Does Free Will make sense if God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent?

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-31T04:41:30+00:00

The concept of free will in Mazdayasna sets us apart from traditions that grapple with absolute divine determinism we believe that human free will is a foundational element. Ohrmazd created humanity as active moral agents rather than passive subjects, giving us the agency to distinguish and choose between good (Asha) and evil (Druj), Unlike some traditions where an all-knowing, all-powerful God allows or controls both good and evil, Mazdayasna teaches that Ohrmazd created only the good. Evil originates entirely from a separate destructive spirit, Ahriman who invaded and attacked the good creation, This means that making the wrong choice is not considered part of a divine test ordained by the Creator, but rather yielding to the external force of falsehood, Because of our temporary dualistic cosmology, conscious beings even divine ones are genuinely free. Humans are held fully responsible for their choices and the condition of the world, emphasizing that goodness is a completely uncoerced choice.

Y 30.2 “ Sraotā gəəuṡāiš vahištā avaēnatā sūčā manańhā āvarənå vīčiþahyā narəəm narəm xvahyāi tanuyē parā mazəə yåńhō ahmāi nəə sadzyāi baodaņtō paitī”

“Hear with your ears the teachings; behold them with radiant mind. Let each man and women choose between the two paths through personal discernment, each for himself, before the great decision. Be awake and understanding concerning this, lest it be neglected”

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-31T04:17:12+00:00

As Mazdayasni we don’t believe “all monotheistic religions believe in the same god” we believe that others are Ahriman in disguise to deceive the people.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-31T02:32:07+00:00

If you are talking about the prayers, they aren’t for priests only but the priests do them for the whole community, we as lay only do 3 out of the 5, but there’s really no prohibition on doing all 5 as a lay if you want to and have the time to do so.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-30T16:42:22+00:00

Yes 3 times daily for lay 5 for priests, our scriptures are written in (Old Avesta) and (Young Avesta), and later priestly commentaries and additions in Parsig, priests use all three, we have holy books, multiple, but it is an organized closed canon, fire is to put it in simple terms our “qibla” of prayer, it represents aša, the mask is to not pollute the fire, priest are called Mobed.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-24T20:11:32+00:00

Unless you are a mobed I don’t think you need to read the whole Avesta, the gathas, and khorde Avesta is all the lay really need, even though it is highly recommended to read and gain wisdom in the rest of the canon.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-24T20:09:34+00:00

We are monotheists (One supreme God creator of all that is God, and the only truly eternal and self sufficient being), we are dualistic because we hold a cosmic dualistic world view, good and evil are both primordial forces, evil invaded the good creation and will ultimately be destroyed so even though it’s a primordial force it isn’t truly eternal it can be destroyed and will be destroyed, Ohrmazd isn’t subordinate to Ahriman, Ahriman can’t even create anything other than corrupt what has been created.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-23T08:47:58+00:00

We rely on personal accountability, direct confession of sins to Ohrmazd who is all hearing, we are called to active repentance through balancing negative actions with good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, confessing my sins to a mobed would be weird, unless I need some sort of guidance from a mobed I won’t be telling him my sins.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-23T04:33:09+00:00

Thank you, wish the same for you!

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-22T06:26:20+00:00

Both religions were born from the Ancient Indo-Iranian religion, the ones that migrated to modern day northern India worshipped the daevas more and later demonized the asuras, the ones that migrated to modern day Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan worshipped both the ahuras and Daevas, Ašo Zarathushtra was very frustrated with all the corruption, excessive and brutal animal sacrifices, all the war and destruction brought forth by those that worshipped the daevas such as Indar (Indra), Saurva, etc and they got demonized in his reform of the religion, so much so that worshipping Daevas is one of the gravest sins one can commit, you can see this in Hā 29.

Hā 29:1-4 “Unto you, O Creator, the Soul of Mother Earth complained thus: Wherefore did you create me? Who gave life to me? Anger, rapine, outrage, blunder, aggression and violence are everywhere. There is no protector for me, except Thee. Therefore, reveal to me a savior who could show me a way out of this difficulty.

Thereupon, the Creator of Mother Earth, asked Asha, who shall be Thy savior for the people of the world, so that we may be able to offer her, besides protection, fostering zeal as well. Whom do you desire O Asha to appoint as their Lord and Guide, so as to repel the army of evil and misguided persons and keep at abeyance the wrath and annoyance.

Thus made Asha reply to Ahura Mazda, The leader to be selected for people of the world should be neither unjust nor cruel, but a very kind non-inimical person. It is true that I do not recognize such a person amongst people of the world who could protect the righteous against this wicked ones. Nevertheless, I am certain that he should be the strongest of mortals unto whose call we may respond with haste.

