The Da Vinci Code - what's real and what's not?

[cjchaps]

So, I just finished The Da Vinci Code, and I was wondering what was truthful or factual from it, and what was not. During my searching, I found a few religous sites that didn't like it too much:
Crisis Magazine didn't like it too much.
Christianity Today.com wasn't a big fan either.
Opus Dei is an actual organization(I didn't know this), and here is what they said.

Here is the author's site: Check out the "Facts" section from the site, it's interesting.
http://www.danbrown.com/

Here is Odan's site(anti-Opus Dei)
http://www.odan.org/

Here is a quote from this article.Put succinctly, here are the major problems with The Da Vinci Code:

It attacks the Catholic Church and her beliefs about Jesus Christ, the Bible, and Church authority.
It claims to be completely accurate and based in fact, but it is not.
It rewrites and misrepresents Church and secular history.
It promotes a radical feminist, neo-gnostic agenda.
It propagates a relativistic, indifferent attitude towards truth and religion.

Here is the website for Rosslyn Chapel... seems like a pretty cool place.
Rosslyn Chapel's web site:

I like Dan Brown's version of Christianity better than the "real" thing personally, hehe.

 

[TheGameIs21]

You take any novel and apply the "DaVinci" number code to it, you will find that it isn't just the Bible that does it. I like how the people that push the DaVinci code will say things like "The code says that there is going to be a nuclear incident in Isreal sometime in either 2004, 2008, 2026." Lets get a little more vague.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
You take any novel and apply the "DaVinci" number code to it, you will find that it isn't just the Bible that does it. I like how the people that push the DaVinci code will say things like "The code says that there is going to be a nuclear incident in Isreal sometime in either 2004, 2008, 2026." Lets get a little more vague.

You're talking about the wrong book...you're thinking of the Bible Code.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
You take any novel and apply the "DaVinci" number code to it, you will find that it isn't just the Bible that does it. I like how the people that push the DaVinci code will say things like "The code says that there is going to be a nuclear incident in Isreal sometime in either 2004, 2008, 2026." Lets get a little more vague.

You're talking about the wrong book...you're thinking of the Bible Code.

But thanks for playing

 

[azazyel]

SPOILER@**



Any part in particular you would like to know about? It is hard to say what is true and what isn't in this book. Many of the things in the book are theories. For example, the Knights Templar, there are many, many theories about who they were and what they did. For example, do you remember one of the codes about the head of the templars? Well that is actually a very well know mystery and the answer given in the book is just one theory about the head. The theory I put the most credit in is that they were bowing to the head of John the Babtist but that is just me.

 

[cjchaps]

I can't recall, but the whole Mary Magdeline history thread was interesting, her being married to Jesus and such..

Originally posted by: azazyel
SPOILER@**

Any part in particular you would like to know about? It is hard to say what is true and what isn't in this book. Many of the things in the book are theories. For example, the Knights Templar, there are many, many theories about who they were and what they did. For example, do you remember one of the codes about the head of the templars? Well that is actually a very well know mystery and the answer given in the book is just one theory about the head. The theory I put the most credit in is that they were bowing to the head of John the Babtist but that is just me.

 

[azazyel]

Well, that I don't really buy that too much. But then again I don't really care either way. The argument about Mary Magdalene being Jesus' wife is a VERY OLD one. If you really wanted to research it you could find convincing arguments either way. As with anything religious the problem is that we will never be sure of it. The oldest know bible text relating to Jesus was written over 175 years after his death. That would be like not having anything about the declaration of independence until after WW2.

My favorite part about this in the book is when the girl was a child and her grandpre was being yelled at by the priest.

girl - "Did Jesus have a girlfriend"
grandpa- "Would it be so bad if he did?"
girl- "I wouldn't mind"

Anyways there are much better mysteries in the bible than that one.

 

[Ranger X]

Originally posted by: lirion

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
You take any novel and apply the "DaVinci" number code to it, you will find that it isn't just the Bible that does it. I like how the people that push the DaVinci code will say things like "The code says that there is going to be a nuclear incident in Isreal sometime in either 2004, 2008, 2026." Lets get a little more vague.

You're talking about the wrong book...you're thinking of the Bible Code.

But thanks for playing

LOL. Ouch

 

[Amorphus]

Originally posted by: azazyel
Well, that I don't really buy that too much. But then again I don't really care either way. The argument about Mary Magdalene being Jesus' wife is a VERY OLD one. If you really wanted to research it you could find convincing arguments either way. As with anything religious the problem is that we will never be sure of it. The oldest know bible text relating to Jesus was written over 175 years after his death. That would be like not having anything about the declaration of independence until after WW2.

My favorite part about this in the book is when the girl was a child and her grandpre was being yelled at by the priest.

girl - "Did Jesus have a girlfriend"
grandpa- "Would it be so bad if he did?"
girl- "I wouldn't mind"

Anyways there are much better mysteries in the bible than that one.

The Gospels were written by Jesus' disciples, his inner circle, and the oldest manuscripts of Bible contents are found roughly 25 years after research indicates an original anthology was produced.

btw, for anyone who cares, theologically, Christ did not have an earthly wife, because he already has one - the church (no, not in the physical sense).

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: lirion

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
You take any novel and apply the "DaVinci" number code to it, you will find that it isn't just the Bible that does it. I like how the people that push the DaVinci code will say things like "The code says that there is going to be a nuclear incident in Isreal sometime in either 2004, 2008, 2026." Lets get a little more vague.

You're talking about the wrong book...you're thinking of the Bible Code.

But thanks for playing

Actually, the probability of getting the same results as the Bible Code in any other book was calculated to be approximately p = 0.00000019, or 1 in 5.3 million. So much for taking any novel and finding a secret code...

However, you do bring up an important fact when considering the validity of the Bible in general. The next time you read the Bible, notice the amount of detail, and overall lack of vagueness, that it provides...

 

[azazyel]

The Gospels were written by Jesus' disciples, his inner circle, and the oldest manuscripts of Bible contents are found roughly 25 years after research indicates an original anthology was produced.

btw, for anyone who cares, theologically, Christ did not have an earthly wife, because he already has one - the church (no, not in the physical sense).

I won't debat the the time frame with you but my studies have incidated otherwise. But I must ask you, what language was this 25 year old gospel written in? As for them being written by his deciples, well that is kind of hard to believe. You would think that there wouldn't be too much of varitey in the the gosples if the had been indeed written by the people who knew Jesus. Especially in the language of Jesus, and by this I mean the way he spoke. By comparing the gospel you can clearly see a slant in each gospel in the words that were attributed to Jesus. You would hope that they would have been recorded verbatem but this is clearly not the case.

 

[TheGameIs21]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
You take any novel and apply the "DaVinci" number code to it, you will find that it isn't just the Bible that does it. I like how the people that push the DaVinci code will say things like "The code says that there is going to be a nuclear incident in Isreal sometime in either 2004, 2008, 2026." Lets get a little more vague.

You're talking about the wrong book...you're thinking of the Bible Code.

DOH!! :: scurry scurry scurry scurry ::