Da Vinci Code

ramana · 05-19-2006, 11:59 PM

The movie version of the book Da Vinic Code by Dan Brown is being released this week. As you know over 60 million copies of the book hae been sold. The core of the story is that Jesus was married and had descendents. A storm is raging in the West about secular ethos attacking the Church and shaking the faithful. Unlike the Muslims who rioted about the cartoons, things have been quiet. In India the UPA govt chose the safe path of declaring the film an "A" certificate.
I think the real coverup is not the Jesus descendent's story but his years in India and the influneces on his teachings.

From Pioneer, 19 May 2006

QUOTEHistory, heresy, conspiracy

Ashok MalikÂ

In 1804, two centuries before Dan Brown found his way to bestseller lists, the mystic and poet William Blake scripted his literary tour de force, Jerusalem. To this day, Blake's epic anthem moves, inspires and reduces to tears those who read, repeat or chant it. Its opening stanzas are among the most memorable in the English language:

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England's mountains green?

And was the holy Lamb of God

On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here

Among these dark Satanic mills?

A deep, philosophical man, Blake was making multiple allusions. At one level, he was disturbed by the creeping Industrial Age and the changes smoke-filled chimneys were inflicting upon his pristine English countryside ("... these dark Satanic mills").

Yet the principal character being addressed was Christ. Had the "feet" of the "Lamb of God" walked "upon England's mountains green"? Blake, like many contemporaries, cherished the belief that Jesus had visited England, embracing one of competing legends prevalent at the time.
One tradition held that Christ had come to England in his early youth -when he was "training" for his calling -and had been taught by ancient druids. Another view was that he had somehow escaped the Crucifixion.

Such sentiments and such stories are not unique to William Blake and England. In the late 19th century a Russian writer, Nicolas Notovitch, wrote a book apparently based on old Buddhist texts, arguing Jesus had spent part of the period between age 14 and 30 - when he was away from home - in India, as an apprentice under not Celtic druids but Buddhist monks. Others have added to the theory, pointing to evidence that insists Jesus the boy visited Puri and Varanasi.

The most famous India-centric Jesus story has him surviving the Crucifixion and moving to Kashmir, where the Takht-e-Sulaiman - Seat of Solomon, now the Shankaracharya Hill - is said to derive its name from his presence.

A tomb in Srinagar's Rozabad has long been held to be the final resting place of a religious figure, one Yuz Asaf; was he Jesus? Another grave in Murree - in Pakistani Punjab - is supposed to be that of Mary, the mother of Christ. Murree, the idea goes, is a corruption of her name. The choice of Kashmir as a refuge is itself explained by the tradition that it was settled by the Kush (Kassite) people, one of the "lost tribes" of Israel.

How much of all this is true? Perhaps very little; obviously, Christ couldn't have been both in England and India at the same time! Yet as the silly controversy over The Da Vinci Code thankfully ends, it would be sensible to accept that alternative histories of Christ have been around for centuries.

Beyond fascinating trivia and conspiracy theories, there is a larger point. Dan Brown's book is, of course, fiction - but what if it weren't? Would protests by church groups then have been justified? Is religion - and this is not true of merely Christianity - to be sequestered from history, never have its historicity put to scrutiny? Does that in any way take away from the importance of faith or of The Faith?

These are important issues to ponder because India is a profoundly religious country with an extremely shallow intellectual approach to the study of religion. "Religious studies" is not merely a course on rites and rituals and how they came about. It involves philosophy, archaeology, history, sociology, perhaps even anthropology. In the narrow and antiseptic confines of "secularism" - as India's state-directed intelligentsia defines it - this is often not appreciated. This does not become enlightened societies.

Return to The Da Vinci Code. The charge against the book and the film is that it contradicts the "received history" of Christianity. As the deputy secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India put it, "It (The Da Vinci Code) must begin and end with a bold and lingering disclaimer stating that it's a work of fiction and does not reflect historical views and facts."

