Religions are immensely diverse in the types of rituals, myths, and overall beliefs their followers practice. There is bound to be ideas that overlap between these religions. In general it can be hard to pinpoint where some of these ideas come from because of how diverse they ideas truly are. However, the concept of good and evil is consistently mentioned in dozens of religions around the world. While dates are not concrete and we can only go back so far in history, the concept of Heaven and Hell can be traced back to one specific point. Zoroastrianism can be credited for “creating” the symbols of Heaven and Hell as they relate to good and evil and influencing religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
The concept of Heaven and Hell
…show more content…
In general, Christians believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ, Satan, and the idea of life after death in Heaven or Hell. According to the World Scriptures text, Christianity was a missionary religion that quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire. Around 500 B.C.E the Zoroastrian Persian Empire spread from the Arabian sea to Mediterranean sea, which overlapped with Christianity at the time (Van Voorst 265). Christianity was heavily surrounding the Mediterranean and with the importance of trade routes at the time there was bound to be influencing ideas between the two. One may argue that Christianity was the mission religion that influenced Zoroastrianism. However, Zoroastrianism predates Christianity, therefore these ideas were already in place before Christianity was being transcribed. An article summoned up the belief that “....upon death and according to its earthly deeds and its acceptance of the Christian faith, the soul enters Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. There it awaits the Last Judgment when the dead shall rise again, the redeemed to enjoy life everlasting and the unsaved to suffer eternally” (Bodhinatha Veylanswami 40-41). This passage summarizes the Christian idea that upon death the soul will either enter Heaven, Purgatory or Hell depending on how that person chose to live their life. When Jesus returns all the living and the dead will either enter eternal paradise or eternal suffering. This is a similar concept to that of Zoroastrianism where the soul travel on a bridge to Heaven or fall into Hell because of wrongdoings in life. The concept of Jesus Christ coming back to reward the good and punish the evildoers can be compared to that of Sayoshant. Some may credit this to coincidence, that humans have general questions about the world that they would like the answers to and there is bound to be overlap. While it cannot be proven a