The Harshest Review I’ve Ever Seen on a Book That Challenges Religion
The Harshest Review I’ve Ever Seen on a Book That Challenges Religion
I recently came across a brutal review from a devoted Christian on goodreads of a novel called Insane Entities, he called it blasphemous and asked for it to be removed. The novel takes religious concepts and twists them into something… unsettling. It got me thinking—why do people react so strongly when a book dares to reinterpret sacred ideas?
One scene in the book hit me particularly hard: a character with three eyes, one weeping while the other two smile as he knots a corpse like a bag. It’s gruesome, sure, but the hidden symbolism makes it even darker—it reflects the Christian Trinity, with Jesus suffering while the Father and Holy Spirit remain distant. It’s a powerful and eerie take on an old concept.
It seems like books that tackle religious themes in unconventional ways always get the harshest criticism. Do you think that’s because people fear reinterpretation, or is it just resistance to any challenge of belief?
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why do people react so strongly when a book dares to reinterpret sacred ideas?
For a lot of people, their religion is part of them, so to make fun of it is to make fun of them.
For others, mainly the leaders, it's an affront to their power. "How dare someone make fun of the tools I use to control people"?
Exactly, and it goes deeper than just the personal or the power dynamic. For many, sacred ideas represent the foundation of their worldview—challenging them can feel like challenging the very core of their existence. It’s a hard thing to digest when your belief system is questioned, especially if it's intertwined with your identity. But it’s also interesting how these reinterpretations can push people to think more critically about what they believe and why. It’s uncomfortable, yes, but growth often comes from discomfort.
Very true, but I suspect most people would rather double down on their beliefs, much like this comic:
I suppose this is the more common outcome as they will have a considerable pool of friends/family/colleagues that can reinforce their faith and are likely to also feel personally offended