creigs1707 Wrote:
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> > If I understand you correctly, you have
> effectively expanded the hypothetical 'single
> house plan' question I posed to Anthony into a
> larger plan i.e. 'a housing estate'. Whether a
> single house or multiple houses, surely plans
> would exist at each level.

Actually, I was thinking of just ANY structure. For example, we know that many Christian churches (particularly Catholic) have a cross-type floor plan in the main area and that this relates to Christian symbolism (some churches are even in the form of a cross.) We know that they are not a solar cult because there's no solar orientation and they are not laid out across the land in a particular pattern.

> Which brings us full circle to my original
> (hypothetical) question of whether a high degree
> of correlation should automatically be presumed to
> be coincidence (as Anthony suggests).

You have to prove a unique correlation here and a multiplicity of examples. There are thousands of early examples of Christian churches with the cross design, and the pattern begins in one era and continues into modern times. Design is positively correlated with structure.

Assume for a second that we're archaeologists living a million years in the future. If you found a church built in 2000 that was a geodesic dome, you'd have a hard time correlating the shape of the dome with Christian symbolism because circles don't figure prominently in the religion AND it's a unique example. The design may be the whim of the leader of that church or could be a building made for another purpose (wrestling stadium) appropriated for the church and the shape has no correlation to the symbolism.

I do know that in ancient Egypt a lot of buildings were re-purposed over time.