While I agree with most of the things you said in the post--namely that the purpose of art is beauty. God is beauty. Christian architecture rocks--I cant bring myself to agree to your last point.

In my opinion, beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. And nothing is objectively ugly. For instance that Houston picture is beautiful to me. I'm an African, I've seen and lived in some of the worst slums in the world. So it isnt farfetched that that pic of Houston suburb can be beautiful to me.

I guess its a question of subjectivity vs objectivity. For instance do my taste matter? Or should a universal taste be put into the foremost? IMO theres no "universal taste".

Bloom said that the greatest tool of a critic is not even objectivity, but the deepest sort of subjevtivity. I believe him.

P.S I'm defintely not talking about relativity/comparison in this case. I mean, when it comes to relativity, its a whole different ballgame.