Zoroastrianiam

Though many would say that Judaism was the first monotheistic religion, there is a religion that dates older than Judaism.  It is called Zoroastrianism, named after its founder Zoroaster, a man from Persia.  Zoroaster was a priest in the local polytheist religion when he had a revelation that there was only one god, named Ahura Mazda.  After his revelation, Zoroaster began teaching his ideology and wrote the Avesta, consisting of five Gathas, songs and poems now used as Zoroastrian scriptures.  For the first ten years after his revelation,  no one followed Zoroaster until it attracted a small following later on.  Zoroastrianism was also the first religion to believe in a heaven, hell, and final judgement.

What Zoroastrians Believe
Ahura Mazda is responsible for all the good and evil in the world and is believed to be nine times the size of a man.  He enlisted both angels and humans in his attempt to create the perfect world.

Ahura Mazda emphasizes the importance of keeping the natural world - it's air, water, and land - pure.
Zoroastrianism stresses tolerance toward other faiths and emphasizes learning and understanding other religions.

Zoroastrians worship in fire temples.  They don't worship the fire itself, but what it represents: purity.

Zoroaster's hell is a pit with a dark, narrow crevice where a soul eternally travels with a horrible smell and a loneliness making three days feel like nine thousand years.

Cool Facts
Zoroastrianism is also referred to as Mazdaism, after its deity.

The largest population of Zoroastrians (Parsees) today live in India and Pakistan with 60,000 practioners.  There is another 28,000 in Iran and 37,500 in Europe and North America.