[djmcmath]

Smoak, the theological problems are actually deeper than that. Dan Brown claims that Jesus was not deity, and that he died as a normal human. Further, he pushes for goddess worship with the whole "sacred feminine" routine. Of course, that's essentially paganism, by definition, which throws all of Christianity as we know it down the tubes. (Many would argue that's a good thing!!)

The great difficulty *is* the marketing -- it's passed off as "based on fact," which makes many people believe that all of the ideas presented as fact are fact. Most of the people gullible enough to buy into Dan Brown's "facts" are interested enough to believe the fiction without bothering to look up which bits are true and which were made up to make a good read. The result is a growing number of people who believe a lie. Sadly, his writing is excellent -- it's easy, fast, and light -- the sort of thing that any old fool can get through in a few days. All of the books written to counter his work are harder reads, a fact that makes them infinitely less popular.

I can't say I blame the Catholic church for fighting this. They have the resources, and Brown's work is probably costing them. They're far more organized than any other group of people who disagrees with Brown's silliness. (shrug)

OTOH, fighting it gives Brown legitimacy. If you just ignore it, it's obviously false. If you come out and say it's false, then you must be hiding something. ????