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#msg20229See also these monstrous posts:
http://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?topic=2679.new#newhttp://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?topic=2635.0http://monstrous.com/forum/index.php?topic=1987.0EDITS: Links
