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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Your right but remember it's fiction.


13 posted on 05/23/2006 3:30:37 PM PDT by snowman1
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To: snowman1
Well, Don Feder addresses the point about it being fiction. I will post his comments below.

As a Goddess-worshipping, neo-pagan, Brown seeks to reverse the Bible's process of taming man's erotic nature (by channeling it to fidelity and family), once again divorcing the sexual from the spiritual - freeing man's hedonistic urges from Judeo-Christian constraints. That Brown has so many admirers among Hollywood libertines is unsurprising.

But why all the fuss? After all, it's only a movie, right?

The novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand was once asked why she primarily wrote fiction, instead of works of philosophy. Rand explained that it's far easier to convey ideas through fiction than non-fiction - witness Dante's The Divine Comedy, witness Uncle Tom's Cabin, witness Ben-Hur, The Screwtape Letters and To Kill a Mockingbird .

Novels and films aren't footnoted. The author or screenwriter can create a thoroughly convincing universe that powerfully projects his message. From The Birth of a Nation and Triumph of The Will to Thelma and Louise and Brokeback Mountain, films have told us how to think about the world around us.

Most movies present the world according to Hollywood (and the word became flesh - lots of flesh) - that the sex act is good in and of itself, that people should follow their feelings (which invariably will lead them to right conduct and happiness), that prayer is like throwing a penny in a wishing well, that God is within us, that God is love, that God makes no demands of us and that the followers of traditional religion are a bunch of uptight, puritanical, hypocritical killjoys.

Debunking Christianity - which is The Da Vinci Code's mission - advances this worldview.

All too many people read novels or see films and think they're experiencing reality. Their understanding of the complicated history of settlers and Indians comes from Dances With Wolves. They are informed about the crusades by Kingdom of Heaven. Their understanding of the theory of global warming comes from The Day After Tomorrow.

According to a Barna Group survey, 24% of those who read The Da Vinci Code said it aided their "personal spiritual growth and understanding." In other words, one in four of its readers believe the book's thesis (as opposed to its storyline) is true. Our "personal spiritual growth" isn't aided by what we believe to be a lie.

17 posted on 05/23/2006 3:35:12 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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