Discrediting faith (Da Vinci)

Rush said that critics are saying that the movie is a bomb. People were laughing during the serious parts. I would love it if this movie tanked because it is just plain boring.

And so is Dan Brown. I think the only reason the DaVinci code has sold so well is because it's demonically inspired (or someone is doctoring the sales figures) because Dan Brown is not a good author. Take it from someone who reads a lot - he's not all that as a writer. I've never read the DaVinci Code, but I have read Deception Point and I tried to read Angels and Demons. Deception point was OK, but nothing to shout about. Angels and Demons was so bad that I read 1/3 of it and stopped. To give you an idea of how bad that is, in 18 years there have only been five, exactly five books that were so bad that I didn't finish them. Dan Brown's Angels and Demons was one of them. I don't expect the DaVinci Code is any better.

The thing is, sadly the absurd lie that traditional Christian doctrine, both Orthodox and Latin (and for that matter Coptic and Assyrian, too) was a creation of a still-pagan Emperor Constantine has had great currency for decades in some protestant circles (notably the ones who loudly call themselves 'Biblical Christians').

I've often said, when it comes to Church history, the sequent to "Those who cannot remember the past" isn't "are condemned to repeat it," but "are condemned to make it up."

Brown isn't breaking new ground on the making up Church history front with his Constantinian lies. On the other hand, he does seem to have achieved a breakthrough for the Evil One by giving more popular currency to the gnostic lies concerning Christ and St. Mary Magdalene (who, incidentally, despite St. Gregory the Dialogist's confusion, was not the repentent prostitute who first anointed Christ's feet with ointment, but rather, a life-long virgin from whom He cast out seven demons) than those particular fabrications have ever had before.

Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind weren't bad.

Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind weren't bad.

I'll agree with you on Apollo 13, but what really bugged me about "A Beautiful Mind" was that it totally lied about the premise of John Nash's Nobel-winning thesis. Suddenly, in the hands of Director Opie, game theory shows how the most optimal result can be found by cooperation, not competition.

A Hollywood socialist twisting the truth to make the idea of competition look bad? As the Church Lady used to say, "How Conveeeenient!"

I am sure that it will open to pretty fair revenues, but that they will go down very fast afterwards. The reviews will be on the Internet shortly after viewing and I suspect they will compare favorably with Battleground Earthy.

This movie will be the MOAB of the hazy, lazy days of summer.

After all, would you go to a movie whose main freature is word games if you knew all the answers?

"Wheel of Fortune" with car chases.

For those interested in a factual look at the early Christian church, read "The History of the Church" by Eusibius about 325 A.D. or so. It is fairly well written and the translations are excellent.

Another great book about very early Church history is "James, the brother of Jesus" by the emminent biblical scholar, Robert Eisenmann.

Somewhat controversial itself, this book posits that James (author of the last Epistle in the Bible) was actually the first leader of the Christian church, from 33AD until his murder in 63AD, an event that directly led to the Jewish revolt of 66AD, the destruction of the Temple and the wiping out of Sacrifical Judaism. What emerged was Rabinical Judaism, a reinvention of scattered Judaism around teachers and scholars, hoping for the day the Temple would be restored and sacrifices conducted again.

Eisenmann's book evokes the Messianic fervor of the times and the general hatred of the Romans. He says that Paul, a Roman citizen, and author of the great Epistles that are the core of Christianity, softened this anti-Roman fervor and pictured the Romans as somewhat benign, while turning Christianity into something especially anti-Jewish.

This anti-Jew, pro-Roman "render to Caesar" tilt helped the early Christian Church survive in the Roman empire for 300 years until it was eventually made the official religion of Rome.

I'd expect the movie to be a bore because the book was a bore! Predictable plot combined with a juvenile style of writing (think high school sophomore trying to imitate Hemmingway). A big I Don't Get It--like Katie Couric--I don't get the popularity of either.

>>Can we classify Dan Brown a false prophet? On top of everything else, it really looks like the end times.<<\

Do false prophets usually label their own work as fiction?

For fiction, Mr. Brown claims it is fact.

From the official web site:

FACT:

The Priory of Sion—a European secret society founded in
1099—is a real organization. In 1975, Paris's Bibliothèque
Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers
Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of
Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo,
and Leonardo da Vinci.

