NOTE: This episode contains MAJOR spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film yet, you might want to hit pause and come back when you’re ready.

William Friedkin’s The Exorcist isn’t just a story of demonic possession; it’s a powerful and haunting collision of faith and reason set against a backdrop where the world seems to have forgotten how to accept and understand true mystery. This episode explores how the film forces both science and religion to confront the uncomfortable limits of their own understanding and beliefs. Using Regan’s possession as a visceral reflection of cultural doubt, spiritual crisis, and human suffering, the narrative explores the profound tension between doubt and faith. Through a postmodern lens, we’ll analyze how the institutions that once promised absolute certainty—medicine, psychology, and the Church—struggle and sometimes fail to make sense of the unexplainable, revealing broader questions about belief, knowledge, and the nature of reality.

At its core, The Exorcist is not about a girl possessed by a demon.

It’s about a culture possessed by doubt.

Recommended Reading:

“Faith and Doubt in the Modern World” by Charles Taylor

An insightful exploration of how secularism has reshaped the Western understanding of faith, belief, and transcendence, making it a perfect companion to Friedkin’s crisis of meaning.