Christian religious teachings imply that the so-called Golden Rule was brought into the world by “Jesus Christ.” This belief, as most educated people understand, is not based on historical reality. Yes, Jesus of Nazareth adopted the Golden Rule as is evident in his well known words: “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Matthew 7:12, also Luke 6:31, RSV). However, this basic moral precept was already a part of most ethical traditions long before Jesus‘ lifetime.

From 551 to 479 BCE, five hundred years before Jesus’ birth, the Chinese philosopher Confucius established the Golden rule as the foundation of his philosophy. In the Analects he states: “What you do not want others to do to you, do not do to others” (Books 12.2, 15.24, also 5.12). However, Confucianism in faraway and largely isolated East Asia did not influence Jesus in that huge continent’s far west.

Furthermore, Confucius was not the only pre-Christian advocate of the Golden Rule. Gautama Siddhartha was a contemporary of Confucius who lived in northern India and who came to be called “Buddha,” meaning the “Enlightened One” or “Awakened One.” During the fifth century BCE, Buddhism’s Udanavarga 5.18 said: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Moreover, as early as this same century (possibly as an influence from Buddha), Hinduism’s Mahabharata (Book 13, “Anusasana Parva,” sec. 113, verse 8) said: “One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self.”

The ancient Greeks also esteemed the Golden Rule. The pre-Socratic philosopher, Thales of Miletus lived from ca. 624 to 546 BCE. He admonished: “Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing” (Diogenes Laertus, The Lives and Opinions of Imminent Philosophers, 1:36). Later in Athens, Isocrates (436-338 BCE) was a contemporary of his countrymen, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. During his long life Isocrates put forth this principle: “Do not do to others that which angers you when they do it to you” (Isocrates, Nicocles or the Cyprians, Isoc. 3.61).

Meanwhile, the Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BCE)¾ living during the time of Isocrates, Confucius, and Buddha¾ expressed Golden Rule thinking. For example, in Laws (8.843), he said: “Wherefore a man ought to be very careful of committing any offense against his neighbor.” In fact, Plato and Confucius shared many remarkably common philosophical views regarding ethics. Plato referred to a person whose life is guided by reason, virtue, and moderation as a “philosopher”¾ a term coined by the earlier Greek thinker, Pythagoras of Samos (ca. 570-495 BCE). Conversely, he labeled those without worth or virtue or self-restraint as “drones.” Meanwhile, Confucius referred to a person of reason and virtue as a “gentleman” or “superior man” and those without worth or virtue as “petty men.” Moreover, both the Chinese and Greek sages believed that the most important duty of government is to teach virtue through instruction and the rulers’ example. And both emphasized that reason and virtue derive from Natural Law, that is, the Greek Cosmos or Moira and the Chinese T’ien or Dao. Yet these two great sages, whose lifetimes overlapped and who lived in civilizations that were barely aware of each other’s existence, could not have influenced each other in such a short time.

So how did the Golden Rule and the concept of virtue and reason linked with Divinely created Natural Law become the central tenets of so many creeds? Many scholars cite evidence that the Chinese, Indian, Greek, and West Asian sages were influenced by the much older religion called “Mazdaism.” This faith became the official creed of the Persian Empire, which began in the 540’s BCE and lasted for centuries. The Persian realm spanned the vast area from Syria (just north of ancient Israel) to Central Asia and northwestern India, and its rulers‘ religion became known in most of Asia. More commonly referred to in the West as “Zoroastrianism,” Mazdaism was an altered form of the much earlier revelation of Spitama Zarathustra.

Zarathustra, whom the Greeks called “Zoroaster,“ was the first great Prophet of the one and only Creator God whom he called the Lord of Wisdom or Ahura Mazda. He was of the Irano-Aryan branch of Indo-Europeans, and his family probably lived on what is presently the border between Russia and northwestern Kazakhstan. This Indo-European who probably resembled a modern day Dane or Swede, spent the latter half of his life in the court of an Irano-Aryan ruler just south of the Aral Sea. Just as significantly, it has become a scholarly consensus that this first advocate of a spiritual monotheistic and morals-based creed walked the earth sometime between 1500 and 1200 BCE. And one of this great spiritual teacher’s central standards of conduct was expressed in these words: “That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another what is not good for its own self” (Dâ dî stan-Î Dî nî k 94:5; also Sikand Gû mâ nî g Vigâ r, 1:49). Those who follow this principle he called “Ashavans” because they live in harmony with the divinely-created Natural Law called “Asha.” This concept remained intact when his followers brought a corrupted form of his revelation into Iran, and it was this creed that was eventually adopted by the Irano-Aryan Medes and Persians.

