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NEW: Book/Movie Review of Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" ; http://gordonwatts.com/DaVinci.html ; http://hometown.aol.com/gww1210/myhomepage/DaVinci.html ; http://www.geocities.com/gordon_watts32313/DaVinci.html
The DaVinci Code is set to open in theatres nationwide Friday, 19 May 2006. (Film based on Dan Brown's book by the same name.)
** Register editor-in-chief, Gordon Watts gives a review of Dan Brown’s book, “The DaVinci Code.” **
LAKELAND, FL (The Register) Friday, 19 May 2006 -- Reviewer, Watts, has read the entire 489-pages paperback edition published by Anchor Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., New York. (The 454-page edition, published by Doubleday , however, is generally cited in other book reviews. Citations below shall be from the 454-page edition.) The book was “very interesting” according to Watts, who claimed it was “well-written, by a seasoned pro, whether or not it is actually based on fact.” While Watts says the book is “more fiction than fact,” he concurred with other reviewers in the assessment of this fast-paced thriller and says he enjoyed the story and felt he got his money’s worth -and recommends everyone get a copy to enjoy -and to challenge critical thinking and analysis skills.
As yet, however, Watts has not seen the movie based on the book (starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, and Paul Bettany; Directed by Ron Howard and Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman), and it is said that the movie is generally faithful to the book in similarities. (However, please note that Audrey Tautou is not a tall redhead, as her character is depicted in the book, but instead, a brunette of average height: This hints at other deviations from the book.)
The book (and movie) are generating loads of controversy because author, Dan Brown makes claims that this fiction book, which takes swipes at the Bible as we know it, is actually based on fact:
“All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” Source: Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code (ISBN: 1-4000-7917-9; New York: Anchor Books, 2003), the “FACT” page between Acknowledgements and Prologue; Last Paragraph. Also, Brown, when questioned by Borders, responded as follows:
“How would you describe The Da Vinci Code to someone who hasn't read any of your previous novels?
Dan Brown:…One of the many qualities that make The Da Vinci Code unique is the factual nature of the story. All the history, artwork, ancient documents, and secret rituals in the novel are accurate, as are the hidden codes revealed in some of da Vinci's most famous paintings.” (Source: http://bordersstores.com/features/feature.jsp?file=browndan)
Is, however, The DaVinci Code factual? Watts looks at three standards (which may have been pioneered by American philosopher, James Rachels) to evaluate this claim:
1) Does the DaVinci Code agree with known fact?
2) Does the DaVinci Code agree with itself? (Is it “self” consistent?)
3) Does the DaVinci Code agree with gut feeling? (Intuition’s inner voice alone is not enough, but, taken together with #’s 1 and 2 above, gives a “big picture.”)
TEST #1: Does the DaVinci Code agree with known fact?
The DVC says the church were misogynic women-haters:
CLAIM: The DaVinci Code’s claims that “powerful men in the early church ‘conned’ the world by propagating lies that devalued the female and tipped the scales in favor of the masculine [and waged] a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine…” Source: Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code (ISBN: 0-385-50420-0; New York: Anchor Books, 2003), page 124 of the 454-page edition. Brown also claims that “The power of the female…posed a threat to the rise of the predominately male church, and so the sacred feminine was demonized and called unclean [by] a church that had subjugated women…and forbidden the pagan reverence for the sacred feminine.” (Source: Brown, The DVC, pages 238-239)
FACT: The “early church” as we know it (Peter, Paul, Jesus, etc.) did *not* devalue women: For example, while women normally were not allowed to be a witness in court or participate in religious functions in that era, we have Mary Magdalene being one of the first people to tell the disciples of the risen Jesus (John chapter 20) -and we have numerous cases of women participating in Jesus’ ministry and the ministries of Peter and Paul. Furthermore, Paul the Apostle *clearly* tells his readers that both the husband *and* the wife are to be treated with love and respect. (1st Corinthians 7:3-4) Peter tells his readers in Acts 2:17 that both our sons *and* our daughters shall prophecy. Lastly, if we are to understand the “early church” to mean the early Christian leaders who put together the Bible, then we see that they did *not* edit out Old Testament sections of the Bible mentioning Deborah the Prophetess (Judges, chapter 4 & 5), or the Joel 2:28 passage, quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17 above, mentioning both sons *and* (female) daughters. Proverbs, chapter 31, is certainly *NOT* a Bible of a “women-hating” church. Of course, both Ruth and Esther have books named after them. That should erase any doubt at the absurdness of Dan Brown’s claims above. (After history showed us that “professional pundits” and “experts” got it wrong in claims that Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” would incite Jews to anger, perhaps we should “think twice” before believing “experts” a second time, when they speak of Dan Brown’s book as historical “fact.” Will we ever learn?)
TEST #2: Does the DaVinci Code agree with itself?
The DVC first claims that the church demonized the pagan symbols, but then later claims that the church adopted those pagan symbols as their own. Which is it, Dan Brown?
** FIRST CLAIM: Dan Brown‘s character, Robert Langdon states: “As part of the Vatican’s campaign to eradicate the pagan religions and convert the masses to Christianity, the Church launched a smear campaign against the pagan gods and goddesses, recasting their divine symbols as evil…Poseidon’s trident became the devil’s pitchfork, the wise crone’s pointed hat became the devil’s pitchfork, and Venus’s pentacle became a sign of the devil.” (Brown, The DVC, page37)
** SECOND CLAIM: Brown’s character Langdon also claims that: “virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual - the miter, the alter, the doxology, and communion, the act of ‘God-eating’ - were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions.” (Brown, The DVC, page 232)
** CONCLUSION: Dan Brown is delusional if he thinks that we should accept him making sense here: Which is it, Mr. Brown: Did the Church trash and demonize the pagan symbols, or, instead, did they merely steal them for all of their rituals? ** The DaVinci Code does not even agree with itself. **
TEST #3: Does the DaVinci Code agree with gut feeling?
