Often, I think the desire to build monuments is less about pleasing any dieties (though I'd like to hope they appreciate the effort and enthusiasm on our part) and more about our desire to create, period. There are beautiful buildings and projects all over the world, both religious and mundane, spanning hundreds and thousands of years of our history. The religious buildings just happen to be a form of religious art, and if with buildings, if you can go big, you're often tempted to. At the same time, some of these buildings are often big partially by necessity, because many of them are more than just places to worship. They're also administrative buildings, schools, hospitals, community centers, what have you. I agree.I'm a firm believer that expressions of positive emotions in our daily lives is among the strongest ways to worship God.