As sad as it may be I have to say I am surprised with the world wide reactions... Within no time a few wealthy guys coughed up hundreds of millions. Where were they (for instance) after the cyclone Idai destroyed Mozambique? A building can be rebuild, lost lives can't. One single life is worth more than 1000 buildings imho. Leaders of the world are talking (well, tweeting...) about the Notre Dame fire as if it is the worst tragedy in years. When reading the tweets I sometimes had the idea I was reading about a terrorist attack that cost a 100 lives... Seriously, the Notre Dame is just a building made of stone and wood. And yes, I visited the cathedral too too but that doesn't change my opinion on this.

My thoughts are with every live lost in vain all over the word, not with this building. 

11 hours ago, John_Cillis said:

How does one leave Avsim?  For one I am just fed up, being attacked as a Christian, from religious comments Avsim does allow from "chosen ones"  I do not like posts with innuendo, yet the Mods have revealed a more narcissistic agenda....

John

Av-SIN Retired

if  you want  to leave  hit the  report   on  your  post  and  say  you  want  to be  deleted  from  avism or  just  just  don't   visit

It really is such a shame. That building has stood for 850 years, and all of a sudden it has been reduced to rubble by a fire. My thoughts are with those of Paris.

12 hours ago, John_Cillis said:

How does one leave Avsim?  For one I am just fed up, being attacked as a Christian, from religious comments Avsim does allow from "chosen ones"  I do not like posts with innuendo, yet the Mods have revealed a more narcissistic agenda....

John

Av-SIN Retired

Yet Fr Bill hasn't taken offence.  Somewhat of an overreaction - not everyone reacts to religion in the same way which is why it is best to avoid it here.

1 hour ago, ErichB said:

Yet Fr Bill hasn't taken offence.  Somewhat of an overreaction - not everyone reacts to religion in the same way which is why it is best to avoid it here.

Agreed, I can see both sides here.

On one hand, I'm with J Van E on lives being important, and those wealthy donors pledging 100's of millions of euros to rebuild a cathedral.   On the other hand, Im not religious at all, but you also can't deny the building's cultural heritage and contribution to French and European life.  It is the point from which all distances to other cities in France are measured so I understand...  So, yes its only wood and stone, but it is an icon, and as such it can have an impact out of all proportion to the sum of its physical parts.

Heaven forbid, there is enough wealth in the world to reconstruct Notre Dame and relieve disasters and poverty around the world several times over (and most of it in a very small number of hands).  Let's not get bogged down in arguing between the two eh?

Cheers K

I just saw a news flash that over 1 Billion dollars (or Euros) has been raised to restore the Cathedral to its former glory.

Whether it is a cathedral, a statue of antiquity, the pyramids, or any of the ancient Greek ruins, they are all important to the history of the world and all efforts should be done to protect, repair, or restore them.

1 hour ago, kevinfirth said:

On one hand, I'm with J Van E on lives being important, and those wealthy donors pledging 100's of millions of euros to rebuild a cathedral.   On the other hand, Im not religious at all, but you also can't deny the building's cultural heritage and contribution to French and European life

Yup completely agree. Cultural iconic buildings, religious or not,  are part of our cultural frame  of reference and should be preserved.  In this case, it is so iconic, in both cultural and religious significance, that it has drawn an overwhelmingly massive response.  I'm not a religious person but I have no issue with people's emotive reactions to its fate

Edited April 17, 20197 yr by ErichB

And part of what I was speaking of earlier about technology: A visit to a place as it was.... through 3D video on Youtube, or in virtual reality. https://voicesofvr.com/the-man-behind-notre-dame-360-video-documentary-by-targo/

 

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/go/1810798725612295/?locale=en_US

 

17 hours ago, WilliamS said:

That building has stood for 850 years, and all of a sudden it has been reduced to rubble by a fire. 

I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s been reduced to rubble, it’s still standing and the photos taken on the inside don’t look as bad as I expected considering how bad it looked when it was on fire.

1 hour ago, cmpbellsjc said:

I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s been reduced to rubble, it’s still standing and the photos taken on the inside don’t look as bad as I expected considering how bad it looked when it was on fire.

I would totally agree, and yet Emanuel Macron has (I think) said that it will be 40 years until it's fully restored...

A book I read years ago called The Pillars of the Earth revolved around the building of a cathedral and ultimately the fire that took place in the wooden roof. What I found amazing was the detail the author Ken Follett described the fire and how similar it was to the fire at Notre-Dame. The roof on those things are so easily ignited and since the wood can be centuries old their is no stopping it.

This is not the first or last roof fire in a Cathedral but the stone on those things are so strong and they can be rebuilt. A lot of them have had fires over the centuries and have been rebuilt. This one is the first Cathedral Fire in history to be documented in great detail as everyone has a camera phone these days, the others not so much.

Our Christchurch Cathedral was lost to an earthquake back in 2011 and still sits in ruins. No political will to rebuild it.  If it is important to the people it would be rebuilt but people in New Zealand don't have that same will compared to rebuilding Dresden or the will to rebuild Notre-Dame. If it was that important it would have been done. Notre-Dame will be rebuilt because the People of France have a much stronger will to rebuild it. 

Edited April 18, 20197 yr by Matthew Kane