![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/zoroaster.jpg\")
Perhaps presaging our first career as a
\n cultural anthropologist, the adolescent Dowbrigade had a consuming interest
\n in, among
\n other aspects of what is collectively know as "culture", the wild
\n variety of religions found around the world. In fact, had we not gotten
\n on the bad side of the International Jewish Conspiracy for our subversive
\n teen-aged activities in the Holy Land (from which we were eventually
\n rounded up by the Mossad
\n and deported from) we may very well have ended up working
\n with or for the God Squad in some capacity.<\/p>\n
Be that as it may, we remember a youthful fascination with
\n many religions, and one in particular. A lengthy article in today’s
\n Boston Globe brought that phase of our philosophic formation tumbling
\n back into our mind.
\n The
\n religion in question: Zoroastrianism.<\/p>\n
For a period of about a year (we must have been 13 or 14), What attracted the adolescent Dowbrigade to such an out-of-the-mainstream The little we knew about Zoroastrian beliefs only reinforced Zoroastrianism. was one of the first monotheistic religions Second, there is the concept that each individual is imbued Finally, the third principle, essential to the Zoroastrian. This meshes nicely with, and no doubt influenced, our own This underlying axiom conveys a terrible responsibility If, we hypothesized, there were in fact a supreme being In addition, we really liked the constant references to As we got older and came to see all organized religion The Globe article from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Perhaps presaging our first career as a cultural anthropologist, the adolescent Dowbrigade had a consuming interest in, among other aspects of what is collectively know as "culture", the wild variety of religions found around the world. In fact, had we … Continue reading
\n when asked for our religious affiliation, we would invariably identify
\n ourself as a Zoroastrian.<\/em>We had actually found out enough about
\n the religion to know that it accepted no converts, even kids from mixed
\n marriages
\n with one Zoroastrian. parent (the Dowbrigade’s parents though Zoroastrians
\n were fans of the masked avenger Zoro), but this did not daunt us.<\/p>\n
\n religion in the first place. Well, first of all we loved the
\n name, which was much cooler, more exotic and mystical than "Christ"
\n (an exclamation appropriate to banging ones thumb with a hammer) or
\n "Jaweh"
\n (a name
\n so secret they can’t agree how to spell it) or Allah (thinking in Allah
\n Mode brings to mind ice cream on pie). We wondered how Zoroaster felt
\n in the hypothetical Pantheon of the Gods to always be the last God in
\n alphabetic
\n order. And being at that time completely ignorant of Spanish, we, like
\n our parents, assumed Zoro himself was a believer.<\/p>\n
\n our initial fascination with the group. Dating back to about a thousand
\n years before Christ, Zoroastrianism (and here we apologize to Ryan
\n Overbey<\/a>, friend and real expert in Comparative Religion, for oversimplification
\n if not blasphemy) had a profound influence on all of the major modern
\n religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.<\/p>\n
\n to postulate what has become the dominant religious paradigm of the modern
\n world – life as a constant battle between the forces of darkness and
\n light. As we understand it, there are three basic tenets of Zoroastrianism. First,
\n as Joseph Campbell writes in "The Masks of God", "The Zoroastrian version
\n of the world course presents a creation by a god of pure light into which
\n an evil principle entered, by nature independent of and contrary to first,
\n so that there is a cosmic battle in progress; which however, is not to
\n go on forever, but will terminate in a total victory of the light: whereupon
\n the process will end in a perfect realization of the Kingdom of the
\n Righteousness in Earth."<\/p>\n
\n with free will, and the ability (and responsibility) to choose to further
\n the cause of light, or darkness.<\/p>\n
\n world view, is the idea that personal enlightenment is achieved through
\n engagement<\/em> with the world, rather than disengagement, which
\n was the norm in most other Asian religions.<\/p>\n
\n present personal philosophy of the meaning of life, which holds that
\n not only is the universe enmeshed in a titanic struggle between good
\n and
\n evil,
\n but that on the cosmic scales, in relation to the human race, the aggregate
\n coffers of good and evil to date are exactly balanced<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\n on any individual who adopts this worldview, because the results of
\n his or her daily choices and moral decisions could tip the balance<\/em>,
\n for light or darkness.<\/p>\n
\n testing the worthiness of his creations from beyond, or an alien race
\n or council of evolved conscious nesses, sitting in cosmic judgment of
\n our
\n ability
\n as
\n a species
\n to join the ranks of the evolved or the need to wipe us from the universe
\n like
\n a cosmic plague before we can infect our quadrant of the galaxy, it could
\n very well be our decision to give a few coins to a beggar or whether
\n or not to ghost-write an economics paper for a wealthy Middle-eastern
\n illiterate which makes the difference between salvation and oblivion.
\n A weighty responsibility, having the fate of humankind riding on your
\n shoulders every day!<\/p>\n
\n Zoroastrians "famous
\n eccentricities, quirky manner, and indelicate vocabulary"<\/a>. They
\n were our kind of people!<\/p>\n
\n as a cheap sham to harness human labor and loyalty to the service of
\n aging theocrats and the political thugs who co opt them, our Zoroastrianism
\n sort of fell by the wayside. But it all came back as we read the paper
\n this morning.<\/p>\n
\n article<\/a> points out that modern Zoroastrians, living
\n mostly in Iran, are dwindling in number due to their traditional refusal
\n to accept inter-religious marriages or converts. Another endangered thread
\n in the human tapestry, which, after after playing an important role in
\n getting us to where we are today, is struggling to find a place in the
\n modern world of global integration.<\/p>\n