Synthetic Sacredness: A Comparative Focus Group Study of AI and Human Religious Art

This study compares how viewers emotionally and analytically engage with biblical art of human origin versus art generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Using a single-blind focus group protocol and crossover design, we presented participants with human and AI-generated biblical scenes, subsequently subjecting the transcripts to sentiment and qualitative analysis. We found that AI art often achieves immediate and stronger emotional spikes due to its dehistoricized and optimized aesthetics. However, this impact is limited; while AI-generated imagery privileges affective immediacy, it frequently results in an interpretive plateau where viewers struggle to synthesize symbols into coherent narratives. Conversely, human-authored art, though initially less accessible, reveals increasing depth over time. We argue that while AI simulates the affect of the sacred, it lacks the generative capacity for sustained narrative and symbolic intentionality. This suggests that AI religious art flattens the sacred into atmosphere, swapping historical and symbolic depth for immediate, convenient affect.