Take something you don’t like and try to like it

I don't believe that most people's dislike of churches stem from the architecture.

My point there being that it may be possible to find interesting parts in things we dislike.

Of course it is mainly from the architecture. When a person who is mentally base sees something which is impressive and beautiful, they are filled with resentment and hate. Even more if it was constructed by people from the past which he thinks he is supposed to be much superior to.

Absolutely deranged point of view.

Seriously, if you actually _believe_ this, consider examining it carefully. It is self-serving nonsense.

Deranged is of course to hate and resent something because it is beautiful or because it is impressive. Or someone.

You must be in a very different part of the world than I am. One with grand cathedrals, perhaps. Where I'm from, a church is usually a big box with a brick facade, glass doors, paint over drywall interiors, and fake wood trim. Outside of the decorations, they're much like office buildings. They generally have a small steeple somewhere that holds no bell and only serves to identify the building as a church, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell.

There isn't anything to hate about the architecture that wouldn't also apply to most public buildings built in the last half century.

There's a difference between hating because it's beautiful, and hating it despite it being beautiful.

You are complaining about imaginary people.

I live in a city with many old beautiful churches and I can safely say the architecture is the only thing I like about them.

Everywhere in the world, it's normal for churches and temples to be either the oldest, the largest, or the most beautiful buildings. Or all of those. But of course not always.

It's just that in some countries, the oldest buildings are not particularly old :-).

150 years ago, the buildings where I live were made of wood or sod and there were no cities. Fifty years before that, there were no buildings at all. The native people lived in tents, followed the buffalo herds, and the sky was their temple.

The churches that have been built since were built by denominations that place less value in visual and architectural art than, for example, the Catholic or Orthodox churches. The single Catholic church in my town does look nicer than the others, although the inside looks just as fake as everything built since the 1950s.

I have visited the church at Rota and the cathedral at Càdiz, and they are beautiful. We do not have churches like these where I live. But it wouldn't matter if we did. It is neither the blandness of my churches or the beauty of yours that cause me to dislike the church, but the way the church is used to spread hate for people who are different than them.

> but the way the church is used to spread hate for people who are different than them.

I am not religious at all, but disliking the church because it speads hate is like disliking white persons (or whichever arbitrary criterium you want) because they are criminals: the reality is that only a minority speads hate and only a minority are criminals. A majority of religious people are good and want to do good. And it doesn't require religion to spread hate, far from it.

Note I specifically said "is used to spread hate." There are a lot of people who use religion as a tool to push their agenda. That's especially true here in the US, where the evangelical churches are so prevalent.

It differs from church to church, of course, and it says nothing about any particular member of the congregation.

Right, yeah I was nitpicking a bit :-)