Buddha, like Zarathustra, was an Indo-European, but of the closely related Indo-Aryan branch. One indication of their ethnic kinship is the similarity between Buddha’s clan name, Gautama, and the Prophet’s Spitama clan. Moreover, many scholars such as Mary Boyce (Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, 1979, p. viii), Piloo Nunavutty (The Gathas of Zarathustra, 1999, p. 16), and J. P. Mallory and Victor Mair (The Tarim Mummies, 2000, pp. 171) believe that Buddha was influenced by the Mazdaists of Persia. Furthermore, two other Indo-European peoples¾ the Tocharians of present northwest China and the Irano-Aryan Sogdians of southern Central Asia¾ went through long periods in which large portions of their populations were Mazdaists. And there is another link between Zarathustra’s doctrine and Confucius. Strong evidence indicates that Caucasian Magi (who from the sixth century BCE were high Mazdaist priests) were in China’s Imperial Court throughout the Zhou Dynasty between 1046 and 256 BCE (Mallory and Mair, 2000, 326-327).

Meanwhile, the fifth century BCE Greeks knew that Zarathustra (“Zoroaster”) was the founder of the Persian’s Mazdaist religion, that he lived many centuries earlier, and that he was a teacher of great wisdom (Herodotus, Histories). It is also known that Aristotle wrote about Zarathustra. And Aristotle’s teacher, Plato, certainly knew about the Irano-Aryan Prophet in view of the fact that Pythagoras had falsely claimed to have been inspired by “Zoroaster.”

Therefore, the Golden Rule was the common foundation of ethics-based doctrines throughout the ancient world. And the common link between the great ethical religions and philosophies was the revelation of the much earlier Indo-European Prophet Zarathustra.

Furthermore, Zarathustra’s uniqueness does not end there. He was not only the first Prophet of the one spiritual God who is worshipped by following an ethical creed. He was the first to condemn the worship of idols, of unprovoked violence, and the corruption of one’s soul with mind-altering drugs. He was the first to reveal that a person’s fate in this life and the next is determined by the goodness or evilness of his or her thoughts, words, and deeds. He was the first to proclaim that after the death of our bodies, the souls of good people, that is, Ashavans, receive eternal life in a spiritual condition we call “heaven.” He was the first to proclaim that wicked souls, called “Drugvants,” enter into hell. And hell is not a place but a condition of spiritual torment that will gradually end with the corrupt soul’s utter destruction. Moreover, he was the first to reveal that women as well as men and the poor as well as the upper classes have the same opportunity to achieve perfect well-being and immortality. All are judged by the Creator and by our own consciences based on the quality of our thoughts, words, and deeds throughout this mortal life.

The Prophet knew, as did his pagan ancestors, that the divinely-created material world is good and is linked with the spiritual realm. He knew that the Natural Law called Asha is governed by the principle of cause and effect. Therefore, some behaviors and doctrines cause beneficial results, and others lead to misery. And the widespread practice of the Golden Rule is a basic necessity for the survival of any group of people regardless of their faith. Asha/Natural Law requires us to conform to Ashavan conduct or perish in the struggles against the dangers posed by nature or by rival groups. Within their own societies, all tribes and nations that have survived, have encouraged a standard of conduct based on the Golden Rule. Even the pagan cultures of the prehistoric era enforced not only all six moral provisions of the “Ten Commandments,” but many more as well.

Therefore, Ashavans act to enable their family, tribe, nation, and race to survive and prosper in struggles against nature and rival groups. They embrace the world as a gift and strive to prosper while preserving the purity of the waters, the air, and all useful plants. They envision their lives as an opportunity to improve their souls. And they do this by treating others as an Ashavan¾ a virtuous and worthy person¾ would reasonably expect to be treated. They improve themselves by learning Asha’s Truth regarding natural and moral laws. They support all actions, policies, and standards of conduct that are necessary for the survival of their own group. An Ashavan also respects worthy people of other groups who are striving to survive and prosper.

Meanwhile, Asha/Natural Law and Ashavans do not tolerate those who propagate lies and cause others to follow doctrines and take actions that destroy their spiritual potential, their culture, and their genetic heritage. Asha/Natural Law and Ashavans oppose the liar drugvants who encourage injustice, crime, sloth, and unrestrained hedonism. And they oppose leaders who fail to defend their people against alien foes or who fight imperialistic wars that weaken the people and strengthen their enemies. That is, Ashavans actively oppose, in Zarathustra’s words, “the followers of the Lie.”

Nevertheless, since the 1960s, a network of liar elites in government, the communications media, education, multinational corporations, and Christian churches have severely weakened European peoples across the globe. Consequently, as others have observed, our corrupt and decaying Western Civilization is not only “post-Christian.” In fact, it is more accurately “post-pagan.” The average ancient Celtic or Germanic tribesman would be shocked and outraged by the present Marxist cultural and political depravity that has set their confused descendants onto the path to extinction.

One cannot fight evil unless one recognizes it. One cannot know evil unless one knows good. Therefore, learn, know, act. Read Ashavid.