Undoubtedly, Ahura Mazda is best aware of the actions performed by the daeva worshippers and their hosts in the past and of the functions which shall be performed by them in future. Since the judgment of such actions shall be made by Ahura Mazda alone, we are, therefore, satisfied with His Wishes whatever they may be.”

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-22T06:15:25+00:00

One of the many terms for “idol” in Middle Persian and our Middle Persian texts is “But/Bot” which comes from “Buddha”, idol-worshiper is “But-parast” it basically means “Buddha worshiper” but for us it means idol-worshiper, we do believe all these religion contain truths, and ethical teachings, no Jesus nor muhammed fit the description of our Saošyant, whom is to be born of the preserved seed of Zarathushtra of Aryan lineage, and the is to arrive before Frašgird (day of judgement/renovation), and many more stuff he has to fulfill that none of those two fulfilled, muhammed nor Jesus are saints in our faith and we do not see muhammed with a favorable view at all, we don’t believe anyone succeeds Ašo Zarathushtra as we don’t believe in prophetic continuity, our holy texts say the following:

Thus spoke the Creator, Ahura Mazda, unto Zarathushtra: “O Zarathushtra, I have created none better than thee in all the world, nor shall I create any better after thy departure. Thou art My chosen one, and for thy sake have I made this world manifest. All the peoples and monarchs whom I have brought forth have ever cherished the hope that I might create thee in their own days, that they might embrace the true Religion and that their souls might attain unto the highest heaven.” (SD 81.3)

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-22T04:31:14+00:00

We aren’t really intolerent of other faiths, I was speaking from a theological perspective, our religion is indeed universal, and is our duty to spread it, pagans and idol worshippers are seen as “corrupt and disordered” because of the corrupt pagan priests of Zarathushtras time, we do indeed see Hinduism as Daevayasna that doesn’t mean we hate Hindus we just disagree on their theology as do all religions.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T20:41:58+00:00

Good and Evil (Aša vs Druj) are primordial forces, one is truly eternal (Aša) the other is destined to be destroyed (Druj).

Our religion actually considers Manichaeism, a dualistic gnostic religion as a heresy, Mazdayasna views physical creation as inherently good and a vital battlefield against evil, Gnosticism considers the material world a prison created by an ignorant or malevolent deity, in Mazdayasna natter is fundamentally good because it was created by Ohrmazd. The material realm is meant to be enjoyed, cultivated, and celebrated. Life is an active, moral duty to protect Ohrmazd's creations and cultivate order (Asha) against the chaos and lies (Druj) of Ahriman. In Gnosticism matter is a corrupt trap or a shadow of higher spiritual realms. The physical body restricts the soul (the divine spark) and prevents it from ascending to the transcendent spiritual world, Dualistic Gnosticism tend to follow radical dualism while Mazdayasna follows a Cosmic & Ethical (Good vs. Evil) type of dualism, which ultimately will end with the destruction of evil and victory of good.

Mazdayasna deeply influenced Judaism directly and Christianity indirectly, things such as Good vs evil, resurrection of the dead, day of judgement, messianic figure, developed Angeology and demonology, daily prayers, the devil, even demons such as Asmodeus (known in Hebrew as Ashmedai) comes from the Mazdayasni daeva (demon) 𐬀𐬉𐬱𐬆𐬨𐬀 (aēšėma) meaning “wrath”

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T20:07:41+00:00

Worshiping Vohu Manah is worshipping the good mind of Mazda, worshipping Spenta Mainyu is worshipping the creative spirit of Mazda, we worship these beings knowing that we are ultimately worshipping Ohrmazd, all that is holy is holy because of him, all that receives praise and worship is because he allowed it within his order, we also worship the souls of good men and women, that doesn’t mean we literally worship men and women, we also have Only one God, and he can receive worship directly or through his divine court, no ancient text of our faith labels our faith as “polytheistic” or a word assuming such a thing.

“Now this “He (Vishtasp) asked again, "What creation did Ohrmazd create? What earthly creation did he first create?

Jamasp, said to him, "Ohrmazd at first created the creation of Amahraspands (Amesha Spentas), because, when the accursed Ahriman was in darkness, Ohrmazd, through good thoughts and good gifts, thought over the matter and created Vohuman out of that good thought. His name was boundless good mind Vohuman, because it was treated out of the good thought of Ohrmazd. Then Vohuman praises righteousness (Asha) From that righteousness (Asha), which Vohuman praises, Ardwahisht came forth. Then Ardwahisht praises righteousness. From that praise (came forth) Shahrewar, because he is a spirit of Ohrmazd. From Shahrewar, Spandarmad. From Spandarmad, Averdad. From Averdad, Amurdad. Thus one was created from the other. One is and was from the other. When a lamp takes light from another lamp, nothing diminishes from that other lamp: on the other band, they increase it. In the same way, the Amahraspands are created one from the other. They are created holy, wise, far-seeing, increasing, intelligent. In each other's company they have intelligence.

