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One of the supposed news shows, really just an editorial / entertainment show, is harping on how controversial "The DaVinci Code" is, again. At this point, it's unlikely that anyone doesn't know the "secret" of thing, so I can bitch without killing it for anyone.
Yes, I read the book. Peer pressure, of a sort. People I know who aren't readers had read it and my dad once asked me if it was total bunk or not. ( Actually, he may have said bumf, which is a pretty neat word if you don't know it; look it up. ) My impression:
Not bad. I mean, I read a lot of "speculative fiction", i.e. sci-fi/fantasy, where willful suspension of disbelief is required. The pace is excellent and it's an easy reading page turner. I was most impressed with the long tangential new age dialogs, mostly because they manage to not mess with the momentum the author managed to maintain. A neat trick that the current movie apparently doesn't manage to pull off.
One thing to note, none of the ideas presented in the book are at all original. They all come from a wealth of conspiracy theories, occult teachings, and, hell, maybe the Templars. Curiously, I read another book by Brown and it had pretty much the same plot. I don't think this is a very original guy.
Anyway, the thing that really, really bugged me, and continues to bug me, is the gravity given the "secret"; Jesus had kids and there's a bloodline. Um, ok, proved it. Papers? Really? Some guys at the airport gave me papers that say we're all the reincarnated souls of space aliens, condemned by the Evil Space Overlord Xenu. Oh, your papers are true? The dude in dreads who reeked of patchouli said the same thing...
Consider the Dead Sea scrolls. They were discovered in 1947 and ultimately contained the fragments of at least 800 texts. The church was legitimately concerned. Some of the documents are the earliest copies of known Hebrew texts. Some of the stuff is pretty divergent Apocrypha.
Do you know the heretical secrets of the Dead Sea scrolls? No? Yeah, well, in spite of a lot of initial excitement, no one was much bothered by the stuff. The Church didn't crumble. Interestingly, the same pair who brought you the a primary source for "The DaVinci Code", "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", also published the book, "The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception". The book claims that key texts were hidden, lest they bring down all the church.
The point is, who cares? If you're a devout Christian, the ravings of anti-Chritian kooks is nothing new and always ignored. If you've no love for the Church, you'll see this as just another "fact" that blind followers choose to ignore. Either way, it really doesn't change the world and I have a hard time getting worked up about it.
Yes, I read the book. Peer pressure, of a sort. People I know who aren't readers had read it and my dad once asked me if it was total bunk or not. ( Actually, he may have said bumf, which is a pretty neat word if you don't know it; look it up. ) My impression:
Not bad. I mean, I read a lot of "speculative fiction", i.e. sci-fi/fantasy, where willful suspension of disbelief is required. The pace is excellent and it's an easy reading page turner. I was most impressed with the long tangential new age dialogs, mostly because they manage to not mess with the momentum the author managed to maintain. A neat trick that the current movie apparently doesn't manage to pull off.
One thing to note, none of the ideas presented in the book are at all original. They all come from a wealth of conspiracy theories, occult teachings, and, hell, maybe the Templars. Curiously, I read another book by Brown and it had pretty much the same plot. I don't think this is a very original guy.
Anyway, the thing that really, really bugged me, and continues to bug me, is the gravity given the "secret"; Jesus had kids and there's a bloodline. Um, ok, proved it. Papers? Really? Some guys at the airport gave me papers that say we're all the reincarnated souls of space aliens, condemned by the Evil Space Overlord Xenu. Oh, your papers are true? The dude in dreads who reeked of patchouli said the same thing...
Consider the Dead Sea scrolls. They were discovered in 1947 and ultimately contained the fragments of at least 800 texts. The church was legitimately concerned. Some of the documents are the earliest copies of known Hebrew texts. Some of the stuff is pretty divergent Apocrypha.
Do you know the heretical secrets of the Dead Sea scrolls? No? Yeah, well, in spite of a lot of initial excitement, no one was much bothered by the stuff. The Church didn't crumble. Interestingly, the same pair who brought you the a primary source for "The DaVinci Code", "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", also published the book, "The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception". The book claims that key texts were hidden, lest they bring down all the church.
The point is, who cares? If you're a devout Christian, the ravings of anti-Chritian kooks is nothing new and always ignored. If you've no love for the Church, you'll see this as just another "fact" that blind followers choose to ignore. Either way, it really doesn't change the world and I have a hard time getting worked up about it.
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From:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priory_of_Sion
It all makes for wonderfully imaginitive "what if?" scenarios worthy of novels and the like, but as I myself am a practicing Christian, I have to say that none of it so much as perturbed the surface of my belief. :^D