Great site, by the way.

As a Catholic, I get the feeling that I was supposed to feel offended or challenged, but frankly, I never did. I just found the story to be a pretty good read. Not great, but pretty good.

I think I was able to avoid the hysteria largely because I read Dan Brown’s, “Angels and Demons” first, and was aware of the direction he was heading.

I read fiction to be entertained, not informed, and I distance myself from the “facts” accordingly. Take the movie, The Patriot (Mel Gibson), for instance. I loved the movie precisely because it entertained me the entire way. My younger brother, as a student of that era’s history, didn’t care for it because of many historical inaccuracies and liberties taken. Much like The Patriot, though, the DaVinci Code was created to entertain, and consequently make a lot of money. To look at either as a documentary is foolish as accepting any Michael Moore movie as uncontested fact.

Of course, I also fully support the work of those “debunking” the Code, since many were apparently taken in by the fiction. That such an effort is necessary, however, may be the finest endorsement of Dan Brown’s work yet.

Can’t say I really enjoyed it – I thought the plot had some interesting twists and turns, but once I figured out where it was going, the whole “sexual experience (or depravation thereof)as the highest enlightenment” was a big turn-off.

But what really floors me is now many people are reading it as though it’s gospel truth! Just goes to show that many people tend to believe what they want to believe – and don’t so much worry about whether it’s actually true or not (which would, I guess, explain why so many people believe in conspiracy theories).

I have not read either of the two books mentioned, so I can only assume that the link was provided to dispute something specific in the DaVinci book. Most of the history development of the early Christian canon is fairly well documented online. Along with this, one can find a somewhat less well documented history of groups that have been labelled as heretical (there are many). And of course there are the extra-canonical writings and the relatively recent written discoveries as well. I should stop rambling now.
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Now something way off topic. I think we need to keep those people in Russia in our prayers. It sickens me to think of what those Muslims did to those poor children and their families. I pray that God will comfort the grieving, and that Russia will go full-force after the evil people who did this, and punish them greatly.

Just for reference, I was dragged kicking and screaming to see a movie called “Eyes Wide Shut”. You might remember that movie being mentioned in Brown’s book. The same pagan rituals are observed in that movie that Brown talks about in the book. I think it’s wrapped up in the same storyline, too. Secret society, rituals, mystery, blah blah blah. There is nothing Christian about that movie or Brown’s book, IMO. I DO NOT RECOMMEND seeing that movie. It’s porn with an R rating.

Regarding BK’s comment, Very good. They say the “Mona Lisa” is a self portrait of Da Vinci in drag. Sounds about right.

The standard characters are all in place. This is not nearly the first book to place the catholic church in the center of evil conspiracy. The story line of Jesus supposed marriage to Mary Magdalene is not new nor is the goddess worship or the whole theory of early Christians taking pagan symbols and remaking them as Christian symbols. What is new is that the novel is so widely read and believed. We may be heading into a new dark age if there are so many people so willing to believe a novel can be used to proclaim the ultimate truth.

Ah, well, there are none so blind as those who only see what they want. The ones who are so anxious to believe this don’t want to have to deal with the reality of Jesus.

I felt strongly that I needed to pray for discernment when I read this. I almost decided not to read it at all, but I do feel that it is important for Christians to be able to discuss The Da Vinci Code and be able to refute the claims calmly and knowledeably. So, I finally got it from the library.

Thank you for what you do and God bless.