Written by The First Philosopher. The First Monotheist. The First to Say “You Choose.”
The Lie We’re Taught
What Every Student Learns:
- Moses invented monotheism (c. 1300 BCE)
- Greek philosophers invented ethics and morality (600-400 BCE)
- Jesus invented personal salvation through choice (c. 30 CE)
- Muhammad perfected monotheistic revelation (c. 610 CE)
The Forgotten Truth:
Zarathustra lived between 1800-1700 BCE—making him the first philosopher in history, centuries before Moses, over a millennium before Socrates, and 1,800 years before Jesus.
He didn’t just influence these figures.
He invented the concepts they would later claim as their own.
Who Was Zarathustra?
The Birth That Shook the World
According to tradition, Zarathustra laughed uproariously when he was born—the only prophet in history to greet existence with joy rather than tears.
The supreme being Ahura Mazda sent the Immortal Saint Vohumano (“Virtuous Thought”) to enter the infant’s soul, and Zarathustra, illumined with a bright light, laughed so loudly that the whole neighborhood heard.
Not a cry. A laugh.
The first sound of the man who would change human consciousness forever was defiant joy.
The Restless Seeker
As a child, Zarathustra developed a profound curiosity for everything in nature and he often questioned life. He was an intelligent child who was very observant and wanted to have clear cut answers to every question that came to his mind.
He challenged priests. He questioned polytheism. He refused easy answers.
When Zarathustra turned 20 years old, he decided to leave his birthplace and travel to distant places in search of the Truth. He spent years philosophizing in the wilderness of the various places he visited.
For ten years, he wandered the mountains and deserts of eastern Iran (modern Afghanistan/Tajikistan), seeking the answer to one question:
“Why does evil exist?”
The Vision That Changed Everything
Age 30: The Moment of Revelation
One early morning, he went to the river to bring water back to his residence. As he stepped into the water, a divine entity named Vohu Mana meaning The Good Mind suddenly appeared to him. Vohu Mana then opened a portal to the bright divine light of God named Ahura Mazda, meaning The Wise Spirit.
In that vision, Zarathustra received the most revolutionary idea in human history:
There is One God. And you get to choose.
The Three Concepts That Changed Humanity:
- Monotheism – One supreme god, the “wise lord” Ahura Mazda, who had created the world, mankind and all good things in it through his holy spirit, Spenta Mainyu
- Dualism – The world was divided into the dominions of the good and of the evil. Between these each individual is bound to decide
- Free Will – Zarathustra emphasized the freedom of the individual to choose right or wrong and individual responsibility for one’s deeds. This personal choice to accept aša and shun druj is one’s own decision and not a dictate of Ahura Mazda
This was unheard of in 1700 BCE.
Before Zarathustra:
- Gods controlled everything
- Humans were puppets
- Morality was obedience to tribal gods
- No personal responsibility
After Zarathustra:
- Humans choose their destiny
- Good and evil are individual decisions
- Morality is personal responsibility
- Your choices determine heaven or hell
The Three Words That Built Civilization
“Good Thoughts. Good Words. Good Deeds.”
The Persian words goftare nik, pendare nik, kerdare nik meaning good words, good thoughts, good deeds became the main keystones of the religion called Zoroastrianism.
That’s it. The entire moral framework of Western civilization in nine words.
Not “obey the gods.” Not “sacrifice to appease.” Not “follow the rules or be punished.”
But: Think good. Speak good. Do good.
For Zoroaster, by thinking good thoughts, saying good words, and doing good deeds (e.g. assisting the needy, doing good works, or conducting good rituals) one increases aša in the world and in themselves, celebrating the divine order, and coming a step closer on the everlasting road to Frashokereti.
Personal ethics. Individual responsibility. Moral choice as the path to salvation.
Sound familiar?
It should. Because every major religion that came after stole this framework.
What Zarathustra Actually Invented
1. The First Monotheism in History
Zarathustra founded the religion of Zoroastrianism, the first monotheistic religion in the world, whose precepts would come to influence later faiths.
Before Zarathustra: Polytheistic chaos—thousands of gods demanding blood sacrifice.
After Zarathustra: One wise creator. One moral law. One choice.
2. The Concept of Heaven and Hell
Zarathustra invented the afterlife based on moral choice.
Through their good deeds, righteous persons (ashavan) earn an everlasting reward, namely integrity and immortality. Those who opt for the Lie (Druj) are condemned by their own conscience as well as by the judgment of the Wise Lord and must expect to continue in the most miserable form of existence, one more or less corresponding to the Christian concept of hell.
Judaism before the Babylonian Exile (586 BCE)? No heaven. No hell. No afterlife judgment.