Compelling questions flow from this. What are "historical views"? Whose historical views? Who wrote Christianity's history - or for that matter Islam's or Hinduism's? If Christ survived the Crucifixion and was, as many believe, not the Son of God but a great mortal, does that detract from his life, his teachings, the wonder of the religious movement he founded?

The more devout Christians are not alone in treating history as heresy. An honest appraisal of the Prophet and his life and times, one that treats him as human, is not going to go unchallenged either. It never has.

One of the most famous cases of blasphemy in India was that of Sarmad Shaheed (Sarmad the Martyr), an Armenian Jew who converted to Islam, was drawn to mysticism and befriended Dara Shikoh. Asked to recite the kalmah - "There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his Prophet", Sarmad stopped at, "There is no God." Aurangzeb executed him.

Of the major faiths, only Judaism and Hinduism approach history with a relative open-mindedness. For the Jews, religion and history are a continuum. Abraham and David are ancestors of Christ and near-divinity, but they are also historical characters, as real, as flesh and blood as David Ben-Gurion and Ariel Sharon. The Old Testament is a people's old history.

Hindus face a unique problem: The history in their faith is challenged not by believers but by their "progressive" critics. As an example, consider the average Hindu's attitude to the Puranas. Yes, there is apocryphal legend and exaggeration; nevertheless, there is a determined acceptance that below this is a kernel of history. 

Ram and Krishna are gods to be worshipped but - with the breathtaking capacity to reconcile dualism - Hindus simultaneously accept them as human, with human wants, human desires, and even human frailties.

Indeed, born of a singular self-assurance, Hinduism would welcome a scientific or rigorous scholarly investigation into its past, almost as much as organised Islam would repel it. As for Christianity, as the Dan Brown episode reveals, the danger is from the new Pharisees - those who think they "own" Jesus and have an exclusive, perhaps jealous copyright on his biography.

ramana · 05-20-2006, 12:01 AM

Another from Pioneer, 19 May 2006
QUOTEIt's neither about faith nor fact, but bigotry

Kanchan Gupta |

At his wickedly cynical best, Boris Johnson, in his article 'Dan Brown has resurrected a heresy that rattles the Church' published in The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, has ravaged those in the clergy and laity who have been campaigning for a ban on Ron Howard's cinematic rendition of The Da Vinci Code. Since tolerance levels are rather low out here, it would be impolitic to quote Johnson's scathing criticism.Â

But since statistics are indisputable and value neutral, let me fetch you an interesting detail provided by Johnson. "According to astonishing statistics from the Roman Catholic Church, 22 per cent of British adults have now read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown," he says, "and of those an amazing 60 per cent believe that, yeah, it is probably the case that Jesus indeed got married to Mary Magdalene and sired a line of descendants."

We don't have matching statistics for India. But it's a safe guess that thousands have read Dan Brown's bestseller - it was top-of-the-list for years in cities across the country - and are aware of the plot of the page-turner. It's anybody's guess as to how many of them are actually convinced that perhaps there's a germ of truth in what the author says with such great conviction.

Dan Brown has made tons of money from The Da Vinci Code, as have others who have written tomes to explain the mystery of the code and the amazing linkage between the mathematical logic of phi and the Fibonacci numbers and nature's creation around us. For nearly four years, it's been a successful industry spawned by the success of The Da Vinci Code.

The theologians' response has been predictable. After all, men and women of god are not expected to accord precedence to fact over faith. If that were to happen, faith would cease to exist. This, in a sense, has been the logic of the Vatican's reaction, first to the book and then the film - it has appealed to the faithful to abjure such literature and cinema that questions the very essence of Christianity.

It's happened before, too. Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ may have excited intelligentsia across the world, but was frowned upon by the Church. Martin Scorsese's eponymous film failed to cover costs at the box office.

On the other hand, Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ was a major grosser, largely because the Church endorsed the film and distributors timed its release with Lent. It was faith re-enacted on the big screen, never mind the appaling violence that was portrayed. For a good cause, all is fair.

