An art exhibit at a prominent Catholic Church in New York City is making waves for its controversial title, “God Isn’t Real.”
The Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan, run by the Paulist Fathers, features the artwork in various side chapels around the main sanctuary.
The “God Isn’t Real” series depicts eight paintings and accompanying placards demonstrating God’s non-existence. One painting shows suffering children, next to a description reading “Behold, Christian, the evidence of your ‘all-loving’ fairy-tale.” Another is a graph of evolutionary history, next to the simple sentence: “Your god doesn’t exist.”
When questioned about the art, a spokesperson for the Paulist Fathers said that such exhibits “shouldn’t be taken literally” and “it’s just the artist’s self-expression, which as Christians we are always bound to encourage.”
When The Daily Inquisition asked whether such a display encourages atheism, the spokesperson only replied that they “don’t know what that word means.”
Richard Dawkins, the creator of the artwork, expressed his pleasure at the exhibit.
“What better place to showcase such a powerful statement than 10 feet from the altar of a Catholic Church,” Dawkins said. “It’s so poetic that I think my next art show will just be photos of this church show.”
He continued, “My working title so far is: ‘Christians are Dumb.’”
