The Saint Euphrosynos Cafe

When I was a graduate student, I was employed at the college to read student papers primarily those written by ESL students. Each student would be assigned to write a paper about a different -ism and then to give a short oral presentation with a visual aid. These were fascinating papers to read.

When I was studying archeology, we learned that all ancient civilizations worshiped some kind of a deity or deities. Often the largest structure built was that of a temple. People would be forced or would freely offer their time, treasure, and talent to construct the best temple they could in honor of their deities. Since these temples were built with the best materials and craftsmanship of the time, these temples or remnants of these grand temples were often able to withstand floods, fires, and earthquakes, whereas in the debris, there was little record of their humble dwellings or existence except chards of pottery, jewelry, metalwork, household deities, etc.

Mankind continued to worship their "God" or these deities until the Middle Ages. Certainly, during human history, there were those deviant creatures who demanded worship due the Creator. However, during the time of the Renaissance, different -ISMs emerged, with protestantism, freemasonry, and atheism being among the worst.

What major changes in philosophy caused the rise of protestantism, humanism, gnosticism, agnosticism, atheism, socialism, communism, satanism, and ecumenism?

That's a very good question, but surely the erosion of faith in God must have caused the splintering of Europe into
all these evil -isms. You are quite right about which ones are worst and most damaging in history.
A growing belief in science as opposed to the older style of mystical feeling that all things come from God would have led to the wrong roads of isms mentioned.

[ Oh, that was my 1100 th post ! ]
PS - you mean, shards Maria, not the yummy vegetable, chard ! I eat it every day from my so-called garden.
Funny that you said that : I was just speaking of Ziggurats as in Ur of the Chaldees and Elam [Choga Zanbil].
It IS remarkable how enduring those ziggurats have been, through 5000 years of history, despite the intense climate of that region. A good point that the builders used the best construction materials.
Also, it seems they must have had highly developed techniques that have been lost for 3,000 years or more.

Apparently, these Mesopotamian and early Iran civilizations did have a firm faith in their deities. PLUS a remarkable scientific ability. Who could construct a Ziggurat right now, after all ?!

Yes, I meant "shards"

Thanks for pointing out this typo.