The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout
Catholic group that has been the topic of recent
controversy due to reports of brain-washing, coercion, and
a practice known as "corporal mortification." Opus Dei has
just completed construction of a $47 million National
Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City.

All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and
secret rituals in this novel are accurate.

PROLOGUE http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/excerpt.html>

>>
The Priory of Sion—a European secret society founded in
1099—is a real organization. In 1975, Paris's Bibliothèque
Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers
Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of
Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo,
and Leonardo da Vinci.

The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout
Catholic group that has been the topic of recent
controversy due to reports of brain-washing, coercion, and
a practice known as "corporal mortification." Opus Dei has
just completed construction of a $47 million National
Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City.

All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and
secret rituals in this novel are accurate.<<

I took that to mean to mean a fictional story set against a real background -not unlike a Tom Clancy novel where he uses his knowledge of how military terms and equipment to make the books feel real.

Do you know if there are major discrepancies in the background he claims is accurate?

"Do you know if there are major discrepancies in the background he claims is accurate?"

I would be here all night!

From CBS(of all places!)as being based upon a fraud.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/27/60minutes/main1552009.shtml

Brown makes the following assertion regarding this
organization on page one of The Da Vinci Code: "The Priory
of Sion—a European secret society founded in 1099—is a
real organization. In 1975 Paris's Bibliotheque Nationale
discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets,
identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion,
including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and
Leonardo da Vinci." The question is: Are these parchments
reliable?

As a backdrop to answering this question, allow me to
point out that Brown obtained much of his information on
the Priory of Sion from a book entitled Holy Blood, Holy
Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry
Lincoln. In this book we find a dependency on the above–
mentioned parchments which allegedly prove that Jesus
married Mary Magdalene, had a baby named Sarah, and,
following Jesus' death on the cross, Mary relocated to a
Jewish community in France. Their descendents were French
allegedly royalty.

Now, here is the big problem with all this. These
parchments are completely bogus. Historically, in 1953, a
Frenchman named Pierre Plantard spent time in jail for
fraud. In 1954 he founded a small social club named the
Priory of Sion. The purpose of the club was to call for
low–income housing in France. The organization dissolved
in 1957, but Plantard held on to the name. Throughout the
1960s and 1970s, Plantard put together a number of bogus
documents which "proved" the Jesus–Mary Magdalene theory,
with French royalty being their descendants. Plantard
claimed that he himself was one of the descendents of this
couple.

Some time later, a friend of the French president found
himself in legal trouble and Plantard ended up being
called to testify in the case. While under oath, the judge
asked him about these documents about Jesus and Mary
Magdalene, and he admitted he made the whole thing up. An
associate of Plantard's also conceded that Plantard made
the whole thing up. All this has been thoroughly
documented by several French books and a BBC special.

The Da Vinci Code the Priory of Sion—and the accompanying
Jesus–Mary Magdalene theory—is based on bogus information
with a capital "B." Hence, Dan Brown's claim that his book
is based on historical secret societies is flat wrong.

Plantard later rejected these claims during the late 1980s
when he revised the mythological pedigree of the Priory of
Sion, claiming it had nothing to do with the Knights
Templar, that the "Dossiers Secrets" was written under the
influence of LSD, and that the Priory of Sion had in fact
been founded in 1681 at Rennes-le-Château by the
grandfather of Marie de Negri d'Ables. This revised
version of the Priory of Sion had been influenced by the
opening of the "Sauniere Museum" in Rennes-le-Chateau in
May 1989.

In September, 1993, Plantard claimed that Roger-Patrice
Pelat had once been grandmaster of the Priory of Sion.
Pelat was a friend of the then-President of France
François Mitterrand and center of a scandal involving
French Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy. A French court
ordered a search of Plantard's home, turning up many
documents, including some proclaiming Plantard the true
king of France. Under oath, Plantard admitted that he had
fabricated everything, including Pelat's involvement with
the Priory of Sion.[1] Plantard lived in obscurity until his death on 3 February 2000 in Paris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Plantard

Interesting...Thank you. It sounds like he shouldn't have made that claim.