Zoroastrianism

Its unclear on when Zoroastrianism was started but it’s agreed that it was sometime in the 2^nd millennium B.C in Islam. In 2^nd millennium B.C Islam there was a religion and priests but there were a lot of bandits and robbers, so the people lived in fear. Zarathustra, whose name would be translated into Zoroaster by the Greeks, would have have been one of these priests, since he waded out into the river to get freshwater for a ritual. By wading out into the river he unintentionally cleansed himself, and when he got out of the water Ahura Mazda came to him in a vision and told Zarathustra he was the god of Asha, and created the world. Asha is the word for order, wisdom, peace, and overall goodness. Ahura Mazda means “Wise Lord” his name is why some Zoroastrians call their religion Mazdaism. He created the world as a pure a unpolluted thing. But there is a creature called Angra Mainyu who is the opposite of Ahura Mazda, the chaos to his order, idiocy to his wisdom, war to his peace, and overall badness. His name means “Hostile Spirit”. After the creation of the perfect world Angra Mainyu crawled into it and polluted it. He made pain, death, and all things bad in this world. Angra Manyu is also associated with several animals, like snapping turtles and locusts. In the same way Ahura Mazda is associated with otters and porcupines. An interesting thing about death in Zoroastrianism is that they believe the spirit of a person is what matters. And since all the elements are sacred they do not burn bodies or bury them or sink them. They instead put them on a stone tower for the vultures to eat. After all, the body is a creation of Angra Mainyu, but the soul is of Ahura Mazda. Zoroastrianism was probably the first religion to have a heaven and hell, with a judgment to determine where you belong. After the creation Zoroastrians believe that we are in an inbetween time that has both perfection and pollution in it, but it will not always be like this. They believe there will come a messiah who will pass a final judgment on all people in hell, and if they fail they go back to hell, if not they join the people from heaven on a newly Angra Mainyu-free earth.