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Apocalypse Soon => Religions, Cults & Sects => Topic started by: Phantom X on May 14, 2006, 01:05:34 PM

Title: The Da Vinci Code: Should It Be Verified As Fiction?
Post by: Phantom X on May 14, 2006, 01:05:34 PM
A lot of controversy has been brought forward by hardcore christains and catholics about putting a disclaimer in the beginning of the movie about it being fiction. Everyone associated with the movie refuse to do so, so now the christains are witch with a bing. Do you think that the disclaimer should be put in?

Personally, I dont think so. Its a best selling book that has been put under as fiction, so why should the movie emphasize that it is fiction?

Edit: Changed Title
Title: Re: The Da Vinci Code: Should It Be Verified As Fiction?
Post by: Devious Viper on May 16, 2006, 04:43:50 AM
It is a contentious issue, for Christians obviously, but also for academics and theologians, to name but two other groups who are a little miffed by the book.

Let's get this straight - I enjoyed the book; it was a cheesey whodunnit but it had a new take on the average pulp detective thriller and it was well-paced.  The problem here is about the claims in the very first pages of this book.  Prior to the prologue, the book makes a claim of fact.  Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code claims these facts -

* The Priory of Sion was a secret organization founded in 1099 whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and Leonardo da Vinci. This is based on discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets found in 1975 at Paris’s Bibliotheque National.
* The Opus Dei is a devout Catholic sect who recently completed construction of their $47 million dollar headquarters on 243 Lexington Avenue. New York City.
* All descriptions of secret rituals, artwork, architecture and documents are real.
 
Dan Brown was interviewed by Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show, who asked, “How much of this is based on reality in terms of things that actually occurred?” Brown responded, “Absolutely all of it. Obviously Robert Langdon is fictional, but all of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies—all of that is historical fact

The Book is presented as a novel; therefore, Brown is not required to add footnotes to back up his claims. The “Fact” statement allows the reader to assume the “Facts” in the book are true except for the fictional story line. The reader then gives consent to these “Facts” allowing false claims about history, Jesus and Christianity to be woven into the story.

These are presented as facts - they are ERRORS...

Error: The book claims there are 666 panes of glass on the pyramid outside the Louvre.  The Museum says there are 673.   

Error: The book claims the Olympics were held for Venus in 8-year cycles but they were actually held for Zeus in 4-year cycles.   

Error: Mona Lisa is an androgynous portrait representing the fusing of male and Female. However, Mona Lisa is a young Florentine woman who in 1495 married the well-known figure, Francesco del Giocondo, and thus came to be known as "La Gioconda".  This is confirmed by the discovery of documentation in Florence, Italy archives.  She had five children and two became nuns. 

Error: Sir Isaac Newton was a secret “Goddess Worshipper”.  Yet it is well known that he was a devout Christian …who wrote a commentary on the book of Daniel and Revelation and calculated the physical return of Christ between the years 2000 and 2050

Error:  The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s and included the Gospels.  History clearly show that these scrolls were found in 1948 and there were no Gospels found there.

Error: The Gnostic Gospel, The Gospel of Philip was not written in Aramaic as the  Da Vinci Code implies but in Coptic, translated from Greek.

I could go on. There are many more. In posts elsewhere I've gone to great lengths about the untruths Brown has peddled about the gospels and Christianity. The point is, Brown has called all this down upon himself by his outrageous and untruthful "Fact" disclaimer at the opening of the novel.

Yes - there SHOULD be a disclaimer in the movies' opening credits. Or just a large screen saying, "Dan Brown obviously knows nothing about history, art history, Christianity or theology. And he is a poor researcher."

Hot off the press! THREE Da Vinci Code movie reviews at:
http://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?topic=2690.msg20229#msg20229


See also these monstrous posts:
http://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?topic=2679.new#new
http://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?topic=2635.0
http://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?topic=1987.0

EDITS: Links

 
Title: Re: The Da Vinci Code: Should It Be Verified As Fiction?
Post by: Devious Viper on May 18, 2006, 01:58:30 AM
A.N. Wilson's comments about the movie:

"... Roman Catholics, of whom I am not one, are surely entitled to wonder what would have happened to the Empire Cinema [in London's] Leicester Square, where I saw this film, if the figures in the fantasy had been not Jesus and Mary Magdalene but the Prophet Mohammed and his family...I think it would have been a case for the fire brigade...."


"...To accuse the Church, which has done so much to stand up for human dignity and peace, of being no more than a group of gangsters and perverts is to do much more than just to insult one religious denomination. It is yet another symptom of our contempt for our past. Put this side by side with our craven fear of saying Christianity is true and Islamists are in error, and you have more than enough reason not just to boycott The Da Vinci Code - but also to deplore it."

Complete article at http://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?topic=2690.msg20229#msg20229

See all of our Da Vinci Code threads in Cults & Sects http://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?board=31.0
Title: Re: The Da Vinci Code: Should It Be Verified As Fiction?
Post by: omnipotentoculus on May 18, 2006, 03:22:51 PM
BOOM.

DV merely drives home the reason I don't like Dan Brown. I read Angels and Demons and thought it was fun to read, but pretty hollow. What was interesting to me is that  before the Da Vinci code came out, I started reading the book that Brown lifted most of his storyline from, a famous novel in the conspiracy theory circuit known as Holy Blood, Holy Grail that pretty much outlines the "Jesus married Mary Magdaline, blah blah blah" plot. The book, for anyone who has a relatively solid grasp of history and scriptual interpretation, is very very well written and defended, but takes liberties in key areas. Its most important assumptions are its most poorly defended.

People are flipping out because of Dan Brown's misleading preface that says "this book is based on facts" when, really, it contains a few facts surrounded by fiction. The movie, which has been lambasted by reviewers, shows how crappy the books really are.

Americans are starving for decent literature, and since all "high" lit is being written by self-righteous blowhards who think that multi-narrator, stream of consciousness, existential, postmodern drivel with no plot, the populous is forced to turn to this awful flash in the pan shock literature. Dan Brown is filling a void, but, like Chinese food, leaves us hungry again almost immediately after consuming.
Title: Re: The Da Vinci Code: Should It Be Verified As Fiction?
Post by: maggot man on May 19, 2006, 09:00:11 PM
Quote
Dan Brown is filling a void, but, like Chinese food, leaves us hungry again almost immediately after consuming.

Good luck with the food in China.  :wink:

As for Dan Brown, he's well on his way to becoming the Salman Rushdie of Christendom, though that's probably where all similiarity in writing between the two ends.
Title: Re: The Da Vinci Code: Should It Be Verified As Fiction?
Post by: jordyn on May 21, 2006, 09:30:16 PM
our downtown theatre is running it, and we had little old ladies picketing and handing out pamphlets about it's blasphemy, it's been sold out all weekend.