Posted on 03/08/2006 6:14:03 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
G. K. Chesterton famously said something to this effect: When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing—they believe in anything. A good example of this is Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault’s Pendulum, in which a group of friends program a computer to “write” a book about secret hidden knowledge. Titled The Plan, the book is the result of random links between things like Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, the Knights Templar, and other crackpot ideas. While The Plan was intended as a prank, other people take it seriously, with tragic results.
Well, Foucault’s Pendulum shows us how gullible unbelieving people are. And this is particularly so in our postmodern age when truth doesn’t matter. This phenomenon partly explains the remarkable success of The Da Vinci Code. Like Eco’s novel, it’s about a heretofore hidden knowledge that promises to let us in on the “true” history of Christianity.
Author Dan Brown gives us a Jesus who neither died on the cross nor rose from the dead. Instead, He married Mary Magdalene and had children by her. This “sacred blood line” is the treasure safeguarded by groups like the Knights Templar and the Masons. And the Catholic Church, in a desperate attempt to cover up this secret, murders those who threaten to expose it.
Devotees of The Da Vinci Code—like the fictional fans in Foucault’s Pendulum—have trouble distinguishing fact from fiction. They visit places mentioned in the novel, and “Da Vinci Tours” are a booming business. With the upcoming film, interest in The Da Vinci Code will explode. Christians need to seize this teaching opportunity, preparing ourselves to answer questions readers are asking.
The first is: Are the historical events portrayed in Brown’s story true? Brown claims to have done extensive historical research and gives his readers no reason to doubt the novel’s accuracy. Since the average person knows almost nothing about Christian history, they’re vulnerable. For example, when Brown says that Knights Templar were put to death by the Catholic Church because they knew the “true story” about Jesus, people have no basis to question it, never having heard of the Knights Templar. Or when Brown says that at the Council of Nicea, the Vatican consolidated its power, most people are unaware that the Vatican didn’t even exist in A.D. 325.
It is our job to expose the falsehoods. We can learn to answer Brown’s lies with the truth by reading books like Darrell Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code and Erwin Lutzer’s The Da Vinci Deception.
People flock to stories like The Da Vinci Code in part because all humans are searching for the secret knowledge that answers the mysteries of life. And when The Da Vinci Code debuts in May, millions more Americans will get a condensed tour de distortion. Knowing our neighbors will see this film, churches ought to begin to get ready now—preparing to answer questions about it and to tell our neighbors that there is no secret knowledge about God. It’s all in the Bible and all true.
The good news is that The Da Vinci Code readers and viewers are seeking answers to the central questions of life. The challenge is for us to supply the true answers.
"If it's "just a novel", how do you explain the fact that many people have told me that it "made them think."
Uffda! A book that makes people think! Ban it!
"Of course, as an evangelical atheist, I wouldn't expect you to do anything but applaud an attack on the Catholic Church."
You're an evangelical atheist? How strange. [grin]
Actually, I never attack the Catholic Church. In fact, I have defeneded it in many threads. I am an atheist, but I'm not an evangelical one, whatever that might be. I think people should follow whatever religion they can believe in. I've just found none that fit that category for me.
I'd say that rampant child rape among the priesthood has been more damaging to the institution than this book/movie.
"I'd say that rampant child rape among the priesthood has been more damaging to the institution than this book/movie."
There's been no rampant child rape among the priesthood. There have been some cases, but they represent a very tiny minority of priests. You might have a look at Google. You'll find lots of protestant pastors and youth ministers doing the same thing. I doubt that the numbers are any different.
If that cover had come out during the Clinton Administration, the Secret Service would have had to open a threat investigation.
*The "sex" parts read like outtakes from "Sex in the City," which leads me to surmise that our "DaVinci" author plays for the wrong team. My offer to kick the crap out of him still stands, but I'll wear HAZMAT gear.
Are you kidding me? Boston...Miami...there is not only a wealth of documentation but a systematic refusal by the Church bureacracy to address it...they have even shuffled known pedophiles around the county to repeat the abuses. Denial is not going to solve the problem...
First, I'm with you.
Sometimes, you must feel like you are beating your head against a wall.
Well said.
Thank you for taking the time to go through this thread reply by reply.
It's pretty discouraging, consistently watching pap hokum novels promoted and hyped like beer, and turning into runaway best sellers.
If any book needs to be made a movie it's yours!
Yeah, I can really see that happening.
(Not.)
never hurts to wish :)
I wish I was a faster writer.
I do to! LOL
Since I don't honestly believe you're stupid enough to think that's a rational argument I must assume you think I am. Nobody reading about middle earth presumes middle earth exists, any more than anyone reading about Arrakis thinks Arrakis exists. But people reading about Italy know Italy exists. Therefore, they assume the plot is fiction, but not the place.
The fact is that 99% of reasonable people know darn well what the word "fiction" means. The other 1% need lithium anyway and are not worth freaking out over.
As said by one who knows? Many people don't even know the evening news is opinion. How do you know what they think about the historical or locational aspects of a book that is about a real place and time?
Shalom.
Shalom.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.