The DaVinci Code - how much of it is real?
 

I'm not thoroughly scholared with all things religious - which is a good thing and a bad thing I imagine. But I just finished "The DaVinci Code." Not bad. Writing is so-so. The ideas it brings up, however are very interesting.

One thing I took from the book is Mary Magdalene isn't quite the woman we've been made to believe she is...

Hmmm....

you should read Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Richard Baigent, et al. It's the factual inquiry that most famously deals with this.

Cool. Thanks. It really puts on its ear all the indoctrination I had as a young Catholic boy but growing up in a Jewish neighborhood. I love the old Jewish grandmothers telling me Catholicism was "all wrong." Now I somewhat see what they were talking about.

There is a series of books on this topic. Many years ago when I was at Penn State I wrote a paper on political intolerance. At the time I was interested in this subject and I talked my professor, somehow, into allowing me to write a paper about the mass-murder of hundreds of the Knights Templars. It's a fascinating topic and as you read more you'll begin to wonder about the base organization of our society. It's amazing how much of our societal orientation is predicated on the Catholic church's spin on things. They say there is a complete history of the world that is available only to the Pope and the rest of us will never see it or learn of it for fear of anarchy.

I loved the book at the outset but then thought it got pretty corny/boring towards the end. The pictures at the end backing up some of the contentions was pretty cool (knife in last supper painting, uneven background in mona lisa, creepy picture in little mermaid, etc)

joe 68 L

Hmm...I just finished "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."

Think I'll go start a revolution.

Let's hear it for Heinlein!!

It is mostly fiction extrapolated from facts. Do your own research on the subject.

What information if divluged could cause anarchy?

Aleins from outerspace?

Be careful what you read. Images in paintings might be interesting, but if this is the strength of evidence offered, then I would say a green cheese moon is probably at least as defensible. Again, be careful. Another thing I might point out is that, aside from Church stuff, the characters in the Jesus story are historical, factual persons. So I just wonder about an author who claims to understand these characters more intimately than people who lived withing 200 years of the characters themselves. In other words now, 2000 years after the fact, someone seems to be saying that what we know, which is based on what we knew shortly after the events took place, is not accurate but what the author knows 2000 years after the fact, is more accurate. Hmmmmm.

Sure, the Church is not perfect. But frankly I have better things to do with my time than chase down rumours of Christ and Mary M. getting married, settling in France and having children.

I guess it comes down to this: The world is separated (at least from the perspective of Christianity) into two groups. One group believes Jesus was who he said he was, the Son of God. The other group believes that whole story is a manipulated hoax. Is this book helping you move to a conclusion that the story is a hoax? You wanna go there?

Of course I want to go there. Why? Because it's a new thought. New ideas. The old tried and true biblical diatribe is exactly that - tried and true, and could use some challenges. The ideas the book poses are at least interesting.

As far as the biblical story being a hoax - who says it isn't a hoax? The Catholic Church? Just because the story is old and has transcended generations does not mean it should be concluded as the "only" story. After all, we were taught in school that Lincoln freed the slaves. That isn't necessarily true, is it?

Dave is right. Sadly, it's very poorly written and a bit of a challenge to get through. But the subject matter is stunning and there's significant internal consistency to the findings.

This has always been my belief. Da Vinci Code doesn't affirm it, except for the fact that it too is a work of fiction.

Do some research on church history. There were a number of splinter groups of Christianity. There were also a number of books of the Bible in circulation. Constantine, and the church, decided that there had to be one version so he called the Council of Nicea together to resolve the issue. Short version, the council reviewed all books, and made the decision. Books which denied the deity of Christ were abandoned, because they conflicted with books that were known to be eyewitness accounts. Also, the council decided that if Christ were not deity, then the whole idea of the crucifixtion becomes invalid and Christians have no reason to even exist. Books such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Book of Mary were texts frequently used by the Gnostics. If you trace Gnostic history, you'll find they are the distant ancestors of the New Age movements. Apologetics and church history can be quite interesting, but do your own research into the subject as there are some priests and ministers that assert that Christ wasn't even God, nor is the Bible God's word, nor did the crucifixtion occur, nor did Christ even exist. I have to ask, then why the heck are these guys priests or ministers, and of what???

Great stuff.

There were apparently 200 'books' and only, what? 27? were included in 'the Bible.'

One of the more interesting omitted books tells of Jesus' childhood. And it's not entirely flattering. There's also some interesting stuff about Mary's perpetual virginity, even after having more children.

http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml;jsessionid=5Q4KKOZ2JL3J2QOXHDDSAO0B022 MOIY4?id=43933

Some people don't believe in the authenticity of the Bible...
Some people don't believe in the authenticity of the holocaust..
Some people don't believe in the authenticity of the NASA space program...
Some people question if we really exist at all...

Nothing really new about The DaVinci Code, people have been questioning validity of Christianity for two thousand years and every year several people makes a bunch of money writing books about it.

Everyone needs something to believe in.


I believe I will have another beer.........

I read Dan Brown's Angels and Demon's a while back, pretty good. read a bit like a action book ready to be made into a movie.

There are a lot of weid warnings about changing the text of the bible, reads like a chain letter warning with cruses. It's in the very front or the very back of the book, it's in there.

I just restarted reading the bible, never seem to get through it. In Genesis it reads something like: God made man in OUR image. It does not say God made man in his image until the next paragraph. Odd that words like OUR and US be used to describe a single deity.

http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/genesis/genesis1.htm