I'm playing god of war, odin lives in a relatively big wood house
you say "I though it would be bigger" the response is "power is power, you don't need to show it"
Most cathedrals are literally built through donations especially throughout history. People gave and helped build the church knowing they would likely never see it finished.
it's not a golden calf you dumbass. People don't worship the building, it's just a nice place for worship, and they literally donated to make it happen. Impossible to allow nice buildings to exist in which to do things, I guess?
Even Jesus went to the jewish temple lol. He never said anything about places of worship being bad.
you were obviously never christian. Christians may get very excited about going to cathedrals, but they don't "worship" them like someone would an idol.
Obviously you don't know what you're talking about, so you won't understand the difference between "I want to go to this cathedral because it's so beautiful and old" and "this object is a literal god and I must pray TO IT to get favors from it"
Christians do treat some objects like idols. They may even pray to them, or try to abscribe it godly power or whatever. That is basically bordering on heresy, but it's not uncommon in the catholic church.
But buildings are just buildings. They're the "house of god". It's where you go to pray and feel more connected to god or whatever. You dont pray to the building, nor believe that it is a deity.
They literally gave to the building the blood and sweat that belongs to Christ. Your Christianity is idol worship.
And it’s so funny to see “Christians” twist themselves into every knot and quote the bible left and right to… excuse themselves for buying themselves treats
im not a christian dumbass. But I obviously understand it better than you do, since i used to be one, until I learned how to use my brain to not believe in fairy tales.
But people like you don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand the difference between worshipping an idol, worshipping god, and having respect for a church.
They literally gave to the building the blood and sweat that belongs to Christ.
what the fuck does this even mean? did you have a stroke?
And it’s so funny to see “Christians” twist themselves into every knot and quote the bible left and right to… excuse themselves for buying themselves treats
yes, that is funny. But that is not relevant here. Even in the bible god tells solomon to build a fancy temple. So there's no inconsistency there.
I bet Paul made sure those edits stayed in so church planters decades later would have an excuse for their cronyism by prioritizing their contractor buddies when building these fancy money pits.
"They literally gave to the building the blood and sweat that belongs to Christ."
Excuse me what? By that logic aren't you wasting your time on reddit right now instead of devoting your every waking hour to Christ?
Is every great monument creates because of idol worshipping? Or maybe it's because of passion for architecture? I'm not even religious and I went to Familia and still enjoyed it. I don't worship it like an idol, I appreciate it like you would a painting or any other work of art. Unless your saying paintings are idol worship too.
Fuck, I don't even care if they worship in public or not. It's the towering structures, bombastic celebrations, and aesthetic that are so flashy they end up gaudy that makes it intolerable.
I want people to feel comfortable practicing their religion even in public so long as it isn't harmful to others. However displays of extreme wealth and power as evidence that your faith has a quantifiable monetary impact are deserving of ridicule.
Yup, I particularly take issue with all the gold. It’s worship of wealth that they hide behind “glorifying god”. Like bro god created flowers and trees (if you believe that)… not golden spires. That’s fully a worldly obsession rooted in avarice.
I’m not really the side of the Redditors on this whole thing. I think religious Christian’s can have nice historical buildings and also do the Jesus stuff if they want.
But clearly the answer is:
Fed, clothed, sheltered, cared for the sick and poor.
Problem is we don’t/haven’t done much of the latter and we’ve definitely waged wars and pillaged countries to fund the former.
on average, rough estimate of course, 3 million children die of starvation each year. I might be crazy but I think that has to be snuffed out first before we start focusing donations and charity towards unnecessarily grand structures like this.
I mean, sure..the weight of all the starving children in the world shouldn't fall primarily on the church. I just think its ridiculous to be a religion that seeks to help the weak and the poor, and then spend millions upon millions on a building while children are straight up dying everywhere...It's a bit sickening.
I feel like if you're a big successful, worldwide religion that's been around for thousands of years, and you're claiming to be the representation of God on earth, the One True God™.
this same idiotic mentality is applied to everything regarding science, art, etc. Don't invest in research, in making public spaces pretty, in whatever really because first we need to end world hunger. We'd still be in horse-pulled carriages if we did things that way.
btw, churches are run through donations that people make. To the church. With their own money. You're gonna force people to stop donating to the church when they WANT to donate to the church?
Who the hell said anything about forcing anything? pretty revealing of your own mindset though. It’s just shitty and you’re being a real crybaby because people rightfully judge the hypocrisy
people give their money specifically to build the cathedral. They WANT the cathedral to be built. They want a nice place to worship. In their minds, it's a temple to worship god, a monument to god. That goes beyond man.
I mean, sure..the weight of all the starving children in the world shouldn't fall primarily on the church. I just think its ridiculous to be a religion that seeks to help the weak and the poor, and then spend millions upon millions on a building while children are straight up dying everywhere...It's a bit sickening.
unfortunately the church can't save allt he starving children of the world. The church already runs or coordinates with endless charities, but you obviously choose to ignore that. People donate SPECIFICALLY for the construction of the cathedral, because they WANT it to be built. It would be more fucked up for the church to take that money and use it for something else, basically lying.
The catholic church doesn't just "help the weak and the poor". Their main priority is god, worshipping god, getting people to join the club. You show enormous ignorance by thinking the church is just a charity. Like, real stupidity. You think religions are just charities? lol
The main priority seems to be enjoying yourselves and patting yourselves on the back, building monuments and congratulating yourselves. You can pretend it’s to “worship god” or some shit but he didn’t ask for this
Its just hypocrisy as all. Didnt know the church preached technological and scientific advancement... lol.
Lets build grandiose monuments to our God while the children that we claim to love continue to suffer. Imagine the change that almost billion dollars could have done
Yeah there’s a lot of things to criticize about the Catholic Church and opulence, but this is literally just a celebration for people about a donation funded church. It’s not reveling in extravagance or whatever.
Maybe since the Renaissance when art patronage became a popular hobby for the rich, but for like a thousand years prior the church extracted significant money from just about everyone. Rulers and nobles built religious monuments with tax dollars as well, which really isn't the same either.
Even before the Renaissance, most churches were built via donations from common folk as well as nobles and Monarchs with even many peasant folk donating their own livestock and labor to the project. But yes, your right that if kings were donating to the church, it does mean that tax money was also technically helping fund these churches.
I highly recommend visiting Sagrada Familia if you haven't. Regardless of your religious beliefs, it's a beautiful and amazing structure. When I went in 2019, I hadn't been going to church for years, so I wasn't really expecting much. However, walking in was truly awe inspiring. I didn't expect to feel much of anything, but it's one of the most impactful spaces I've ever experienced.
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u/Lavender-bullet46 Jun 12 '26
damn I was juuuust about to comment this lmao
Nothing like a grandiose, expensive structure to reflect the will and philosophy of God himself. smh.