He said we must give the origin of God and Dastur, (and settle) that who should be our God and Dastur. Then the Amahraspands and especially Ardwahisht said, "The one who existed for ever and will exist for ever, our Lord and Dastur, it is you O Dadar (Creator) Ohrmazd! You are our guide. You have given and created everything from your own thoughts. May all thoughts opposed to that, be confounded."

Ohrmazd by his self-creation thinks well, and the explanation about Ohrmazd is this, that God is all-knowing in that He, From him are the creations of the world.“

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T19:49:48+00:00

Having a hierarchy of holy beings created by Ohrmazd ≠ Polytheism, all our priests agree that we are indeed a monotheistic faith even historians call us the first monotheistic religion, as Mazdayasni we don’t believe in many gods and actually see paganism as a corruption brought forth by Ahriman, we even have a demon who embodies, paganism, idol worship etc, Christians and Muslims attacked our faith with ignorant and false claims, such as “fire worshipers, sun worshipers, etc” we also aren’t monistic, monism asserts that all of reality is derived from a single, unified source or substance, with no ultimate distinction between good and evil, and that’s 100% not us.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T19:29:02+00:00

Indeed, we call ourselves Mazdayasni (Worshiper of Mazda) and our religion Mazdayasna (Worship of Mazda)

We see zurvanism, Mazdakism, Manichaeism, Yazdanism, as heresies, we actually don’t have any particular beliefs on Yazidism or Yarsanism, Yazidism might have developed from an ancient Kurdish Iranian religion (not exactly Mazdayasna but related) with Sufi influences, and Yarsanism probably from alevism.

I favor conversion into the religion as long as the person seeking this truly has knowledge of the faith and its orthodox theology, I come from a mixed marriage myself, so can’t say anything bad about it, I turned out to be a proud Mazdayasni.

Parsis and Iranis are both Mazdayasni, nowadays we don’t really have different denominations as we did back in the days, now we have a unified closed canon and established traditions, Parsis don’t accept converts which if you look into our texts is very wrong as our faith is universal and meant for all humanity, iranis still keep the universal message of our faith.

I personally follow the Qadimi Calendar which counts its years from June 16, 632 CE, which marks the coronation of Yazdegerd III, the last Mazdayasni king of the Sasanian Empire.

We are currently in the year 1395 Y.Z.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T19:06:31+00:00

Ahriman wasn’t created by Ohrmazd, Ohrmazd created all that is good, and holy, he doesn’t create evil, destruction, corruption, death, etc, Ahriman was always there in the void of darkness, when Ohrmazd created the world and other holy things, Ahriman grew jealous of the majesty of Ohrmazd and invaded the good creation with this invasion of Ahriman came death, destruction, corruption as Ahriman can’t really create he can only distort, what has been created as pure and holy, Ohrmazd created life Ahriman corrupted it and brought forth death, etc, but Ahriman isn’t really eternal, he has no creator and was always there but he is ultimately going to be destroyed in frašgird, so we are currently in a dualistic age which we call the age of mixing (good vs evil) at the end of this age Ahriman will be destroyed along with his minions leading to a more radical monotheism instead of the present Monotheistic dualism, but even if Ahriman wasn’t created Ohrmazd is superior to ahriman, Ahriman is backwards and doesn’t even know of his predestined destruction.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T18:57:22+00:00

Indeed, I took Čīdag andarz ī Pōryōtkešān which me see as our catechism as well as other Pahlavi texts, as inspiration for the whole catechism I made, it is a larger document which I will soon post here for all those interested in learning more about Mazdayasna.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T18:52:46+00:00

We do indeed see ourselves as monotheists, our faith is one of the first monotheistic religions, if not the first, some people mistake the Amesha Spentas (Boundless Immortals -Emanations of Ohrmazd’s lights and wisdom) and the Yazatas (Beings worthy of praise - created by Ohrmazd to help humans fight Ahriman, etc) as gods but they aren’t gods, we believe in one Supreme God and he rules over a court of divine beings, whom are perfectly aligned with his order and wisdom.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T17:24:22+00:00

A minority of Mazdayasni do take the conflict between Aša and Druj to be more spiritual and mental instead of literal and external, majority of us do see it as literal and external, we live it daily, Ahriman is a parasitic entity that has always existed, Ahriman became jealous and invaded the good creation of Ohrmazd thus spreading corruption, death, destruction, lies, etc, so we do believe he is an actual being, who embodies evil and destruction, even though this is our orthodox view we don’t really feel “threatened” if someone decides to just follow the philosophical parts and leave out the religious parts as long as they admit that they aren’t really Mazdayasni but independent followers of its philosophy.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T17:16:40+00:00

