101 votes
Accepted

Why does this London Underground poster from 1924 have a Star of David atop a Christmas tree?

The hexagram is not an exclusively Jewish symbol. For that matter, the Star of David as a symbol of Judaism (as opposed to a symbol used by Jews) is far newer than people realize, dating only to 1897 ...
  • 8,470
83 votes

Why in most German places is the church the tallest building?

Many churches in Europe (not just Germany) were built centuries ago, when the church was by far the most important and prestigious building in any city. Building them took decades, sometimes even ...
  • 12.3k
76 votes

How did the general population of England convert so smoothly to Protestantism?

Well, it wasn't smooth. First of all, there was already a minority of "reform" viewpoint in England before Henry VIII. It was centered in the intelligentsia and gentry. So when Henry VIII decided ...
  • 6,294
69 votes

Why do western monotheistic religions seem to be so full of conflict over dogma?

A very astute observation. If you compare linguistic maps to sectarian maps (McEvedy's Penguin Atlas series are great for this), you'll notice something else: they have a distinct tendency to align. ...
  • 114k
59 votes
Accepted

When did worshipping of ancient Greek gods come to an end?

Presumably no earlier than the ninth century, as there is this: 804 Hellenes of Laconia, Greece, resist the attempt of Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to convert them to Christianity. ...
  • 1,336
51 votes
Accepted

What is the pre-schism Christian church called today?

This is incredibly complicated and almost always misleading. For example, in many countries the Catholic Church is called strictly the Roman-Catholic church. The higher up members of that community ...
49 votes

Why do western monotheistic religions seem to be so full of conflict over dogma?

To expand on Kirsch's answer (see: quote in the question), a single god doesn't only remove the safety valve of multiplicity (where any doctrinal dispute about the intentions of one god can just be ...
  • 1,168
45 votes

What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?

The biggest difference that I'm aware of is that the Classical Greek religion was much more the religion of myths that we all know, while the Classical Roman religion had fewer personifications and ...
  • 6,294
44 votes

Did any ancient polytheistic religion hold that theirs was the only pantheon?

The polytheists did not regard "pantheons" as schematically as we see them in mythology books. There were some general approaches in polytheist religions when you encountered people with ...
  • 1,961
43 votes

Why do western monotheistic religions seem to be so full of conflict over dogma?

I personally think that there might be something in the premise of "single god leads to wanting to have a single answer for everything, leading to sectarian violence". Nevertheless, I'm a little ...
41 votes

How did the general population of England convert so smoothly to Protestantism?

Not only was it not totally smooth, but it also wasn't much of a change. At least not on personal human timeframes. You have to realize that the break in England didn't happen because anybody had any ...
  • 114k
39 votes
Accepted

Did Martin Luther ever say "The prosperity of a country depends ... "?

Yes, he did write that. Easily verifiable when going ad fontes, as real historians should always do. That is: the language presented in the quote is thoroughly modernised, and thus mangled into ...
37 votes

What advantages did Catholic missionaries to the Indians have over Protestant missionaries in old Oregon Country?

Catholic missionaries possessed a number of distinct advantages over the Protestants. First, they were well-trained, ordained priests, not merely well-meaning laymen, as many Protestants were. Unlike ...
36 votes
Accepted

Why are the majority of Dresden inhabitants atheists or agnostics?

For the vast majority of Germans, religious and non-religious alike, religion matters little in daily life. In some families, the babies are baptised, marriages have both civil and religious ...
  • 16.4k
34 votes

Why did the US Navy and Marine Corps use satanic symbolism in WW2?

Young men full of piss and vinegar trying to sound fierce and scary or just different. Christianity had absolutely nothing to do with it any more than some perceived Satanic leanings. What about VF-...
  • 4,116
31 votes
Accepted

Was climate a factor in the spread of Islam?

The question is of course kind of entirely biased, as always when you take a statistical correlation and want to apply a cause on that. However, the question should still be answered. It just means ...
  • 5,893
30 votes

What is the pre-schism Christian church called today?

First of all, @LangLangC's answer is excellent. I intend only to expand on it. The unified Eastern (Greek-speaking) and Western (Latin-speak) churches called themselves "orthodox" as opposed to the ...
  • 6,294
29 votes
Accepted

Did the Romans install offensive statues in the temples of conquered territories?

There actually are a number of sculptures depicting victorious Romans dominating the national personifications of subjugated peoples. Nonetheless, the Medium post fundamentally misrepresented ...
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28 votes
Accepted

Were there Muslims in 12th century England?

There is almost no direct historical evidence that openly-practicing Muslims were LIVING in the British Isles in the decades and centuries after the Norman Invasion. But I guess I'll start this post ...
  • 1,144
27 votes

Why are the majority of Dresden inhabitants atheists or agnostics?

80% does not seem to be way off compared with other industrial countries like Sweden (85%), Denmark (80%), Norway (72%), Czech Republic (61%), Finland (60%)...
  • 2,036
26 votes

When did worshipping of ancient Greek gods come to an end?

If you read "Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion", by John Cuthbert Lawson, you will see that, as late as 1910, there were are least significant vestiges of original Greek religion. Other ...
26 votes
Accepted

What is the earliest reference to "space aliens"?

The main storyline to Lucian's Αληθή διηγήματα (2nd century CE) is the war between the people of the Sun and the people of the Moon over colonization of the Morning Star. As you can probably imagine ...
  • 14.6k
26 votes
Accepted

Why is Indonesia a Muslim country?

The Muslim religion started making its way into modern Indonesia in the 13th century. That's when various rulers in North Sumatra, then Java, started converting to that religion, as a result of ...
  • 104k
24 votes
Accepted

Were there any wars in ancient Greece where religion played a major part?

Certainly. In fact there was even a whole series of Sacred Wars. More specifically, the First Sacred War was fought by the Amphictyonic League against the city of Cirrha over the latter's ...
  • 96.6k
24 votes

How did early Judaism and Zoroastrianism influence each other, if they were so far apart?

They weren't in fact far apart at all. Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the Achaemenid Empire, which encompassed Israel. Its actually even closer than this map implies though. In the period ...
  • 114k
23 votes

What advantages did Catholic missionaries to the Indians have over Protestant missionaries in old Oregon Country?

George A. Strieby gives an excellent answer of which I would like to expand on it a little. Most Jesuits missionaries shared in the daily life of the Indians, travelling with them as they moved from ...
  • 1,904
23 votes
Accepted

What is the name of the Phoenician religion?

Ancient religions don't generally have technical names, at least not at the civilizational level. Think "Ancient Greek religion", "Ancient Egyptian religion", etc. Here is a technical article ...
  • 17.8k
21 votes
Accepted

What historical evidence do we have for the existence of Mohammed?

Your question touches on the problem how one would prove any historical fact when there is no living (and credible) witness or modern forensic analysis. Look at the sources, consider who wrote them, ...
  • 16.4k
21 votes

Why are the majority of Dresden inhabitants atheists or agnostics?

German here. You see here a chart of the predominant confessions in Germany: Wikimedia Commons, Martin Sander, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2013-06-23 As you see, approximately one third is Roman-Catholic (yellow),...
  • 5,068
19 votes
Accepted

How frequently did monasteries attack other monasteries in Early Medieval Western Europe?

As far as I'm aware, this was something particular to the early Celtic church in Ireland. Before I attempt to explain further I'd like to add an important caveat in regard to terminology: These days,...
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