The DaVinci Code :Good Or Bad ?

[Reverend Jim]

After reading this thread I decided to not buy this book. I want things that help me grow as a Christian and I don't think this book would do that.

Read the book and make up YOUR OWN MIND....

Being a Good Christian means being tolerant of other people and their opinions and looking for answers through the words of Christ and the Prophets...

 

[kdet]

Read the book and make up YOUR OWN MIND....

Being a Good Christian means being tolerant of other people and their opinions and looking for answers through the words of Christ and the Prophets...

I don't have to look at pornograhy to know it is not something I want to feed my soul with. I did pick up the book at Costco and read the book jacket...I don't feel like this is something I need to feed my soul with at this time. I read a lot of secular stuff but it's usually pretty benign, reading a book that claims that Jesus had a sexual relationship or that is tearing down the Catholic church just doesn't seem to be constructive.

 

[KennySe]

Being a Good Christian means being tolerant of other people and their opinions

"tolerant" is not the same theing as accepting a non-Christian view as truth.

I "tolerate" Brown to write whatever he wants.
I do not accept the false teaching that Jesus Christ married.
I do not accept the false belief that mainstream Christianity has suppressed ANY Christian Truth.

and looking for answers through the words of Christ and the Prophets...

That is a great idea!
And as Brown is neither Christ nor a prophet...

 

[Filia Mariae]

Being a Good Christian means being tolerant of other people and their opinions and looking for answers through the words of Christ and the Prophets...

You'll have to forgive me for being sceptical of this statement when your previous statements have been:

a lot of the so called Anti - Catholic things you mention are quite true....

Is it Catholic Bashing to expose the R.C. Church's many sins especially the pedophilia scandal ? Or the R.C. Churchs support of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan before and during WW2....

I'm a FORMER Roman Catholic now Presbyterian and I have'nt looked back since. Salvation comes from faith in Jesus Christ not from the Virgin Mary or lighting 200 or so candles, or saying 50 Novenas...

Part of the reason I left the R.C. Faith was the sanctamonious dismissal of the past atrocities like The Spanish Inquisition and the crimes of the Jesuits (Society Of Jesus) in Political Intrigues...

I recall the R.C. Church took the same approach to Nikolai Copernicus and Gallileo....

When you post unsubstantiated, attacks on a Church whom you clearly know little about, "tolerant" isn't the first adjective the comes to mind.

Perhaps you'd like to discuss one of your accusations in an approrpiate forum? Like the cooperation with the Nazis business? That would be a good place to start.

Let me know and I'll join you there.

 

[Col]

I haven't read the book, however I have read many reviews. I am looking forward to reading it, as it sounds quite an interesting read. I can't believe all the fuss over it. If you think it is fiction, well then read it as such. If your faith is so fragile that you dare not read anything that challenges it, my question is what is your faith based on? No one is asking anyone to believe anything against their will. This is the 21st century, I like to think that we have progressed past "book-burning".


Bless ya
Col <><

 

[Filia Mariae]

Col,

The issue is that said fiction is being presented and read as non-fiction.

 

[Hunter]

I finished The Da Vinci Code a few days ago. Brown has essentially taken the research of Michael Baigent's Holy Blood, Holy Grail and made it accessible to the masses by dressing it up in a mystery on a literary level with John Grisham's work (pulp). Overall I was disappointed by the rather cardboard-cutout characters and formulaic plot twists.

As to the controversy due to the claims made in Brown's book: Baigent's book was published in the 80's and was written off as revisionist history by Christian and non-Christian scholar alike. I will say this for Brown - he's a shrewd businessman. He knew if he made this tripe available to the American public in an entertaining, easily digestible format the uproar would keep his book on the bestseller list for months and the royalties flowing. I only regret not thinking of it first.

Hunter

 

[secretdawn]

I don't have to look at pornograhy to know it is not something I want to feed my soul with. I did pick up the book at Costco and read the book jacket...I don't feel like this is something I need to feed my soul with at this time. I read a lot of secular stuff but it's usually pretty benign, reading a book that claims that Jesus had a sexual relationship or that is tearing down the Catholic church just doesn't seem to be constructive.

A. If Jesus was married, he was still perfect. God made man and woman to be together it doesn't make Him less to have been married.

