An Invented Religion

I have always wanted to visit the Pantheon. It is a large beautiful building in which the nation of France honors its fallen war heroes. Monuments inside remember all of those who have fallen in battle for the country, and other notable Frenchman, such as Voltaire and Rousseau, are entombed here.

As we walked into the magnificent rotunda, choral music much like one would hear in a church echoed off gilded marble walls. The building is laid out like a church, but up at the front instead of an altar stands a statue commemorating the French Revolution. what I took away from this opulent beauty is the observation that if one nation abolishes a church, they will soon have to invent something very much like a church to fill its place. The French revolutionaries prided themselves on their rationalism. They did away with God, the church and priests. Yet in this building, they have made a cathedral as opulent as any I have ever seen. The ideas here are transcendent, though they may not deal with subjects generally considered religious. I do not want to take away from the glory of the fallen, nor the unutterable beauty of this building, but the message that it shouts to me is that when one does away with God, one must replace him with some sort of substitute.Read more