Plan to turn European cathedrals into temples of reason

Cathedrals without priests: the plan to turn them into centers of learning

Imagine a Gothic cathedral stripped of its altar, saints, and sermons on sin. In their place, a professor lecturing on astronomy to a nave full of neighbors, while side chapels house bookshelves and silent study desks instead of relics. This is the proposal launched by one participant in an extensive debate: replacing religious worship with the cult of reason and repurposing Europe’s great temples as cultural centers, libraries, and gyms.

The idea stems from a more ambitious premise: that Greco-Roman civilization had already reached a level of excellence that was truncated by the arrival of Christianity. According to this view, Europe should have undergone a process of Enlightenment and reform in the fifth century that never materialized, and cathedrals should have become secular temples honoring the fathers of civilization—Thales of Miletus, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato—rather than invented saints. The author even imagines an Athens that was never invaded, with a Cathedral of Socrates presiding over Syntagma Square.

The clash between two narratives of Europe

The discussion quickly turned contentious: was Christianity a burden or the engine that allowed Europe to emerge from prehistory? Against the "burden" thesis, several participants point out that the Middle Ages saw the invention of horseshoes, water and windmills, mechanical clocks, eyeglasses, the moldboard plow, and three-field crop rotation, noting that half of Europe—the Germanic and Slavic regions—emerged from prehistory during this time. It is also argued that slavery, an ancient institution, was combated by Christianity, whereas in the Greco-Roman world, slaves had no rights and their mothers could not prevent them from being sold as children.

The defense of the classical legacy faced another challenge: Greek philosophers were not atheists. Socrates claimed to possess a divine inner voice; Aristotle forms the basis of Catholic theology; Plato spoke of a world of ideal Forms. In other words, the pantheon proposed for enshrinement in cathedrals was not precisely materialist.

What actually survived of classical knowledge?

One of the strongest points raised concerns the role of Byzantium. It is argued that classical knowledge was primarily preserved in the Eastern Roman Empire and transferred to the West by scholars fleeing Constantinople—a migration that, alongside the printing press and the discovery of America, marks the end of the Middle Ages. Mention is also made of Emperor Claudius’s works on the Etruscans being destroyed, exemplifying irreparable losses.

The original proponent insists that Greco-Roman buildings still stand 2,000 years later, while other structures have not withstood the test of time. The debate over what was lost versus preserved remains open, with neither side able to impose a definitive figure.

From the cult of reason to the cult of physical beauty

The initial proposal extends beyond libraries and lectures. The author requests that these temples also be places where the mythological perfection of man is worshipped, antiestéticaturing gyms crowned with statues of Hercules and cathedrals filled with statues of Herculean warriors. “White men worshipping the perfect macho god with a hard cock,” he writes, a formulation celebrated enthusiastically by some participants but viewed by others as merely an excuse to fill the thread with AI-generated images of naked torsos.

This aesthetic drift provoked jabs about the underlying motives. One participant asserts that what irritates people about Christianity is its condemnation of sodomy, and that the defense of Greco-Roman culture stems from its acceptance of gaiity. The response was swift, and the exchange escalated in tone.

The shadow of Robespierre and the Cult of Reason

The most repeated objection relates to historical precedents. Participants recall that the last attempt to worship the Goddess Reason involved placing a prostitute in Notre Dame Cathedral, leading to rivers of blood flowing through Paris. Essentially, the experiment was tried and ended in the Terror. Others see the proposal as a simple reissue of Freemasonry: the Cult of Reason was the banner of Robespierre and rationalist materialism.

The proponent responds with frustration: “I feel this way daily, in everything. I can’t bear it. And I find it even harder to endure seeing how my pain is inversely proportional to everyone else’s indifference.” Personal venting mixes with architectural proposals and quarrels over saints, priests, and cathedrals.

What happens to current saints and temples?

The author proposes replacing statues of saints with those of mathematics’ creators, and altars crowned by the carpenter’s son with Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. He argues that many saints were medieval figures, often invented, venerated for executions or miracles that never occurred. In contrast, defenders claim St. George or St. James are “ultra-epic” and remind us that the Greco-Roman world also harbored much misery.

For now, the discussion closes with a disorienting fact: Greco-Roman buildings still stand 2,000 years later, while others have left no stone upon another. Whether Europe would be better off with cathedrals of philosophy instead of religious temples remains unanswered, but the exchange makes clear that the wound between these two narratives remains open.