BTW, do we want to use the Oracle to discover Code of Laws or Civil Service? We've discussed the pros and cons of this in a couple of threads, but I don't believe we've decided on which approach to take, and this of course affects our research path too.
Anyway, I'm leaning towards Writing; then bee-line to Priesthood so we can begin work on the Oracle.
Well, I say we need to define it soon. Why? If we want to discover Civil Service with the oracle, the path should be:
Writing -> Myst -> Poly -> Priesthood -> (Start the Oracle) -> CoL
Actually, I think this is kinda risky. We went too deep in the other branches of the tech tree. The Civil Service slingshot should be almost a bee-line.
If we want CoL (what I strongly support), the path should be:
Myst -> Poly -> Priesthood -> (Start the Oracle) -> Writing
Why that? We need some time to build the Oracle, so going Writing and then bee-line to Priesthood is a risk not worth IMHO if we are not going for CS. But, if we are going to CS, we need Libraries to boost research to get CoL before the Oracle finishes. I still think the safest route is CoL and lightbulb CS with the Prophet. If we build a temple in the Oracle city and hire a priest it will give us 5 GPP/turn. In about 20 turns we can lightbulb CS. It's almost the same time to research CoL by ourselves. The only downside on this is that we cannot research masonry.
Another thing to consider... If we go to alphabet first and trade for the religion techs we will need:
Writing (120

) + Alphabet (300

) + Trade for Myst (1 turn) + Trade for Meditation / Poly (1 turn) + Trade for Priesthood (1 turn) = 420

+ 3 turns.
If we go the religious path we will need:
Mysticism (50

) + Polytheism (100

) + Priesthood (60

) + Writing (120

) = 330

only.
There are another pros to the religious path... We will have a bonus to research Writing (for having Priesthood) and we will not run into an eventually civ building the wonder (Parthenon or the Oracle) and not wanting to trade the tech.
That's just my argumentation. The majority is saying Alphabet route, and majority is

.
