Dear reader,

I believe in Ahura Mazda and intelligent design.

Ahura is material existence and the Asha (“Laws”) that govern it.

Mazda is that part of Ahura which has progressed to the level of having Intelligence and consciousness.

What made the fangs and the claws of the Tiger be so sharp was and is Ahura Mazda and this Ah-Maz dwells IN the Tiger.

What made the limbs of the Gazelle so agile and gave it the power to escape so swiftly is also Ahura Mazda and this Ah-Maz dwelled IN the Gazelle too.

I do not believe that the Ah-Maz that dwells in the Tiger is aware of the Ah-Maz that dwells in the Gazelle. While they operate by the same Asha power, they can not be unified as a MONO THEO with a single wisdom in all It does and manifests. If a united filed of consciousness (God) dwelling outside creation had designed and MADE the Tiger to kill and the Gazelle to run, this God would be a Sadist not worthy of worship by compassionate men.

The high priest Adorbad Marasepand used this logic during Sassanian times in an argument he had with Christian Missionaries sent to the court of Persia. He said that a Christian God that by premeditated design would fashion a mouse to run and a cat to catch the mouse would not be a God worthy of worship by Zoroastrian theology. He used the image of the cat very appropriately for a cat does not just catch and eat a mouse; at times it plays a long time with a suffering mouse and seems to enjoy tormenting it’s pray.

Abrahamic religions do not accept the fact that animals can suffer just as men do. They consider that only man has a soul and that animals have no soul. If they did consider a soul for the animals, then their world view would get very messy. Imagine a day of resurrection and judgment where all cats have to answer about how they caught and ate each mouse they killed during their lifetime and go to hell or heaven depending on how cruel or kind they were doing it. We forbid dog fights or cock fights because we consider them inhumane, yet we have no problem worshiping a God whose daily game is to set the predator upon the pray. We identify with the lion or the eagle and put their pictures on our flags as if it is good to want to be like them and hunt and tear the flesh of those less gifted than us with instruments of aggression.

Omar Khayam is another Persian thinker who repeatedly says in his poems that if he was God, he would design a better world where this much misery was not needed to occur. Hallaj is another one who gives his life but does not recant the notion that God dwells in him and not in some woo woo esoteric zone.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Should Zoroastrianism be preached as a Monotheistic or Monistic religion? Which view would be preferable to you and why?