I think the Greeks through Anaximander had the concept of "apeiron", or the infinite. Some of them believed the universe to be infinitely old, therefore they must have had the concept of one to infinity, including billions.
Yep ancient civilizations have thought about these concepts for a long time. Some got destroyed by floods, some by famine, but horrific destruction have happened when Abrahmic religions came on the scene with "holier than thou" philosophy which made destruction of others a religious duty.
Hindus were obsessed with zero and infinity and to them it was the same as god itself. Shanti mantra(used to wish well to all living being) from īśopaniṣad says.
> That is Whole and this is Whole, the perfect has come out of the perfect; having taken the perfect from the perfect, only the perfect remains. Let there be Peace, Peace, Peace.
Verse above describes God superficially but it also describes zero and infinity[0]. This small text with only 18 verses and yet it is so profound. Similarly Buddhist philosophy which also came out from India is based on Shunya(zero).
>>but horrific destruction have happened when Abrahmic religions came on the scene with "holier than thou" philosophy which made destruction of others a religious duty.
Both true and false. Most of the killing and destruction was done by the pagans to themselves. The pagan wars were no joke. Here in the Indian subcontinent itself there was a war called 'Kalinga War', the death and destruction was just so much and complete. Nothing remained standing.
After Kalinga war Ashoka renounced voilence as per the teaching of Buddhism. Do you have a parallel example from Abrahmic kings?
Having said that every civilization have had destructive infights. People fought for money, power,fame etc.
But that doesn't mean they destroyed each other's knowledge system, temples, and monuments. That's is only true for Abrahmic philosophy which stresses on destroying the culture and knowledge systems of the conquered.
>>After Kalinga war ... Do you have a parallel example from Abrahmic kings?
No, I don't have any example of any king in Europe, Middle East or North Africa who fought a war as destructive as Kalinga war. And that's just one war.
>>Having said that every civilization have had destructive infights. People fought for money, power,fame etc.
Causes for the fall of any civilisation are always internal, eventually you just get take over by somebody better.
>>That's is only true for Abrahmic philosophy which stresses on destroying the culture and knowledge systems of the conquered.
> No, I don't have any example of any king in Europe...
Kalinga deaths are recorded to be 150000. I will suggest reading about the crusades and others religious wars to find how many were killed. Please also read about how Bible was used to justify the slavery and subjugation of pagans.
Indian conquered upto Cambodia, Persians conquered a big part of known world yet didn't engage in erasing the native population or the culture of conquered. But in contrast almost entire population of native Americans were annihilated. They practically do not exist.
> Would love read more upon 'Abrahmic Philosophy'.
First 2 commandments of bible summarises the doctrine/philosophy.
