Oh yes, yes, yes!
Quote:Across Europe, hundreds of churches that were once filled with worship and song are now at the mercy of the elements
With religion's role declining sharply around the continent in recent decades, the most promising outcome for many of these centuries-old structures is being reincarnated as residential or commercial properties.
His stunning images show dilapidated pipe organs, overgrown cloisters, long-empty pews, and sunlight pouring into naves strewn with dust and rubble.
Many of the churches have, evidently, been neglected for years. But others look as if they have only recently been deserted, their painted walls still oddly vibrant, their seats arranged as if awaiting the next congregation. Nature can, however, be quick to act, Meslet said.
Only a handful of the churches he visited had been vandalized, he said. Some still housed undamaged statues, stained-glass windows and ornate altars. Nonetheless, in order to deter further damage, Meslet's book intentionally excludes details that might make the buildings easier to find.
Much less attention is paid to what he calls "those little churches which are slowly dying in the countryside." In France alone, the not-for-profit group Observatory of Religious Heritage lists hundreds of churches that it considers threatened or have closed in recent years.
These buildings' deterioration seems to reflect the decline of religion -- or churchgoing, specifically -- in Western Europe. While most people there still identify as Christian, only around one in five regularly attend church services, according to the Pew Research Center.
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/abando...index.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"