Something changed yes but I believe it was a server side change with Godaddy causing php not to load. Problem is, it's not something they are fessing up to and it could be as simple as a security change but it's not like I can reverse it so I have to fix it on my end. I am currently the only one with admin access to this site and the hosting able to make any changes and I haven't been near it in months.

There are no errors thrown. Not in the Zen logs (yes I looked in both folders), not in the server logs, not even when I put all the php error reporting on. Because PHP won't load at all.

I believe you that redirects are not required but it has functioned for years with the redirects so something about the way it was built requires them. When I took the redirects out it could not find the Zencart files. I just got the Zen page saying "this website coming soon. You didn't upload it right". The configure.php files have the values for the sub directory but that doesn't matter because Godaddy does not allow subdirectory installs of the primary domain (a fight I've had with them multiple times) so I have to have the redirects because the main URL will always point to the root directory without it anyway.

The 2 changes I made were after the website went down. PHP 5.3 cannot be downgraded to 5.2 at this point.

I am on Zen 1.5.1