Term Paper on "World Religion History"

Term Paper 10 pages (2813 words) Sources: 9

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Some acts are worse than others and are called "capital offenses." These include drunkenness, prostitution and obscene speech. Not unlike many sects of Christianity (e.g. Catholicism), repentance and confession are seen as the way to atone for the heinous acts that have been committed. Zoroastrianism takes a very dim view of homosexuality as they deem the behavior to be deviant

Law Breaking & Sin in Islam

Muslims see anything that is contrary to God's rules or against God specifically as sin. Like Zoroastrianism, there is a hierarchy of sin with some sins being worse than others. There are also some general classes that transcend both "major" and "minor" sins. These types include Junah/Haraj, Jurm, Ithm, Dhanb and Khati-ah. Islam is much more similar to Christianity, as would be expected given its roots, given that people can ask for forgiveness and can thus be spared the fires of Hell. The prophet of Zoroastrianism was Zarathustra and the prophet of Islam was Muhammad

Changes & Modernization over the Years

Over the years, there has been a shift in both religions as the world becomes more and more modernized but some people in both religions (Muslims in particular) have remained quite Orthodox and hardline as they refuse to diverge from the more ancient teachings and/or the literal meaning of the Quran

. One example would be the Palestinians that exist in or around Israel. Indeed, there is a very sharp dichotomy as some Palestinians have aligned with Hamas while others have aligned with Fatah. Hamas is labeled by many as a terrorist group and they refuse to admit that Israel has a right to exist. Fatah is a bit more moderate, even towards Israel, but they themselves are actually fairly anti-Israel and anti-West themselves

. However, yet another group that represents the worse of orthodoxy and cultish behavior would be ISIS. Not unlike the Muslims of the first few centuries of the Common Era (CE, also often stated as AD), they demand adherence and allegiance or they will kill without conscience and this applies even to other Muslims. They have destroyed mosques and their demands for compliance is absolute and without compromise

On the other hand, followers of Zoroastrianism are a bit harder to find as less than 200,000 exist worldwide according to most counts. However, some say that self-identification is not always as present as it should be and the number should actually be more than a million. A strong majority of those people are in India. They also exist in Iran, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Azerbaijan, Canada, Afghanistan, and a few others. They are mostly moderate and even-minded about other religions but this is perhaps largely because they are the stark minority in every country they live in and this includes India. They do not comprise even one percent of any country they are in .

Future Projections

As would seem obvious based on the topics throughout this report, the religions of Islam and Zoroastrianism are quite different but yet they have butted heads a lot and been in conflict for millennia as they were both founded and encouraged in the same general part of the world. As the world has been populated and colonized, the two religions have spread, although Islam has spread and stayed much more than Zoroastrianism could ever hope to be. Indeed, Muslims number about 1.5 billion and thus make up nearly a fourth of the entire world population. Even with the most generous estimates regarding the number of Zoroastrianism adherents, they are a mere fraction of the number of Muslims, let alone the larger world population. By comparison, there are about two billion Christians. However, the Jewish population is much closer to Zoroastrianism as there are only about ten times more Jews than Zoroastrianism followers, assuming the higher end of Zoroastrianism population estimates. The above makes clear that Christians and Muslims dominate the world's population whereas Jews and Zoroastrianism populations are quite small. There is little to no reason to believe that this will change all that much. Christianity and Islam will rise in terms of gross numbers although percentage will probably fall. Zoroastrianism will probably fall away and for Jews, it will depend on who they marry, how many kids they have and so forth. Indeed, many Jews marry Christians or even Muslims, so defining what is and is not a Jew is important when talking about that group

Conclusion

It is clear that Christianity and Islam will dominate the future in terms of world politics and religion whereas Judaism will be more ancillary. The chance that Zoroastrianism will dominate at all is little to none and this will tend to be come lesser over time. Other than areas of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Zoroastrianism is basically non-existent whereas Christianity and Islam are impossible to miss at all levels of life and discourse. While many are agnostic or atheist, they are also a stark minority but not nearly as much as Jews or Zoroastrianism followers. While all people have (or should have) the right to practice whatever religion they see fit and they should not be persecuted or even killed for not ascribing to the following that others (including the dominant culture) might have. Some religions and people are more tolerant while tohers are extremely intolerant and unfair.

