Zarathustra's Reformation of the Proto-Vedic Religion.

# EXISTENTIALIST MEETUP - Melbourne, Australia.

History of Religion: Our monthly online presentation.
The presentations are followed by questions, comments and discussion. All viewpoints welcome.

Early Religion: An Alternative History
What do the historians and archaeologists think of the veracity of religious legends? Legends are an amalgamation of history and mythology. But how much of each?

"ZARATHUSTRA'S REFORMATION OF THE PROTO-VEDIC RELIGION."

What was this primeval Proto-Vedic Religion?

It was introduced into India in the 16th Century BC by the invading Indo-Iranian nomadic cattle-herders from the steppe-lands north of the Caspian and Aral Seas.
Meanwhile, back in Uzbekistan and Bactria, circa 1400 BC, Zarathustra (Zoroaster) reformed that proto-Vedic religion.

We have very little history of this proto-Vedic religion. So, in order to find clues to it, the scholars have had to search through the 'Veda', the Hindu sacred literature, as well as the 'Avesta', the Zoroastrian sacred literature.

They discovered that, for the first time in history, circa 2000 BC, ancient humans had begun to believe that rather than the afterlife being spent in the traditional nether-world, their elites were to spend the afterlife with the gods up above the sky in sunlit Paradise. Consequently, the nether-world gradually took an increasingly negative hue, until it became the Hell we now know in mainstream Christianity.

A further startling development was these ancients' realisation that the soul alone could not enjoy the pleasures of Paradise without having a body with which to have physical sensations.

We will look at the report on the scholars' search in the book by the late Mary Boyce, Professor of Iranian Studies, University of London:
"Zoroastrians: Their religious beliefs and practices"

YouTube documentary on Zoroastrianism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFRNvbpqILQ

David Miller will present the topic and lead the discussion.

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