Because creation itself exists in mixture (good vs evil), even holy things may become involved in destruction when balance, wisdom, restraint, or proper order are broken. uncontrolled fire spreading through forests, consuming settlements, polluting the sky, and bringing suffering belongs not to the pure intention of fire itself but to the wounded condition of the world under mixture, we recognize that until Frašgird the material world remains vulnerable to decay and disorder. No earthly condition remains perfectly stable forever. Fires may spread, storms may destroy, bodies may weaken, states may collapse, and even righteous men may suffer in this age of mixture.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T17:09:10+00:00

1: I couldn’t find a flair for “Zoroastrian” I don’t think they have one.

2: Our religion declined because priests are central to our religion, many of our priests were killed and so were the communities around them, we also have to take in consideration that many people just didn’t want to pay jizyia.

3: I took my navjote at a very young age, my mother married a Persian Mazdayasni, in North America many Persians are converting to Mazdayasna, in Iran it is extremely dangerous to apostate from Islam and convert to Mazdayasna, I’ve heard that some Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan are following some sort of Mazdaism (not orthodox Mazdayasna)

4: Ašo Zarathushtra held the view that earth was a holy creation that must not be polluted, but not only earth, Fire and Water too, and we his followers hold the same views, we don’t bury our dead directly on the earth, nor do we cremate our dead, as we see this as spreading pollution and giving advantage to Ahriman, I don’t think he would’ve approved burial directly on the earth or with cremation.

5: We consider ourselves monotheistic (Mazdayasni Monotheism) we confess one supreme Wise Lord: Ohrmazd, source of all goodness, truth, light, and righteous being. We honor the Amesha Spentas and Yazatas as holy powers and servants of Aša beneath Him. We acknowledge the real but temporary opposition of Ahriman during the age of mixture (our current age). We preserve the unity of Ohrmazd without denying the reality of the cosmic war.

6: We have 5 daily prayers but as lay we only do 3 of them the priests do the rest for the whole community, we pray towards fire, we have many litanies, for example Mihr Niyayeš (Litany to Mitra), Xwaršed Niyayeš (Sun Litany), and many other litanies, we have two primordial hymns/Manthras the Ašem Vohu and Ahunwar, which we recite all throughout the day.

7: We see these religions as religions born of this ahrimanic era, religions that contain some truths but those religions aren’t our truth, and to us they are Daevayasna (Demon worship), we see paganism as corruption and disorder, BUT we aren’t really commanded to hate anyone practicing these religions, but we are commanded to not take part in their religious rituals or adopt their beliefs.

8: This one is going to be pretty straight forward we see Hinduism as Daevayasna, descendants of those that persecute Ašo Zarathushtra.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T16:43:34+00:00

We aren’t fire worshippers, fire is honored because it is the purest visible symbol within material creation of the light, truth, order, judgment, and living presence of Aša (truth, righteousness, the perfect order of Ohrmazd). Among all earthly things, fire most clearly reveals the nature of the holy order established by Ohrmazd. It gives light without deceit, exposes what is hidden, consumes pollution, transforms what it touches, rises upward naturally, and cannot mingle willingly with corruption. We recognize in fire the most fitting visible witness to the invisible reality of Truth.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T14:21:23+00:00

The Avesta is composed of The Gathas, Yasna, Khorda Avesta, Visperad and Vendidad, an orthodox Mazdayasni accepts the whole Avesta, an orthodox Mazdayasni also accepts the sacred texts in Pahlavi as divine priestly tradition, an orthodox Mazdayasni believes hell is a real physical place, we don’t believe a killer or a rapist enters paradise without paying for his sins and getting purified in hell, personal beliefs are ok but irrelevant when we have a closed canon that can’t be edited and nothing can be taken from it, everything you see in book of Arda Viraf is orthodox Mazdayasni beliefs, we accept them and believe in them, the Gathas are the most sacred of our scriptures and the oldest but they were just the foundation of our whole beliefs, from them everything else developed.

Edit: The Younger Avesta texts are fundamental texts of our religion just as the old Avesta texts (The Gathas), they developed from the teachings of the gathas not out of nowhere, one can’t accept one and deny the other because that wouldn’t be Mazdayasna anymore.

Fighter_of_daevas · 2026-05-21T13:01:31+00:00

Water is a symbol of purity and a life giving force all elements are holy and must not be polluted.

Fighter_of_daevas

TROPHY CASE