There is No Need for Religions
Maziar Aptin
sepeedjamegan@gmail.com
August 27, 2011

Historically all major religions of the world have proven themselves to be detrimental to any society that they have governed.

The Sassani dynasty of Persia, by making Zoroastrianism the official religion of the empire, lost the most powerful country of that time to a small group of barbarian Arabs.

The Roman Empire in fourth century AD, by making Catholicism the official religion of the empire, the golden-age of ancient world changed into the dark-age of Europe. But European nations, by minimizing the power of the Catholic Church in 17century AD, not just recovered from, over a millennium of, down-fall but they changed the fall and stagnation into the great success of 18th century-present.  
 
 Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, by combining spiritual power of his religion with administrative duties of the land has created the Dark-age of any land that Islam has conquered which still is an ongoing problem in Islamic world.

Buddhism which its principle belief is disinterest of its followers to the material world in early 14th century, during the reign of Kublai khan in China, briefly acquired power. In that brief period, the lamas used to commit the vicious criminal act of rape and murder against the people that they were supposed to serve.

Unfortunately, as a social animal, it is in human nature to be dependant on some kind of great power. This can be solved for nation of Iran by accepting a set of moral principle (aaeen instead of deen) and devise a constitution in the framework of those principles.

The majority of people of Iran have great respect for Zarathushtra which, according to my years of research, is a philosopher not a prophet that today’s Zoroastrians claim to be. According to Gathas, Zoroaster has never created a religion when he was alive and never claimed to be a prophet but just an ordinary human being. All his life he campaigned against Magies and their gods.

Zoroastrian religion was created after his death by his “Zorvanist” and “Mithraist” students who could not understand the depth of his doctrine and injected their inherited Zorvanist belief into Zoroaster’s doctrine believing that they are doing a service to their beloved teacher.  A great deal of changes has been made during the Sassanid dynasty by the powerful “Mobeds” which, along with the dynasty’s religious discrimination and persecution policies, has driven a great number of Zoroastrians of their time into converting to other religions such as; Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Nasthurism, Manichaeism, and other.  

The Sassanid by adapting Zoroastrianism as official religion of the land and subsequent constant religious wars against neighbors and powerful Roman Empire, which has weakened country’s military capabilities, along with internal religious persecution have caused the downfall of the empire which resulted in disastrous 1,300 years of constant cultural deterioration.  

Today we are witnessing a country with theocratic dictatorship regime with bankrupt culture. At the present time, the effort of all opposition parties is concentrated on the over-through of this brutal regime. But change of regime alone will not solve the nation’s problem. Country’s main problem is its citizen’s corrupt culture which needs overhauling.

With above in mind, my suggestion to the future secular regime of Iran is; the start of a comprehensive “cultural revolution”. Number one step should be the adaptation of a constitution based on highest moral values to become the major goal of the nation as a whole with participation of all citizens.

Since Zoroaster has captured the respect and admiration of majority of Iranian people, his doctrine could play a bonding role among people of Iran, regardless of their religious or ideological belief.  In my opinion, his principle of “Andishehye Neek, Goftaar-e Neek, Kerdaar-e Neek” along with his doctrine of strive for knowledge and avoidance of all vises such as; lies, deceptions, etc. should be adapted, without a speck of religion tone injected in it, and become the principle base for the future constitution of the country.

Number one task of the future government should be wiping out all corruptions in its “Short Term Project”. With the “Long Term Project” of getting rid of the “culture of slavery” which has infested the country due to prolonged foreign rules and the subsequent dictatorial system of governments adapted by homemade rulers.

The “Strive for Knowledge” principle should get an equal attention because, after over 1,300 years of intellectual starvation, we have a long way to go to even catch-up with the advanced world of our time.

In conclusion; our country and its constitution need “Aaeen, not Deen”. People should be free to choose the religion of their choice and keep it completely and absolutely private with no governmental interference whatsoever. I believe that the freedom of religion in future Iran must be in a form of “Absolute Freedom of Religion”. An absolute freed of religion means; if my religious activities in a public domain will offend even one individual that means I have denied freedom of religion to that individual.

So, over three decades of theocracy rule should have taught us enough is enough and religion must be considered a matter of private affair only.

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