[indcons]

Actually, the old Greek philosophers who invented the concept of kairos were the first to discuss the concept of linear time, which subsequently became the cornerstone of Western civilization.

In fact, the first noun uttered by Christ in the New Testament is kairos. This demonstrates how classical Greeks ideas were connected to early Christian ideas.

[Buggman]

Nope. The Hebrews had it down well over a millennium earlier: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. . . "

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Actually, the concept of the flow of cause and effect and of perpetual change as espoused by Heraclitus and the atomists can also be found to be rooted in Genesis of the Old Testament. Genesis is rife with the concept of not only of the linear progression of Time, as opposed to the circular cycle of Time, but also that there was a single, superior God at the helm. It has been well argued that this had an influence on the structuring of the mythology by Hesiod in his work Theognis, where, at last the constant battling and trickery among the gods was overcome by placing one above the others.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Oops.

That said, my point was not about the relative probability of either linear or circular concepts of Time (memory could be argued to be a quasi-circularity of Time during the mortal period), my point was that regardless of what we do here on earth, because of Judeo-Christian beliefs we don't need to fear a perpetual return to mortality, a Lazarene condemnation if ever there was one, in my opinion. Further, it's my belief that despite the mistakes we make here, we can move on to the eternal enlightenment many of the eastern religions/philosophies claim we only reach after attaining a state of near perfection during our mortal period.

I, for one, am the first to admit that no matter how many chances at mortality I get, I am fully capable of blowing every one of them. As I said, thank God for Jesus for allowing me to escape the trap of my own imperfection and being able to move on, immediately after this mortal coil unwinds, to enlightenment.