> Linear conceptions of time, and especially the idea of progress, emerged with Christianity. It's not necessarily true of Judaism, though it seems the author

> Linear conceptions of time, and especially the idea of progress, emerged with Christianity. It's not necessarily true of Judaism, though it seems the author might see Judaism as subsumed by Christianity. More importantly, this was not true of Zoroastrianism, which AFAIU predates Judaism (as distinct from its regional roots). Simply because of the immense diversity of religion, I would hesitate to pick any religion as being the first at anything. But Zoroastrianism was a significant influence across a huge geographic region. Its creation goes back further than recorded in history, but as records emerge we see its pre-existing influence across civilizations, from the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley. Not quite related, but I recently discovered that it's possible that Plato's archetype of the Philosopher King may have reflected the Greek mythos about Zoroastrianism. As evidenced by Aristotle's references, some Greeks seemed to believe that Zoroastrian priests' knowledge of astrology/astronomy (i.e. something approximating early concepts of nature and science, w/ all the dualities that implies) was applied in their role as political leaders; IOW, that Zoroastrian priests used a science of natural law to govern society. More mainstream reference: The Three Kings (aka Three Wise Men, Three Magi) in the Christian narrative were Zoroastrian priests, their astronomical knowledge providing them the ability to identify not only the fact of but also the meaning of the celestial signal--the birth of the Christ figure.