Rationalism in Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrinism is widely credited with being the first monotheistic religion. The Zoroastrian teaching that human beings are fundamentally good, although free will gives us a choice between positive actions that leads to peace and negative actions that lead to misery, are ideals we can all learn from. -His Holiness Dalai Lama Zoroastrianism is the oldest of the revealed world religions, and it has probably had more influence on mankind, directly and indirectly, than any other single faith. -Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices Zarathushtra was the greatest of all the pioneer prophets who showed the path of freedom to men, the freedom of moral choice, freedom from blind obedience to unmeaning injunctions freedom from multiplicity of shrines which draw our worship away from the single-minded chastity of devotion. Though surrounded by the believers in magical rites, he proclaimed in those dark days of unreason that Religion has its truth in its moral significance, not in external practices of imaginary value; that it is to uphold man in his life of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. -Rabindranath Tagore in the Religion of Man Believe not what you hear; believe not legends; believe not gossip; believe not what you are habituated to listening to since childhood; believe not because it comes from the lips of the elders; but apply it to your own study, examine it, ponder on it and believe only what your intelligence accepts. -Gautama Buddha in Kalmo Satta (The same philosophy as Zarathushtra proclaimed nearly six hundred to eight hundred years earlier?) This balanced practical knowledge or as Mathew Arnold terms it, 'The quality of scientific intelligence,' is the hallmark of the Zoroastrian religion. For in the final analyses, the practical side of a religion is more important than philosophical ideologies. Examining it from that standpoint, the Zoroastrian religion qualifies as being the finest of all religions. -Samuel Laing in A Modern Zoroastrian For depth of conviction, for wonderful combination of profundity and practical sense, and for purity of thought, Zarathushtra towers like a beacon among the leaders of mankind in the early days of ancient civilization -Prof. John Moulton