Cyrus and Darius may have done it only for favor of the local deity. But what other motivation would anyone have to... I guess I'm not exactly sure what the right word there is. I guess saved, though not by Jesus. What did you have to do back then? Just sac enough goats?

Right, but before Jesus, I thought God did require sacrifice of animals? So my question I guess is what the conversion process was. Say you have little Jimmy. His mom was Jewish and his dad was Baalish. Mom wants little Jimmy to worship Yahweh and dad wants little Jimmy to worship Baal. Little Jimmy makes a list of pros and cons, polls the local community of Hittites and Jews, and decides that Yahweh is more likely to be a real God than Baal and the idea of hell freaked him out a bit. So he tells mom that he want's to part of Yahweh's kingdom. What does little Jimmy need to do now? Start saving his shekels for a goat?

Part of me wonders why the temple was so important. We don't really need temples now. Was Gods presence actually absent when the temple was destroyed? I doubt it, but still important work. Clearly a spiritual morale booster.