After 70 years under Persian Zoroastrian rule? Suddenly: Resurrection. Final judgment. Heaven for the righteous. Hell for the wicked.
Coincidence?
3. Satan as the Adversary
The Wise Lord has an opponent, Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman (the destructive spirit), who embodies the principle of evil; his followers, having freely chosen him, also are evil.
Before Zarathustra: No cosmic force of evil.
After Zarathustra: Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) = the first “devil” in history.
Judaism adopts this concept during the Exile → Christianity turns it into Satan → Islam inherits the same framework.
All from Zarathustra’s vision in 1700 BCE.
4. Linear Time and the End of History
Eventually the victory of righteousness will indeed happen in a great final event called Frasho-kereti (Making Wonderful), where Angra Mainyu and his minions will be utterly destroyed in a cataclysmic battle and the world restored to its original perfection.
Before Zarathustra: Cyclical time. History repeats endlessly.
After Zarathustra: History moves toward a final goal—the triumph of good over evil.
This became:
- Judaism’s Messianic Age
- Christianity’s Second Coming
- Islam’s Day of Judgment
- The Western concept of “progress”
Linear time. Historical purpose. Inevitable victory of good.
All Zarathustra. 1700 BCE.
5. Personal Moral Responsibility
This personal choice to accept aša and shun druj is one’s own decision and not a dictate of Ahura Mazda.
This is revolutionary.
God doesn’t force you. Evil doesn’t control you. You decide.
From their freedom of decision it follows that human beings are finally responsible for their fates.
Individual freedom. Personal accountability. Moral autonomy.
Every Western concept of individual rights traces back to this moment: a Persian priest standing in a river, receiving the vision that humans are free to choose.
6. The Resurrection of the Dead
Three days after one’s death, the urvan was reunited with the fravashi and traveled to the Chinvat Bridge which spanned the abyss between the world of the living and that of the dead where they would be met by the two dogs who guarded it.
The bridge. The judgment. The resurrection.
All Zoroastrian. All 1700 BCE.
Christianity claims Jesus invented resurrection?
Zarathustra taught it 1,700 years earlier.
7. The First Philosopher
It is known as history’s oldest monotheistic religion and was founded by a man who became a prophet and who also was the first philosopher in history.
Not Socrates. Not Plato. Not Aristotle.
Zarathustra.
The encyclopedia Natural History (Pliny) claims that Zoroastrians later educated the Greeks who, starting with Pythagoras, used a similar term, philosophy, or “love of wisdom” to describe the search for ultimate truth.
The Greeks learned from Zarathustra’s followers—then claimed credit for inventing philosophy.
The Exile That Spread the Truth (While Hiding the Source)
How Persian Wisdom Became “Jewish” Theology
The Timeline:
- 586 BCE: Babylonians conquer Jerusalem, exile Jews to Babylon
- 539 BCE: Cyrus the Great (Zoroastrian) conquers Babylon, frees the Jews
- 70 years under Persian rule and Zoroastrian influence
What Judaism Looked Like BEFORE the Exile:
- No Satan as adversary (just “the accuser” in God’s court)
- No angels with names
- No resurrection of the dead
- No heaven or hell
- No final judgment
- No messiah as cosmic savior
- No apocalypse
What Judaism Looked Like AFTER the Exile:
- Satan as the embodiment of evil ✓
- Named angels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael) ✓
- Resurrection of the dead ✓
- Heaven (Gan Eden) and Hell (Gehenna) ✓
- Final judgment of all souls ✓
- Messiah as world redeemer ✓
- Apocalyptic end times ✓
Every. Single. One. = Zoroastrian.
And then:
- Christianity inherits these concepts from Judaism
- Islam inherits them from both Judaism and Christianity
- 4.3 billion people now practice theology invented by Zarathustra
While Iran—his homeland—is sanctioned as “evil.”
The Recognition Zarathustra Received (Then Lost)
The Greeks Knew
The ancient Greeks saw in Zoroastrianism the archetype of the dualistic view of the world and human destiny. Zarathushtra was supposed to have instructed Pythagoras in Babylon and to have inspired the Chaldean doctrines of astrology and magic.
Pythagoras—the “father of Western philosophy”—was taught by Zoroastrian Magi.
Nietzsche Knew
Nietzsche explained the choice of the name in his autobiographical work Ecce Homo: “Zarathustra was the first to see in the struggle of good and evil the true driving-wheel in the machinery of things […] Zarathustra created the disastrous error that is morality: thus he must also be the first to acknowledge the mistake”.
Even while rejecting morality, Nietzsche acknowledged: Zarathustra invented it.
