Difference Between Zoroastrianism And African Religion

One major difference between Zoroastrianism and African religions is the way that they viewed and handled death. For example, Zoroastrians believe that it takes the body 3 days to die and the soul departs on the 4th day (Zoroastrian ritual presentation.) At that point, “if we sided with good during our lives, then the bridge is as wide as seen spears and we easily pass to heaven...if we sided with evil during our lives, however, the bridge turns sideways and becomes as narrow as a razor’s edge; we [then] plummet into hell” (Fieser, pg. 256). The soul would stay in heaven until the end-times, when those who were good and also chanted sacred hymns (as well as those in hell who repented) could ascend to supreme heaven. African religions, on the other hand, had a strong overall belief of spirits and the living dead. Spirits are revered as “intermediaries who convey human sacrifices or prayers to God, and may relay His reply to men” (Eastman, pg. 480); however, “it is through the living-dead that the spirit world becomes personal to men” (Eastman, pg. 482). Zoroastrians, contrastingly, don’t pray to specific spirits or loved ones, focusing their spiritual communication with
23). The Yoruba believed that “good character originates in God”, so anything that imbued good character was closer to God (Thompson, pg. 11). Zoroastrians instead view these moral beliefs as the what Ahura Mazda wants his followers to embody, which also ended up being the way in which you were judged in the afterlife (as mentioned above.) While their specific reasons behind these slightly differed, both religions had a strong belief in the spiritual benefits of goods actions, supported by their specific