Opinions on Religious architecture? the way santcuaries are built,to make us feel the way they do-loving,peaceful and yet just a tiny bit afraid.In which way are we manipulated by archit. to feel so emotional

I can't say I'm keen on cathedrals and the like, but some of the old churches are beautiful.

I used to visit an old church occasionally during my lunch hour. Well, at 200 years old that's pretty old by Australian standards. (Anything older than that would have just been a didgeridoo played in the twilight.)

I'm not even remotely religious but that old building felt so peaceful and had so much atmosphere (in spite of the pews being scarred by the initials of generations of schoolboys who were forced to attend) that I carried some of it away with me.  I'll post a picture.

I don't think "modern" churches can do that. The buildings tend to lack character and they're used for all manner of functions and events that tend to destroy atmosphere rather than create it.

But fear? Perhaps believers who fear an eternity in Hell might find them scary but we atheists can just appreciate them for their beauty.

Dear Eta Er,

I just watched a very interesting YouTube series on Mandelbrot sets. The suggestion there was that cathedrals are often constructed along the lines of fractal geometry, which, through iteration, can reflect the very composition of the human consciousness...thus eliciting a sense of awe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Y6xpeQK-w

The example I have chosen for you is the interior of Wells Cathedral in England.

If any of you ever make it to Blighty, try to get a trip to see Ely Cathedral.

http://www.elycathedral.org/

It is beautiful in every way, but also imposing and in a very real way intimidating.

"We are the church and you are just insignificant."

Religion is often used to keep the plebs in their place.

I really like what Virginia Lou has mentioned in her answer: "....The suggestion there was that cathedrals are often constructed along the lines of fractal geometry, which, through iteration, can reflect the very composition of the human consciousness...thus eliciting a sense of awe."

i suspect most of us have found ourselves "moved" by the music we hear---Ode to Joy, the 1812 Overture, and the like.

It makes perfect sense to me that what we see and the perspective in which we see it will also move us.

And of course, Neil deGrasse Tyson used that is his recent TV show Cosmos, perhaps to bolster his belief that there is no God.

Perhaps the designers of the cathedrals of the past had a similar insight into human psychology.

Just google freemasonry, sacred geometry and churches and cathedrals.

Most things stem first from the Monad, which is a circle without an end, usually with a centre. 

Then with two circles from that centre point you get the Vesica Pisces.

And from the vesica pisces (Mary is often depicted inside one of these), from this you get all other shapes, squares, diamonds, pentagrams, hexagrams, and the first solid manifesting shape the pyramid.

I  have been in plenty of newer buildings of worship that are light, bright, and open. They are very calming and welcoming. I was also raised Catholic in NY state. Cathedrals up there are large, dark, and lean toward the gothic type of architecture. They can be imposing, to say the least. And the Catholic church likes for the congregation to feel a little guilt. 

Regardless of my aversion to the belief systems they promote . . . I find churches to be the most beautiful pieces of architecture there is.

I take great joy in taking pictures of them so I can look at them again and again. The beautiful Catholic church my wife ad I were married in, is going to be torn down, and that saddens me on several levels.

religion is a racket.

Follow the money, follow the lies,

following the religious wars.