At a party I attended not too long ago, the conversation steered most unwillingly to religion. The stranger asked if I was religious, a status I conceded in that halted, Hollywood sort of manner. He replied that he was an atheist, a position he’d reached after reading the Talmud, Bible, and Koran and finding the lot wanting.
I argued this was a terrible way to go about it: Sometimes context matters just as much as the text; if you read “Animal Farm” without working knowledge of Joseph Stalin, you might walk away with a wacky tale about pigs in top hats.
I couldn’t help reliving this conversation throughout the runtime of A24’s “Heretic,” which details the worst case scenario of such Reddit autodidactism.
Read Full Article »