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1. benbre+jl[view] [source] 2023-09-12 14:04:41
>>arbesm+(OP)
Author of the post here - happy to discuss and get feedback from HN readers. The examples I gave here are all using GPT-3.5 but Claude now seems to work at least as well using the same prompts.
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2. ilaksh+En[view] [source] 2023-09-12 14:14:31
>>benbre+jl
Fascinating.

One surface level comment. As a non-religious person, I have always found the distinction between buildings for different types of religions as being somewhat artificial. Sure, they have different architectural styles, but they all have a similar purpose in my mind.

So a mosque is a church is a temple, on some level.

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3. keifer+jp[view] [source] 2023-09-12 14:20:06
>>ilaksh+En
Not really. They all serve very different purposes, especially when you get outside of the Abrahamic religions. Even then, a traditional mosque serves a very different purpose from a church and is organized in quite different ways.
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4. ilaksh+Nq[view] [source] 2023-09-12 14:25:41
>>keifer+jp
I am not an expert in mosques or churches but apparently you are. So can you explain the different purposes? Also two of my examples were Abrahamic so let's just focus on those for now. A mosque, a church, Jewish "temple" or synagogue, are all according to you, for quite different purposes.

Are you sure they don't have a number of similarities?

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5. keifer+Ns[view] [source] 2023-09-12 14:33:29
>>ilaksh+Nq
Not sure where I claimed to be an expert?

They are different religions with different beliefs and practices. The architectural differences are vast and mostly obvious the minute you walk in. Mosques and churches both have a number of unique elements like the mihrab, confessional booths, pews, floor carpets, altars, and so on and so forth. These all translate into vastly different experiences both during worship and in everyday life. For example, Catholic churches have confessional booths facilitating confessions to priests. Mosques don’t, as (as far as I know) Muslims believe more in direct confession to God, not to an intermediary. You can see how this would result in a different social structure.

The experience of attending mosque on Friday is quite different from Sunday mass. This is intra-religion as well; compare a New England church with St. Peter’s in Rome, for example.

Sure, there are some similarities, but this is such a broad distinction that I question its usefulness, and dividing the world into secular and religious (architecture) is a very recent phenomenon. Saying they all are basically the same is to miss millennia of culture.

Anyway I don’t mean to be hostile or critical here, I just think religious architecture is pretty fascinating and has a much bigger effect on culture, even supposedly secular culture, than people realize. I encourage anyone interested to read more about it.

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6. FetusP+fz[view] [source] 2023-09-12 15:01:38
>>keifer+Ns
Are you comparing mosques/churches/temples, or are you comparing religions?
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7. keifer+2A[view] [source] 2023-09-12 15:04:42
>>FetusP+fz
I think you’d have a hard time divorcing the “religion” from its physical manifestation (or vice versa) in the world.
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8. FetusP+bB[view] [source] 2023-09-12 15:10:12
>>keifer+2A
Yeah but you could say Chipotle and Panda Express buildings are very similar, but the core business is way different.
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9. ilaksh+YH3[view] [source] 2023-09-13 09:36:00
>>FetusP+bB
Chipotle and Panda Express are almost the same business.
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