The shocking secret of 'The Da Vinci Code': It stinks

St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | May 21, 2006 | DOMINIC P. PAPATOLA

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The Terminal was a Spielberg flick.

But a Tom Hanks vehicle - I was responding to a post about "Da Vinci" being Hanks' first flop, then wandered off into a comment about Opie's directing ability.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

What's Unix?

Unix

[Froufrou]

This is a forerunner to Microcsoft or something akin to that? See, I was asking you because I am not a techie...baby steps, please...

[ridesthemiles]

Haven't seen the movie-YET. I couldn't put the book down.

Sad if Ron Howard couldn't keep the suspense the book had.

[shield]

LOL...there are plenty of repeats of that series. They're on today. Anyone who wants their kids to watch a cute clean tv show has them watching that series. Kids know who Opie is...today. ;o)

[Caleb1411]

But the 44 million who did buy and read it may feel otherwise. If you look on Brown's website, he lists a few of the numerous reviews of his book. They are from professional reviewers and other well known mystery writers, all showering the book with praise.

To each his own, to be sure. As a representative work in its genre, it may have merit. As to its literary merit, one of FR's favorite pundits, Mark Steyn, is singularly underwhelmed.

[BenLurkin]

The fiction is premised on certain representations of fact -- which are nevertheless quite false.

It is understood that there are many who have not received the good word concerning Christ. We desire that they shall come to a personal acceptance of Christ as God and savior.

It is deplorable that so many souls are being led away from the light of the world by this cynical canard.

It reminds you an I of our Saviour's admonition against those who would lead children away from God.

[RobbyS]

After the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Edmund Wilson, the literary critic, wrote a book about it. Wilson reflected the hope of his generation that archaelogical and liutereay evidence would be found that would put paid to the whole "myth" of Christianity. What it did. of course, was to make historical Christianity more credible by showing that the "Greek" imagery of the Gospels, especially St. John , was part of Jewish thinking at the time. Of course there was enough new information to hatch any number of hypotheses about Christianity, including the idea that Jesus/John the Baptist were connected the Qumran somehow. They refuse to take Christian writings at face value, with Jesus as a true religious genius (at least) who represented a new element in a very complex Judaism. Goes back to the 18th Century when writers like Voltaire could recognize the signficance of Issac Newton but could not give the same tribute to Jesus.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

This is a forerunner to Microcsoft or something akin to that?

Unix is an operating system - the underlying software which manages the hardware and processes commands by you and by various programs running on your computer. When you bring up Windows, you see a graphic user interface running on top of the Windows XP operating system.

Unix isn't a forerunner to Microsoft DOS or the various Windows versions, but the Unix operating system in various forms has been used on workstations built by Sun, IBM, HP, DEC, and others. If you use Mac OSX these days, you're running Unix.

[ridesthemiles]

I have one problem with the likes of Mark Belling hammering at the DaVinci Code.

He is confusing "belief" with "knowing".

He and many other Christians - all religions, for that matter- BELIEVE what they are being taught about Christ- or whoever.

Those BELIEFS are based on a BIBLE that has been re-written a number of times, and I don't think anyone knows how many times. Some of the Popes that ordered the "revisions" were not litterate themselves, depending entirely on the few members of their court that could read and write. There is also the issue of "translations" from one language to another.

Since NO ONE is alive today who was alive when Jesus walked the Earth, then there is no KNOWLEDGE of what really occured. ONLY fragments of words written sometimes long after Jesus had to be dead and gone, no matter how long he lived. That is why the various books of the Bible I learned from are called "the Gospel according to _______, or are called "the Book of ______.

I am not trying to bash Christians or their beliefs.

I am only trying to point out the difference between KNOWING something and BELIEVING something.

Each is welcome to their belief. Da Vinci Code is a book and a movie- It is not the Gospel according to Dan Brown.

[Froufrou]

Fascinating. You have mail.

[MassExodus]

Readable? You betcha.

Geez, maybe I have a short attention span, but I found the book to be completely unreadable.

[MEGoody]

Those BELIEFS are based on a BIBLE that has been re-written a number of times

There are thousands ancient manuscripts which show the bible is unchanged in substance. (Changes consist of transposing a letter or leaving out 'an'.)

The bible has been TRANSLATED a number of times. 'Rewritten' it hasn't been.

[ridesthemiles]

Threat to a Christian's faith is NOT the problem. The problem is that non-Christians are lapping up the outrageous lies concerning the history of the church and the divinity of Christ.""

I don't get your point.
If someone is NOT Christian, and doesn't believe in Jesus and the Resurrection in the first place, what difference does this book make????

There truly is no PROOF of either position--Resurrection or lived on and did have a few years of life with a female companion.

Early versions of the Bible had many references to reincarnation. A Pope of earlier times had it all re-written and all such references removed, according to some books I have read. Dead Sea Scrolls have other references not included in today's Bible.
This current version of the Bible is just that:
THE CURRENT VERSION!!!!!

[Caleb1411]

Geez, maybe I have a short attention span, but I found the book to be completely unreadable.

See post 86. From all accounts, high-powered detractors and supporters abound.

[ridesthemiles]

I enjoyed the book for the pure entertainment of it. That being said, the movie was flat out bad. It held none of the same entertainment value that the book had (which is always the case).""

Not always:

Seabiscuit was a great book and wonderful movie.....

[Froufrou]

Appreciate your patience. Since I'm Macless, that explains much of the problem...since I'm blond, that explains the rest! ~snorrfle!~

[age about to show] You mentioned DOS...Fortran? I recall that old name for what I think was a dinosaur operating system...my Dell at home just crashed and I wonder what you'd recommend to replace it...

[BenLurkin]

There is substantial evidence of the resurrection in multiple eyewitness accounts.

There is no evidence of Our Lord having had any dalliances with anyone.

A simple weighing of the evidence then requires a finding in favor of the resurrection as between those two cases.

As for your attack is on the credibility of the witnesses; I'm afraid you have already bought into some of the very phony premises regarding the history of the church and the origins of scripture which darken the pages of Da Vinci Code.

That notwithstanding, even if you reject the testimony that is preserved in God's word, the Dan Brown fantasy still has the burden of proof. It does not meet that burden and again as between the two cases the finding must be for the resurrection.

[MACVSOG68]

To each his own, to be sure. As a representative work in its genre, it may have merit. As to its literary merit, one of FR's favorite pundits, Mark Steyn,

First, it's intended to be simply an entertaining mystery, not a work of substantive literary merit. Like just about every thriller and mystery writer today, no one will remember him or his books 50 years from now, unless they google him! Second though, I enjoy Steyn, a good political pundit. But make no mistake, his conservative religious persona creaps into his "review" of this book. He is clearly not an unbiased reviewer.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

You mentioned DOS...Fortran? I recall that old name for what I think was a dinosaur operating system

DOS was an operating system developed by several companies but Microsoft's version dominated the market until Windows was introduced.

Fortran is a computer programming language (which is used to write programs which run on operating systems). It was big with mathematicians and scientists, but since I haven't used it since college, I can't tell you what it's current status is.

...my Dell at home just crashed and I wonder what you'd recommend to replace it...

If you haven't tried the Mac, you might want to check it out. Unless you've invested heavily in programs which run on Windows, the Mac provides more stability, better usability, and a much nicer user experience. The newer Macs will let you boot Windows XP as well if you need it.