Original Article: http://www.relevantmagaz...../

For some time, I had been aware that my reporting on religion and art was hopelessly missing an entire, very relevant perspective—that of the atheist. If religious art is worth contemplating in any serious manner, atheists must figure into the larger picture. Would they insist on sacking the canon and revising it to separate church and art? Or would they look upon it with patronizing aloofness, like a kindergarten teacher admiring students’ work? On my way to work one day, listening to Reginald V. Finley Sr.’s podcast “The Infidel Guy,” I heard Finley interview another atheist, Kenneth Humphreys, and I decided to contact both to ask them how they felt about religious art. Their responses are surprising, but upon further reflection, they make a lot of sense.

Finley readily admires religious art, some of which he calls “quite beautiful.” But he is repulsed by the “symbol of death”—the crucifix. “How would we feel today if I wore a miniature bust of JFK around my neck with two bullet holes in his head?” he asked. “People would call me crazy, nuts, sick and deranged. Yet many Christians do this on a daily basis.”

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