It was destiny that a repressive, aggressive religion of Abraham &Julius Caesar was going to prevail

[Kolesar]

...thinking aloud where thinking's allowed...

I was just reading the thread of the atheist's "What if?" videogame where you get to go back in time and snuff out Abraham, Mohammed, et al and preempt 3000 years of cruelty and mayhem. I mused that some other old philosophy would have morphed its scriptures into the rule of the land. Had some African country or the Chinese kept the Romans or the Moslems in check, then they would have been the dominant religion and we would have avoided all that sh*t.

Then it occurred to me that there was zero probability that a decent, pacifist Hindu or Hopi religion would ever be the creed carried by kings or captains to cross frontiers or oceans for conquest and plunder. It is the zealous, hyped up on their own inflated egos, who prevail.

What do I know? About as close to God as I ever get is nurturing my broccoli seeds into life.

[lutherj]

1. It occurs to me that if we're the new Rome, and the age of Aquarius

approacheth, then we should get to make up the dominant religion for the next 2,000 years.

[YankeyMCC]

2. The pre-xian Persians and Greeks

weren't exactly 100% peaceful and without war.

I mean you really, Really did not want to piss off or disappoint those ancient Persian Kings. ;)

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. "The Years of Rice And Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson

The starting premise is that the Mongol Horde headed straight west, north of the Caspian and Black seas directly into Europe, rather than turn south and consolidating the Middle East first. The result is that the Black Death arrived more than a century earlier in a much more virulent form, killing 95% of Christian Europe rather than a third.

The result is the dominance of Buddhism and Islam. The story is told from the point of view of a group of souls who reincarnate together over the centuries, and how in each life they make small changes that eventually bring about a very different today.

Fascinating book.