The DVC says that almost 400 years after Jesus’ death, an emperor ordered a recall of the current Bibles circulating.
CLAIM: The DaVinci Code states as follows: “Because Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four centuries after Jesus’ death, thousands of documents already existed chronicled His life as a mortal man. To rewrite the history books…Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.” (Brown, The DVC, page 234)
REALITY CHECK: After four centuries? Constantine was somehow able to do a recall of HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of Bibles which were circulating after about 400 YEARS --all around the known world? What do you think he was? God? Earth calling Dan Brown: This is impossible!
FURTHERMORE: This emperor “financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits?” Is Dan Brown also illiterate and unable to read? Even a grade school kid knows that the New Testament gospels speak clearly of Jesus’ human traits: Jesus was happy to spread good cheer and blessings (Matt. 14:27; also Matt. 25:34), Jesus was sad (John 11:33-36), Jesus was angry (Mark 11:15-17; also Matt: 25:41), as well as hungry (Matt. 4:2; Luke 4:2), and also physical fatigued at times (Luke 8:23). Let’s not forget Jesus also experienced the “human traits” of pain and death on the cross -much pain, I might add. (Lastly, what about Isaiah, chapter 53, which describes a *very human* Christ Jesus? Obviously, Constantine did not recall this book either.) ** Dan Brown’s claim above is obviously *not* factual, for either New Testament or Old Testament. **
If Dan Brown fails and flunks these simple tests, can he really be trusted with heavy claims of conspiracy regarding the Bible? Jesus married? No credible evidence has come to light, and the Bible is arguably the most studied book in history. After all of Dan Brown’s blunders so far, we can not trust him against a solid record, as is the Bible. However, Dan Brown’s book, claimed to be factual by its author, makes further claims.
CLAIM: “Historians [could not] confirm the authenticity of the Bible [because] History is always written by the winners.” (Brown, The DVC, page 256)
REALITY CHECK: Many of the Heroes of our Bible were *certainly* not “winners”: The nation of Israel, God’s chosen people constantly fell from grace and “sinned against the Lord” in both the Old and New Testaments; King David, a man after God’s own heart, committed adultery with a married woman and ordered the assassination of her husband -to cover up the affair. (2nd Samuel, chapters 11-12) Both Peter and Paul certainly made a lot of human mistakes, both before *and* after being “saved.” Lastly, Jesus, the “number one” hero of the Bible, was not always a “pretty boy” winner: He endured a lot of pain, and He asks us to follow his own example (John 13:15) and pick up our cross and follow Him (Matt. 10:18; 16:24; Mark 8:31; 10:21; Luke 9:23), and even do greater works than He did Himself (John 14:12)!
CLAIM: Brown claims that “the predominately male Church…demonized and called [the sacred feminine] unclean…[and] created the concept of ‘original sin,’ whereby Eve tasted the apple and caused the downfall of the human race. Woman, once the sacred giver of life, was now the enemy.” (Brown, The DVC, page238)
FACT: The “Church” as he calls it, sanctioned the Bible as we know it, including the part where it says that both Lucifer and Adam played a part in the fall of man -not just Eve. (Genesis, chapter 3; 1st Corinthians 15:21-22, 45; Romans 5:14; Acts 26:18)
CONCLUSION: Dan Brown is again wrong in his claim that the Church demonized women. The church laid the blame on *all* mankind (man and woman) for sin, and demanded both man and woman be treated with love and respect. Dan Brown is on a witch hunt, and he’s fishing, but he won’t catch anything.
CLAIM: “The earlier [Gnostic] gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.” (Brown, The DVC, page 234)
FACT: Evidence is strong that most scholars, both Christian and non-Christian date the Gnostic gospels to around A.D. 250-350, and the Greek originals on which the Coptic translations were based to around the 100’s or 200’s.
BOTTOM LINE: Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code” mixes fact with fiction and is a very interesting read.
Bibliography:
* Richard Abanes, “The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code (paperback)” (ISBN: 0-7369-1439-0; Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2004)
* Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, “Holy Blood, Holy Grail (paperback)” (ISBN: 0-440-13648-2; New York: Dell Publishing, 1983)
* Dan Brown, “The DaVinci Code (paperback)” (ISBN: 1-4000-7917-9; New York: Anchor Books, 2003) 289 pages
* Dan Brown, “The DaVinci Code (hardback)” (ISBN: 0-385-50420-9; New York: Doubleday, 2003) 254 pages
* James L. Garlow, Ph.D., Peter Jones, Ph.D., “Cracking Da Vinci’s Code (Abridged, paperback)” (ISBN: 0781443563; Colorado, Paris, Ontario: Cook Communications Ministries; Eastbourne, England: Kingsway Communications, LTD, 2005)
USELESS TRIVIA: Michael Baigent’s last name is an anagram of Leigh Teabing’s last name, and Richard Leigh’s last name is Leigh Teabing’s first name. Coincidence? (Hint: The novel is based on cryptic puzzles involving letters, anagrams, symbols, and hidden messages.)
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"First, they [Nazis] came for the Jews. I was silent. I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists. I was silent. I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists. I was silent. I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak for me." (Martin Niemoller, given credit for a quotation in The Harper Religious and Inspirational Quotation Companion, ed. Margaret Pepper (New York: Harper &Row, 1989), 429 -as cited on page 44, note 17, of Religious Cleansing in the American Republic, by Keith A. Fornier, Copyright 1993, by Liberty, Life, and Family Publications.
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