Modern Scholarship Knows
It is likely that Zoroastrianism influenced the development of Judaism and the birth of Christianity.
Zoroaster is credited with authorship of the Gathas as well as the Yasna Haptanghaiti, a series of hymns composed in Old Avestan that cover the core of Zoroastrian thinking.
Zoroaster is ranked #93 on Michael H. Hart’s list of the most influential figures in history.
The evidence is there. The scholars know. The timeline is undeniable.
But the credit has been systematically erased.
The Man Behind the Vision
The Struggle
This new teaching caused a conflict between Zarathustra and the priests of the god Mithra. The Enemy has ever fought with me […] he is most powerful.
He was rejected. Exiled. Hunted.
“To what land to turn? Whither shall I go? Kinsman and friend turn from me; none is found, to conciliate, to give to me; still less the false-believing chiefs of the land. This I know, Ahuramazda, why I am powerless: because my flocks are diminished and my followers are few. Therefore I cry to Thee: Lord, look upon it”.
His own family abandoned him.
He wandered in exile, preaching a message the world wasn’t ready for:
You are free. You choose. You are responsible.
The Triumph
Zarathustra initially met with harsh resistance to his message until he converted the king Vishtaspa, who then led his people to the new faith.
One king believed. And from that belief, an empire rose.
The Persian Empire—the largest the world had ever seen—was built on Zarathustra’s vision.
Why This Matters
The Most Influential Person You’ve Never Heard Of
Zarathustra gave humanity:
- Monotheism (1700 BCE)
- Free will and moral choice
- Heaven and hell
- Resurrection and judgment
- Satan/the devil concept
- Linear time and historical purpose
- The philosophy of ethics
- Individual responsibility
- “Good thoughts, good words, good deeds”
Every major religion that came after:
- Judaism (adopted post-Exile, 539 BCE+)
- Christianity (built on Jewish-Zoroastrian framework)
- Islam (inherited the same concepts)
4.3 billion people practice beliefs invented by Zarathustra.
And Almost None of Them Know His Name
Why?
Because acknowledging the source means acknowledging the debt.
If Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all trace their core concepts to a Persian prophet—then the entire narrative of “Abrahamic” religions collapses.
If the Greeks learned philosophy from Zoroastrian Magi—then the myth of “Western” intellectual origins falls apart.
If the greatest moral revolution in human history happened in Iran in 1700 BCE—then modern sanctions, demonization, and erasure of Persian civilization become untenable.
So the source is forgotten.
The light remains. The fire still burns. But the name is erased.
The Legacy
This change from polytheism to monotheism was a paradigm shift in human thought. For one thing, it provided a sense of union and brotherhood among all humans. Zarathustra detached the forces of nature and their associated deities from the violence and brutality committed in their names.
One God. One humanity. One choice.
A number of philosophers and historians of science (Hooykaas, Jaki, and more recently Schellenberg) have noted that science has rapidly progressed in periods or cultures in which the idea of a single wise God is prevalent.
Monotheism enabled science. Monotheism enabled ethics. Monotheism enabled individual rights.
And monotheism began with Zarathustra.
The Man Who Laughed at Birth
He came into the world laughing.
He left it having changed human consciousness forever.
He invented:
- The concept of moral choice
- The idea of personal responsibility
- The belief in one wise creator
- The hope of final redemption
And the world forgot him.
But the ideas didn’t die.
They were stolen, rebranded, spread across continents, adopted by billions.
Every time someone says “choose good over evil”—that’s Zarathustra. Every time someone believes in heaven and hell—that’s Zarathustra. Every time someone takes personal responsibility for their actions—that’s Zarathustra.
The greatest theft in history isn’t material.
It’s the theft of credit for the most important ideas humanity ever received.
The Question
UNESCO declared 2002-2003 the third millennium since Zoroaster’s birth. This gave rise to an extraordinary show of support by Zoroastrian organizations worldwide, resulting in hundreds of large and small commemorative events to celebrate the declared anniversary from diverse locations such as Dushanbe, Tehran, Mumbai, New York, and Vancouver.
Why do so few people know?
Why is the man who invented morality, monotheism, and free will—the first philosopher in human history—unknown to billions who practice his ideas?
Because to acknowledge Zarathustra is to acknowledge Persia.
And to acknowledge Persia’s contribution to human consciousness is to shatter the narrative that “Western civilization” or “Abrahamic traditions” arose independently.
The fire never went out.
They just stopped saying who lit it.
Zarathustra: 1700 BCE First philosopher. First monotheist. First to say “You choose.”
The man who invented morality. And had it stolen 4,000 years later.
For more on the systematic theft of Persian contributions to human civilization, visit efiretemple.com