> The Puritans were by no means the only people of that time who had mainstream beliefs that we now consider delusional. You'd be hard pressed to find any signi

> The Puritans were by no means the only people of that time who had mainstream beliefs that we now consider delusional. You'd be hard pressed to find any significant body of people of that time who didn't. We will be mocked for sure in 300 years but OTOH witch hunts maybe weren't as mainstream all over Europe as you might think. For example, in Europe between 1450 and 1750 35,000 witches were executed. Of those, only 1,000 were executed in Spain, Italy, and Portugal in 300 years which for sure were religious countries (I'm from Spain). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt#Early_Modern_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt#Early_Modern_Europe I'd be surprised if there wasn't some debate as to what caused those witch hunts. Was it societal paranoia or was it just a way for the church to exert their power? > I would also say, climate change alarmism. I don't know what you consider alarmism in this case, but the situation is certainly dire. I don't think it's far fetched to think that if we continue in business as usual, modern industrial civilization could be at risk. As a small example, consider the wildfires of Russia in 2010 which triggered an increase in the global price of grain and many experts believe that fueled the Arab spring revolutions of 2011. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/world/europe/06russia.html https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/world/europe/06russia.htm... https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-and-rising-food-prices-heightened-arab-spring/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-an... https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/17/bread-food-arab-spring https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/17/bread-f...