B. If you have not read it, you can not protest is, or disagree with it, because you don't know. It's like those people protesting Bruce Almighty, without seeing it. It is what makes Christians look like unintelligent fools. If you don't want to read it cause you feel it will waiver your faith, fine, but then you don't get an opinion.

C. By reading it you would have a better understanding of non-christians and the type of stuff they are learning and believing about our Lord, and be able to have an intelligent conversation with them that could get them to turn more towards the right.

 

[Hunter]

One quick addendum to my above post:

Brown seems to rely rather heavily on the presuppositions of Da Vinci and whatever symbology he may or may not have placed in his art and literature. Da Vinci was a genius, and a leading figure of the Renaissance. He was also a cultural radical and a rather flamboyant homosexual. Why bring that up? Merely to show that Da Vinci had reasons to poke fun at the Church and tweak its nose when and where he could.

Hunter

 

[Will13]

A. If Jesus was married, he was still perfect. God made man and woman to be together it doesn't make Him less to have been married.

B. If you have not read it, you can not protest is, or disagree with it, because you don't know. It's like those people protesting Bruce Almighty, without seeing it. It is what makes Christians look like unintelligent fools. If you don't want to read it cause you feel it will waiver your faith, fine, but then you don't get an opinion.

C. By reading it you would have a better understanding of non-christians and the type of stuff they are learning and believing about our Lord, and be able to have an intelligent conversation with them that could get them to turn more towards the right.

A) If he had married that would make him a deciever and a liar which he is not and thus, he was never married. If he was he would have told us......along with all the disciples.

B) Even though you havent read it, you still have a rite to protest it. Just like porn was mentioned, you dont have to look at it to protest it. Although, I'll admit it would probably be easier to debate with someone the topics of the book after having read it, but if you want the truth about the book I think we all know where to find the REAL TRUTH....

.....Bruce Almighty was a pretty good movie, I dont know why that's mentioned.

C) True.

 

[Hunter]

OK - this is the last post I'll make on this unless asked (I promise!). Check this link out for a well-written review of Brown's work and scholarship. I'm sure there are some out there who will look at the source and claim "Well, of course she's saying this, she's Catholic!". But the beauty of this piece is that anyone with a bit of initiative can easily check out the veracity of her refutations of Brown's assertions from independent sources.

Hunter

p.s. After posting this I realize that I have not posted enough to actually provide you with a link Pretty bloody silly, but I guess the mods have their reasons. Ah well.

 

[kdet]

A. If Jesus was married, he was still perfect. God made man and woman to be together it doesn't make Him less to have been married.

B. If you have not read it, you can not protest is, or disagree with it, because you don't know. It's like those people protesting Bruce Almighty, without seeing it. It is what makes Christians look like unintelligent fools. If you don't want to read it cause you feel it will waiver your faith, fine, but then you don't get an opinion.

C. By reading it you would have a better understanding of non-christians and the type of stuff they are learning and believing about our Lord, and be able to have an intelligent conversation with them that could get them to turn more towards the right.

I don't even feel like addressing te "If Jesus was married" part of this discussion so I'm skipping it.

I haven't protested it nor disagreed with it..I have simply said I'm not reading it and stated my reasons why...BTW I saw Bruce Almighty and enjoyed it
As far as the rest of your post...you know what...I do just fine with people without reading any kind of fictional book

 

[secretdawn]

A) If he had married that would make him a deciever and a liar which he is not and thus, he was never married. If he was he would have told us......along with all the disciples.

B) Even though you havent read it, you still have a rite to protest it. Just like porn was mentioned, you dont have to look at it to protest it. Although, I'll admit it would probably be easier to debate with someone the topics of the book after having read it, but if you want the truth about the book I think we all know where to find the REAL TRUTH....

.....Bruce Almighty was a pretty good movie, I dont know why that's mentioned.

C) True.

i just used the first example off the top of my head, many christians protested it without seeing it. And no it isn't the same as porn, cause no matter what it is if it's porn it is 2 people having sex on camera...you know that.
you can't protest a book you won't read, because in truth you don't know what you are protesting...you only know what people tell you and you can't rely on that. it makes us look like fools, when someone asks us why we protest, and we can't even tell them more than "blasphemy!"...back it up with intelligent remarks about specific things and then maybe people will listen to you.

