Perported Roots of Christianity

[Floatingaxehead]

As a believer going into a subject dominated by people who adamantly assert there is no God, I always desire to know an answer to any question presented before me about why I believe there is a god. While anecdotal evidence is not hard to come by, it isn't great for logical discussions where the validity of it is not known. As a result, going and doing quite a bit of research on things from the Age of the Earth to evolution has been my habit for a while. Not too long ago, I thought I had quite a bit of answers after comparing the logic of websites ranging from ICM to Logicalwiki to this site here. I have read a good amount of IDHEFTBAA, analyzed Lowder's incomplete rebuttal, and some C. S. Lewis gave me supplemental answers to other, less science-based, questions. However, recently one of my Sikh friends posted on Facebook an article about Morgan Freeman claiming that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all originated from one distinct ancient religion: Zoroastrianism. As I have never heard about it before, I set out to first see just what it is, and the similarities, at first, are troubling: A single god, associated strongly with fire, a heaven and a hell, as well as the Messianism (idea of a coming redeemer/renewer) that can also be found as a concept in a few other ancient religions. Though there are some obvious deviations, I feel a need to fully understand how the two distinct religions are unrelated in their origins and how Zoroastrianism isn't a good replacement for Christian belief.

[PaulSacramento]

The differences between Christianity and Zoroastrianism are HUGE and if you don't know that maybe you need ot educate yourself BEFORE debating/discussing these things with non-believers.

[bbyrd009]

gimme a Zoroastrian practicing righteousness over a Christian practicing religion any day

[bbyrd009]

As a believer going into a subject dominated by people who adamantly assert there is no God, I always desire to know an answer to any question presented before me about why I believe there is a god. While anecdotal evidence is not hard to come by, it isn't great for logical discussions where the validity of it is not known. As a result, going and doing quite a bit of research on things from the Age of the Earth to evolution has been my habit for a while. Not too long ago, I thought I had quite a bit of answers after comparing the logic of websites ranging from ICM to Logicalwiki to this site here. I have read a good amount of IDHEFTBAA, analyzed Lowder's incomplete rebuttal, and some C. S. Lewis gave me supplemental answers to other, less science-based, questions. However, recently one of my Sikh friends posted on Facebook an article about Morgan Freeman claiming that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all originated from one distinct ancient religion: Zoroastrianism. As I have never heard about it before, I set out to first see just what it is, and the similarities, at first, are troubling: A single god, associated strongly with fire, a heaven and a hell, as well as the Messianism (idea of a coming redeemer/renewer) that can also be found as a concept in a few other ancient religions. Though there are some obvious deviations, I feel a need to fully understand how the two distinct religions are unrelated in their origins and how Zoroastrianism isn't a good replacement for Christian belief.

"Love believes all things," so imo i wouldn't get too hung up on the window-dressing, but there are a few good comparos online that i would think would serve you better than listening to me, anyway...the (3) "wise men" were surely Zoroastrians.

[bbyrd009]

http://www.pyracantha.com/Z/zjc3.html

[Floatingaxehead]

Took bbyrd009's advice; I should have done a google search before asking for answers. I found a few good sites, and as noted by PaulSacramento the differences are pretty large. Not only that, many of the modern basis of it's religion don't seem as ancient as the wikipedia article would imply (which stated that it could have been the origins of a lot of other ancient Asian religions, including Brahmanism) and it isn't unreasonable to assume that much about the religion was borrowed from the Hebrew and Christian faiths.
sites checked: www.tektonics.org/copycat/zoroaster.php
http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Mithr ... anism.html
http://www.meta-religion.com/Philosophy ... christ.htm

[abelcainsbrother]

Took bbyrd009's advice; I should have done a google search before asking for answers. I found a few good sites, and as noted by PaulSacramento the differences are pretty large. Not only that, many of the modern basis of it's religion don't seem as ancient as the wikipedia article would imply (which stated that it could have been the origins of a lot of other ancient Asian religions, including Brahmanism) and it isn't unreasonable to assume that much about the religion was borrowed from the Hebrew and Christian faiths.
sites checked: http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/zoroaster.php
http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Mithr ... anism.html
http://www.meta-religion.com/Philosophy ... christ.htm

In the future though if/when Christianity is brought up an easy thing to remember is ALL other religions teach works for salvation,better karma in the next life,etc in order to be justified,while Christianity is the only religion that teaches that nobody no matter what they do can save their self,justify their self,etc and it is only through Jesus and what he did for us that we can be saved,justified,etc enough to go to heaven. In other words only Christianity teaches this and it is unique among all religions. As a matter of fact,works for salvation is an easy way to know you're dealing with a false religion. Therefore there is noway Christianity borrowed from any other religion. Religious people are wasting their time if they neglect their faith in Jesus.