One Billion Dollars to build a FAKE Notre Dame Cathedral?
19 April 2019 [link youtube]
Youtube Automatic Transcription
you've read this as well I'm telling you
this tonight with force we are people of builders we will rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral the relics are important whether or not it really was Jesus's crown of thorns for instance who knows what's important is that it was a focus of faith a focus of people's prayers it will never be reasonable apparently to say hey wait if modern people are gonna devote 1 billion US dollars to this maybe it should be repurposed to serve a legitimate function in modern society 900 million euros 900 million this is currently over 1 billion u.s. dollars this is a number so large that were primarily accustomed to discussing the morality of spending this much money in the context of war now many of my viewers will feel moral ambivalence about the still ongoing war in Afghanistan many of you will feel sense of disgust and disappointment when you think about the last 18 years of warfare in Afghanistan however moral or immoral you feel that fight is right now there's a war in Afghanistan to prevent a religious fundamentalist theocracy from ruling over secular free thinking people however few there are in Afghanistan I don't know if it's 1% or 1/2 of 1% or if it's all of 5% of the people of Afghanistan but some of them some are free thinking people who don't want to live under the Dominion of the Taliban now I ask you what is a more moral use of money what is a more ethical use of 900 million euros rebuilding this Cathedral this monument to the pious ignorance of the dark ages to the worship of the fragment of the true cross or taking that same amount of money and devoting it now to helping the people of Afghanistan perhaps 900 million might be donated just to help now people escape people who don't want to live under the Dominions of Tellman to provide some kind of alternate life for them because now America is giving up and going home and pretty much everyone in foreign policy in politics has admitted to themselves that gradually our rapidly Afghanistan will revert to being a brutal religious dictatorship what would you do with 1 billion dollars with 900 million euros its roof beams came from French forests that no longer exist now those beams don't either but some of its priceless artifacts were rescued by firefighters and clergy who formed a human chain to carry them to safety these included the crown of thorns which Jesus is believed to have worn on the cross Lucinda Laird is Dean of the American Cathedral in Paris it's brought out in all of us how much we care not just about the building which is gorgeous and historic but about what it stands for Paris France Europe the world tradition Christian faith at its finest the relics are important whether or not it really was Jesus's crown of thorns for instance who knows what's important is that it was a focus of faith a focus of people's prayers for hundreds of years so the things themselves are not so important as what they stand for what they mean to people the faith they evoke and why is it that so-called atheist activists people who are supposedly advocating for a secular future like Richard Dawkins here why is it that none of them object why is it that all of them now want to show how pious and sensitive and concerned they are that the cultural heritage of Christianity of Christendom should go on forever and ever that that they really feel people in the streets of Paris in the year 2500 in the distant future our grandchildren's grandchildren that people in the future should walk the streets being surrounded by these monuments to the faith of the Dark Age forever and ever even if it's at taxpayers expense even if it's 900 million from donors that it should never end is that how you feel that's not how I feel where do I meet a theists who are real atheists where do I meet a theists who have even a fraction of the vision and attitude of a rational future that they already had in France near 1789 near 1791 when they wrote a new constitution in 1791 that declared the people will elect their own priests the pre-peeled people within their own church within their own group will have the right to elect who gets to speak at the pulpit there will be no more affair authoritarian top-down control of religion from Rome or anywhere else and in the same Constitution it declares that all the property of the church will henceforth be taken away and treated as public property would be taken by by the government there is a radical change there's a there was a group of people back in 1789 who were thinking about the future of France and who didn't want it to be a kind of fake Disneyland devoted to the medieval past because guess what if you spend 900 million euros you don't get an authentic architectural Monument you don't get to relive the past what you get is something just as fake as a castle at Disneyland you get a simulation of the past and it's not a museum challenging the past or educating people no no no no no no you're going to spend this money just to recreate something odious and oppressive that we should be in a visionary way thinking of a better future a better way well for what France is supposed to be five hundred years from now we should be thinking about the future with some of the vision some of the challenge to tradition some of the sheer reckless rationality that the French had back in 1789 and that seemingly nobody has any more back in 1789 people were saying in France hey we don't want our calendar to reflect a bunch of religious concepts from the medieval past a bunch of errors and just broken assumptions we want to have a calendar that's secular and rational and makes sense and we want we want a calendar that doesn't memorialize the past we want a calendar that's rational and makes sense for the future that's what they were saying back in 1789 and France itself has drifted so far away from these ideals that this is now shocking and unthinkable and shocking and unthinkable within the internet forums that are for atheist activists it's hilarious to me to see on Reddit slash atheist supposedly a forum for atheist activists not only a declaration that the atheists completely support you know the reconstruction of the notre-dame Cathedral but then this post they they turned off comments they control comments and quite rapidly afterwards put up and they stated that it was the policy it was the policy of that reddit forum that everyone participating had to believe this and anyone with a with a view to the contrary would have their comments to their posts deleted now if that were a forum for pious Catholics or for Christians I'd have no objection it would make sense these are atheists these are self-identified a theist atheist activists but they're the same people who when they think of the future think that atheists can just go on celebrating Christmas forever and ever who think that atheists can comfortably walk the streets of Montreal and can walk the streets of Saudi Arabia and Indonesia forever and ever surrounded by church ekit architecture and mosque architecture that those buildings will never be repurposed they'll never serve another social function that whether it's at taxpayers expense or the generosity of private donors that billions and billions will be spent no matter how many fires or earthquakes destroy that architectural heritage to rebel it will never be reasonable apparently to say hey wait if modern people are gonna devote 1 billion US dollars to this maybe it should be repurposed to serve a legitimate function in modern society whether that's as a museum that really analyzes and exposes the evil of the Christian medieval paths or you tell me something positive dad [Music]