 

[Peggy]

I just finished this novel. For fiction, it was o-kay. The thing I found most disturbing was when they were at Teabing's house talking about the Holy Grail. They were refering to Da Vinici's painting of The Last Supper as if it were a polaroid of the actual event, not the interpertation of a "flamboyant homosexual" (not my words...out of the book) with a dislike of the church. I am saddened to know that people looked on this as the "truth".

 

[Morrissey]

The "facts" it listed were interesting, although I can't verify their authenticity or anything like that. The storyline itself was terrible though. One of the most unrealistic books I've ever read in that sense.

 

[phunkyflamingo]

Hi...I was hoping you could help me.....

I know there are a lot of books banned by various churches....is this one one of them? I've looked everywhere for lists and I can't find any banned books. I haven't had a chance to read this book yet, but I know it's pretty controversial, so I'm curious to know if it was banned or not.

If any of you happen to know about this book being banned by any church, whether it be Cathloic or Protistent (sp) it would help me a lot, being I have know clue where to find a list of banned books by the church.
Thanks.

 

[Ceris]

I found the book enjoyable as a 'Conspiracy Theory Fiction Novel'. And as one person mentioned out, Bruce Almighty was a wonderful movie. I especially liked it because it shows God as having a sense of humor, something that I think a lot of people forget.

 

[Morrissey]

I found the book enjoyable as a 'Conspiracy Theory Fiction Novel'. And as one person mentioned out, Bruce Almighty was a wonderful movie. I especially liked it because it shows God as having a sense of humor, something that I think a lot of people forget.

I agree. "Bruce Almighty" was a great movie. I think Morgan Freeman was the perfect person to play God too.

 

[koppee1]

hmm, i'm reading this book right now....i read the book Angels and Demons and I thought it was awesome....and I actually went out and bought two more of Dan Brown's books. And yes, the books do seem to convey that they are from facts (true or not)....so I do worry about people who end up believing it. ;o

I did read something about catholics and their beliefs in the first page of this thread. As you know, the Philippines is predominantly catholic and I was a Catholic before, and even went to a private catholic school. We were indeed taught that good works would lead us into heaven. We were even given an illustration of a staircase. Every good thing you do brings you up one step closer to heaven. But a sin brings you down the whole way (i think). We were taught we needed to confess our sins to a priest, we were taught that we needed to pray to saints etc. Catholics in the Philppines bow down to images, kiss them, pray to them, etc. My grandmother is still catholic so she has all these images of Mary and Sto. Nino in the house. So if you claim that your catholic belief says that only Jesus can lead you to heaven, then there's probably more than one version of roman catholicism around then? Unless you aren't a ROMAN catholic?

You know what the funny thing is about Roman Catholics teachings (here in the Philippines)? You can easily refute them by simply having a Bible and the Roman Catholic beliefs. There was a book I found in a bookstore which was even endorsed by the pope. It even quoted him saying "a must read for all catholics". It was a book about all the teachings and beliefs of the catholic church. My ex girlfriend was a catholic, I bought that book, used her bible, and showed her all the wrong things I could find. She kept defending her belief but in the end, she cried. She said she couldn't believe that the catholic church would teach something so wrong. Anyways, I might be starting a debate here. And I'm certainly out of topic

 

[secretdawn]

I haven't read the book, however I have read many reviews. I am looking forward to reading it, as it sounds quite an interesting read. I can't believe all the fuss over it. If you think it is fiction, well then read it as such. If your faith is so fragile that you dare not read anything that challenges it, my question is what is your faith based on? No one is asking anyone to believe anything against their will. This is the 21st century, I like to think that we have progressed past "book-burning".


Bless ya
Col <><

It's not about thinking it's fiction...it is fiction, it's a mystery novel, found in the fiction section, the "facts" are unproven for the most part, and theories at most, but he is a BAD writer, with no skill who is using a controversy to sell a book, with out it, no one would have read it. I was soooo mad when i finished it, not about what they said about Catholics or Christ or any of that, cause it's all speculation and I knew that, and am open minded enough to really think on those theories, that didn't bother me.

What bothered me is the hype...this is why i avoid books w/ controversy...cause that's all there was, is controversy, but the characters were flat, and underdeveloped, the story moved irregularly, there were things that seemed ridiculous in it, and his general style was choppy (i know that could be on purpose, but i think words should flow). Over all it really was a boring story hiding behind a bunch of stuff he knew would rile America up...