They were still a very secular lot for their time period, and there was no systematic elimination of intellectual dissent that stemmed from religion. Completely unlike the totalitarian fundamentalist theocracy the republicrats want to create.

Religion will exist as long as humans do…

And that makes it a good thing?

Let’s see: you missed the point about Greek Civilization: I said that religion didn’t have an iron grip on daily affairs, not that it didn’t exist, and that was one of the major factors that enabled them to flourish. Contrast ancient Greece with today’s backward Islamic countries. You also topped it off with a distraction when you declined to address my point about religion’s general moral bankruptcy.

If I grew up in Yemen, I would go to a mosque. If I grew up in Bombay, I would go to the local Hindi temple. As it happens, I was born and raised in northeastern states of the US by Episcopalian parents. At my own volition I chose to attend church regularly once I became an adult. In Japan I attend an Episcopalian/Anglican church where services are conducted in Japanese and where I am the only non-Japanese congregation member. Nonetheless, I also go to shrines and temples regularly because I enjoy the atmosphere, the architecture, and the history. As I said in a previous comment, you could “prove” to me that god does not exist and nothing would change for me.

Without wanting to invoke a varient of Godwin’s Law,’s_law I am curious as to why you’re so dedicated to disproving God. Why would an athiest care what I think? Perhaps you like the argument? Perhaps you have a personal mission to change my personal spirituality? Are the above beliefs alarming or distressing to you? In Soviet Civilization, Paris-based Russian disident Andrei Sinyavsky wrote about the unusual vehemence of the athiest Bolshevik regime to religion. Would not an athiest care less about the church? he argued. Why the drive to “disprove” it? It’s worth noting that the only states that have tried to replace religion with athiesm — the USSR, Communist China, and a few other examples such as Pol Pot’s Cambodia — replaced it with nothing less than pure evil. Their motivations for dismantling it were not logical arguments but because they wanted to abolish what I was just talking about: communities and families that operated independently from the state, which they saw as a challenge to their authority. Indeed, religion is one of many checks on state power anywhere in the world.

Tak: the architecture was indeed stunning. I showed the photo to a Japanese friend and asked them where they thought it was taken. First guess: France. “Actually, it’s in Ochanomizu, about 8 blocks from the Imperial Palace…”

More pictures of another interesting religious structure to come shortly…

Joe, how about posting your photos of the church on nichinichi?

That aside, the rebuilding of Nikolai-do proves that people can appreciate the value of religion even if it isn’t their own, and that’s a lesson that many people these days could use.

Shoko: I DID see a Japanese orthodox Christian priest walking around! I didn’t get a chance to talk to him tho, he was busy with a pregnant Belarussian woman and her Japanese husband.