this tonight with force we are people of builders we will rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral the relics are important whether or not it really was Jesus's crown of thorns for instance who knows what's important is that it was a focus of faith a focus of people's prayers it will never be reasonable apparently to say hey wait if modern people are gonna devote 1 billion US dollars to this maybe it should be repurposed to serve a legitimate function in modern society 900 million euros 900 million this is currently over 1 billion u.s. dollars this is a number so large that were primarily accustomed to discussing the morality of spending this much money in the context of war now many of my viewers will feel moral ambivalence about the still ongoing war in Afghanistan many of you will feel sense of disgust and disappointment when you think about the last 18 years of warfare in Afghanistan however moral or immoral you feel that fight is right now there's a war in Afghanistan to prevent a religious fundamentalist theocracy from ruling over secular free thinking people however few there are in Afghanistan I don't know if it's 1% or 1/2 of 1% or if it's all of 5% of the people of Afghanistan but some of them some are free thinking people who don't want to live under the Dominion of the Taliban now I ask you what is a more moral use of money what is a more ethical use of 900 million euros rebuilding this Cathedral this monument to the pious ignorance of the dark ages to the worship of the fragment of the true cross or taking that same amount of money and devoting it now to helping the people of Afghanistan perhaps 900 million might be donated just to help now people escape people who don't want to live under the Dominions of Tellman to provide some kind of alternate life for them because now America is giving up and going home and pretty much everyone in foreign policy in politics has admitted to themselves that gradually our rapidly Afghanistan will revert to being a brutal religious dictatorship what would you do with 1 billion dollars with 900 million euros its roof beams came from French forests that no longer exist now those beams don't either but some of its priceless artifacts were rescued by firefighters and clergy who formed a human chain to carry them to safety these included the crown of thorns which Jesus is believed to have worn on the cross Lucinda Laird is Dean of the American Cathedral in Paris it's brought out in all of us how much we care not just about the building which is gorgeous and historic but about what it stands for Paris France Europe the world tradition Christian faith at its finest the relics are important whether or not it really was Jesus's crown of thorns for instance who knows what's important is that it was a focus of faith a focus of people's prayers for hundreds of years so the things themselves are not so important as what they stand for what they mean to people the faith they evoke and why is it that so-called atheist activists people who are supposedly advocating for a secular future like Richard Dawkins here why is it that none of them object why is it that all of them now want to show how pious and sensitive and concerned they are that the cultural heritage of Christianity of Christendom should go on forever and ever that that they really feel people in the streets of Paris in the year 2500 in the distant future our grandchildren's grandchildren that people in the future should walk the streets being surrounded by these monuments to the faith of the Dark Age forever and ever even if it's at taxpayers expense even if it's 900 million from donors that it should never end is that how you feel that's not how I feel where do I meet a theists who are real atheists where do I meet a theists who have even a fraction of the vision and attitude of a rational future that they already had in France near 1789 near 1791 when they wrote a new constitution in 1791 that declared the people will elect their own priests the pre-peeled people within their own church within their own group will have the right to elect who gets to speak at the pulpit there will be no more affair authoritarian top-down control of religion from Rome or anywhere else and in the same Constitution it declares that all the property of the church will henceforth be taken away and treated as public property would be taken by by the government there is a radical change there's a there was a group of people back in 1789 who were thinking about the future of France and who didn't want it to be a kind of fake Disneyland devoted to the medieval past because guess what if you spend 900 million euros you don't get an authentic architectural Monument you don't get to relive the past what you get is something just as fake as a castle at Disneyland you get a simulation of the past and it's not a museum challenging the past or educating people no no no no no no you're going to spend this money just to recreate something odious and oppressive that we should be in a visionary way thinking of a better future a better way well for what France is supposed to be five hundred years from now we should be thinking about the future with some of the vision some of the challenge to tradition some of the sheer reckless rationality that the French had back in 1789 and that seemingly nobody has any more back in 1789 people were saying in France hey we don't want our calendar to reflect a bunch of religious concepts from the medieval past a bunch of errors and just broken assumptions we want to have a calendar that's secular and rational and makes sense and we want we want a calendar that doesn't memorialize the past we want a calendar that's rational and makes sense for the future that's what they were saying back in 1789 and France itself has drifted so far away from these ideals that this is now shocking and unthinkable and shocking and unthinkable within the internet forums that are for atheist activists it's hilarious to me to see on Reddit slash atheist supposedly a forum for atheist activists not only a declaration that the atheists completely support you know the reconstruction of the notre-dame Cathedral but then this post they they turned off comments they control comments and quite rapidly afterwards put up and they stated that it was the policy it was the policy of that reddit forum that everyone participating had to believe this and anyone with a with a view to the contrary would have their comments to their posts deleted now if that were a forum for pious Catholics or for Christians I'd have no objection it would make sense these are atheists these are self-identified a theist atheist activists but they're the same people who when they think of the future think that atheists can just go on celebrating Christmas forever and ever who think that atheists can comfortably walk the streets of Montreal and can walk the streets of Saudi Arabia and Indonesia forever and ever surrounded by church ekit architecture and mosque architecture that those buildings will never be repurposed they'll never serve another social function that whether it's at taxpayers expense or the generosity of private donors that billions and billions will be spent no matter how many fires or earthquakes destroy that architectural heritage to rebel it will never be reasonable apparently to say hey wait if modern people are gonna devote 1 billion US dollars to this maybe it should be repurposed to serve a legitimate function in modern society whether that's as a museum that really analyzes and exposes the evil of the Christian medieval paths or you tell me something positive dad [Music]