Offensive? Are you joking? Offensive would have been if i said i was glad it was burned down because those heretics deserved no such place of powermongering.

At the moment i said it it looked like it was going to be totally destroyed, thus a logical conclusion was if the ground would have been redeveloped would the city have gone for big bucks.

While I agree about the religion, and a joke or not, this building in particular is an extremely important work in architecture and art, and stood for innovation and technical advancement. It’s construction was a huge achievement and the new techniques that were discovered in it’s design and development have been important to the advancement of western civilization. You’ll have to appreciate that this church is in part the reason why modern skyscrapers can be built at all, and is much more valuable to our culture than the biggest skyscraper one the site could ever be.

It was probably an accident.

Also, it’s a divine miracle the stained glass windows survided. The three large rose windows are irreplacable. It’d be like burning the Mona Lisa, since these three are basically to stained glass what the Mona Lisa is to paintings.

Well God doesn't give a flying fig for man-made buildings, since in the new testament the word "temple" means the body of a person, no longer a construction like in the old testament.

Matthew 24:1-2 As Jesus left the Temple and was walking away, his followers came up to show him the Temple’s buildings. 2 Jesus asked, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. Every stone will be thrown down to the ground.”

While the disciples were amazed how beautiful and huge the Temple of Solomon was, Jesus was like "meh" and told them that it will be destroyed into nothing, which really happened in 70 AD.

i agree with the statement, but this kind of buildings are here as symbols to remind us who we are, and for atheists, how the European civilization came to be at the very least

As religion is a communal endeavor, putting so much work and effort into making something that in it's beauty and splendour rises above the individual efforts put together, is an even stronger showing of human will. Praying for oneself or for others is one thing, shaping the world and beautifying it is another.

Still, God requires the best from His followers.

The woman used the best ointment on Jesus feet and he appreciated that.

Although Jesus can be worshipped under a tree, having the best temple in the city for His worship is just trying to give the best to God. We want the best for our own houses, why can't we want the best for the place of worship for Jesus?

The truth of temple meaning the body doesn't make having the best church building a sin or something that we should be just be ok for seeing it being destroyed.

There will be a lot more troubles if they try to fix it fast than if they take their time to make sure that everything is ok and then properly repair it. I hope they choose the right option and don't hurry just for the sake of the Olympic games or because it's the most visited monument by tourists in France (aka, the money).

Divine miracle? No. Physics and hard work? Yes.
The firefighters put a ton of effort into protecting various assets.

It can be done, but it will require extensive man power and coordination... Which doesn't come cheap.

I would prefer they took their time and did it right the first time.