swiss glacier: [1] The end of a glacier which (with skimming) may look like a snake head releasing streams of melt water: [2] In these ~110 year old illustrations glaciers are depicted with weird lion head and sluggish lizard body: [3] Ahi seems to be Azi Dahâka in Zoroastrianism, which also has a lot of long-winter themes [4]: "The world was imagined as lasting a long year of twelve millenniums. There had been an old myth, connected with that notion, which made the world end in a frightful winter, to be succeeded by an eternal spring, when the blessed would come down from the Vara of Yima to repeople the earth. But as storm was the ordinary and more dramatic form of the strife, there was another version, according to which the world ended in a storm, and this version became the definitive one. The serpent, Azi Dahâka, let loose, takes hold of the world again. As the temporary disappearance of the light was often mythically described either as the sleeping of the god, or as his absence, or death [...]" This story about the Vara is also super interesting and similar to the Ark story, though not with a big flood but a long winter and "foul frost". The numbers make more sense, because they gather over a thousand "seeds of men and women" instead of only a single family. [5] [1] https://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/glossary/valley-glacier-en.html https://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/glossary/valley-glacier-en... [2] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CTPcUSfYG3c/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CTPcUSfYG3c/maxresdefault.jpg [3] https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/04/02/culture-history-glaciers-alps/ https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/04/02/culture-history... [4] https://www.sacred-texts.com/zor/sbe04/sbe0405.htm https://www.sacred-texts.com/zor/sbe04/sbe0405.htm [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29802590 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29802590
- brendoelfrendo 5y agoI guess it seems like a way to introduce Zoroastrianism in a culturally acceptable way, though the article mentions that it's not very culturally acceptable yet. I guess I don't get why you would think atheism/agnosticism is the end game.
- csomar 5y agoThen they'd push for atheism instead of this. I agree with the other commenter, there is a nationalist aspect to this. Atheism has gained serious steam in the Arab world due to ISIS. Especially in Syria, Iraq and some in North Africa.