Works Cited

Grenville, G.S.P., and Stuart Christopher Hay. Islam an Illustrated History. London:

Continuum International Pub. Group, 2006.

Harms, Gregory, and Todd M. Ferry. The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction.

London: Pluto, 2005.

Hasan, Mehdi. "New Statesman." New Statesman. July 4, 2014. Accessed December 1,

2014. http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/07/hand-choppers-isis-are-deluded-there-nothing-islamic-about-their-caliphate.

Hemmasi, Mohammad, and Carolyn V Prorok. "Demographic Changes in Iran's

Officially Recognized Religious Minority Populations since the Islamic

Revolution." African and Asian Studies, 2002, 63-86.

Pew. "The Global Religious Landscape." Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life

Project RSS. December 18, 2012. Accessed December 1, 2014.

http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/.

Schaeffer, Matt. 2010. "Balancing moderate Islam with respect for other faiths." Daily

Telegraph (London) 2. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed

December 1, 2014).

Sharafi, Abd. Islam between Divine Message and History. Budapest: Central European

University Press, 2005.

Stausberg, Michael. "Hell In Zoroastrian History." Numen, 2009, 217-53.

Stepaniants, M.T. (Marietta Tigranovna). "The Encounter Of Zoroastrianism With

Islam." Philosophy East and West, 2002, 159-72.

"Zoroastrianism." 2013. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition 1-2. Literary

Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed December 1, 2014).

Appendix I -- Islam Holy Site -- Dome of the Rock

Source: http://www.biblewalks.com/Photos54/DomeRock15.jpg

Appendix II -- Islam Holy Site -- Mecca

Source: http://sacredsites.com/middle_east/saudi_arabia/mecca.html

Appendix III -- Zoroastrianism Holy Site -- Temple of Pir-e-Naraki

Source: http://sacredsites.com/middle_east/iran/zoroastrian_sacred_sites.html

Appendix IV -- Zoroastrian Holy Site -- Chak Temple Inner Sanctum Door

Source: http://sacredsites.com/middle_east/iran/zoroastrian_sacred_sites.html

"Zoroastrianism." 2013. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition 1-2. Literary

Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed December 1, 2014).

Sharafi, Abd. Islam between Divine Message and History. Budapest: Central European

University Press, 2005.

Stepaniants, M.T. (Marietta Tigranovna). "The Encounter Of Zoroastrianism With

Islam." Philosophy East and West, 2002, 159-72.

Stausberg, Michael. "Hell In Zoroastrian History." Numen, 2009, 217-53.

Grenville, G.S.P., and Stuart Christopher Hay. Islam an Illustrated History. London:

Continuum International Pub. Group, 2006.

Schaeffer, Matt. 2010. "Balancing moderate Islam with respect for other faiths." Daily

Telegraph (London) 2. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed

December 1, 2014).

Harms, Gregory, and Todd M. Ferry. The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic

Introduction. London: Pluto, 2005.

Hasan, Mehdi. "New Statesman." New Statesman. July 4, 2014. Accessed December

1, 2014. http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/07/hand-choppers-isis-are-deluded-there-nothing-islamic-about-their-caliphate.

Hemmasi, Mohammad, and Carolyn V Prorok. "Demographic Changes in Iran's

Officially Recognized Religious Minority Populations since the Islamic

Revolution." African and Asian Studies, 2002, 63-86.

Pew. "The Global Religious Landscape." Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life

Project RSS. December 18, 2012. Accessed December 1, 2014.

http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/ READ MORE

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