There is, however, a common thread that binds The Passion of The Christ and the two films that question conventional faith: All three bestow Jesus of Nazareth with human qualities, making him more reachable than any abstract idea of god in heaven; they are about a Man who walked the rugged landscape of West Asia two millennia ago, preaching reform and tolerance, fully aware of the frailties from which humankind suffers.

Tragically, those who oppose The Da Vinci Code's screening believe in neither reform nor tolerance. Bigotry, for them, is the bedrock of their faith.

05-20-2006, 12:15 AM

QUOTEI think the real coverup is not the Jesus descendent's story but his years in India and the influneces on his teachings.


He was influneced by traders who introduced teaching of Hindusim in west.

Jesus was not well travelled man.

Greek version of bible is different from current version, every translation is based on individual and it had changed with time. No single version is identitical. Jesus suddenly came into light after 200+ years.

ramana · 05-20-2006, 12:18 AM

QUOTEDan Brown has resurrected a heresy that rattles the Church
By Boris Johnson
(Filed: 18/05/2006)

In pictures: The Da Vinci Code premiere

Jesus had a baby, yes Lord. Jesus had a baby, yes my Lord. It sounds pretty blasphemous, put like that, doesn't it? The only reason I dare to begin with those words is that they represent the beliefs of growing millions of otherwise sane British adults. Yup, folks, we all seem to be swallowing the new gospel. You on the Tube, madam, turning the pages with such narcosis that you miss your stop: you believe it, don't you?

You, sir, sneaking your dog-eared copy off to the loo for a quick fix - you think there's probably something in it, too, hmmm? According to astonishing statistics from the Roman Catholic Church, 22 per cent of British adults have now read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, and of those an amazing 60 per cent believe that, yeah, it is probably the case that Jesus indeed got married to Mary Magdalene and sired a line of descendants.

By my maths, that means that there are at least six or seven million people in this country who now believe that it's true: that for two millennia the Roman Catholic Church has been engaged in a desperate struggle to conceal the existence of the Christ family, and that they are probably all over the place: behind the fish counter at Sainsbury's; creating loaves for Hovis; causing people to rise from their beds in hospital.

They could be anywhere. They could be reading this paper. They could (gulp) be you. There is something in the logic of Dan Brown's book that has convinced millions that they have really uncovered the biggest, the spookiest, the most chilling conspiracy in history.

Never mind the autoflagellant cowled assassins and the idiotic anagrams. This story has clearly touched something in the popular psyche, and if you need any evidence, look at the global panic that book and film seem to have induced in the Roman Catholic Church.

In the Vatican, the papal portavoce has described this pot-boiler as "shameful and unfounded lies". In India, no fewer than 200 Christian organisations have succeeded in having the film blocked from release, and even here in placid little Britain the officials of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, have called for it to carry a "health warning".

You may think that the Church is barmy to get so hot under the dog-collar, and you may think that Austen Ivereigh, the Archbishop's public affairs man, has forgotten the golden rule of his trade.

Why, you may ask yourself, are they rising to the bait? And yet the more one thinks about the doctrinal message of The Da Vinci Code, the clearer it is that the Catholics are right to think this a seditious text. 

It is not just the sex. Among Dan Brown's assertions is that Jesus had a long, loving and matrimonial relationship with Mary Magdalene, a former prostitute. This is, of course, a vaguely embarrassing allegation to make about a man who has always been taken to be a model of chastity, but it does not seem in itself a fatal blow to Christianity.

They were married, says Dan Brown; there is no suggestion of fornication; and plenty of other early Christians were married and had children. No, it is not the News of the World aspect of the book that worries the Church, or which is now filling the shelves of WH Smith with Da Vinci-ana. It is the simple possibility of Christ's reproduction that is so mesmerising; and, in discussing this idea with such awful readability, Dan Brown has reopened a controversy that the Church thought had been settled in ad325.

The reason this piffle is such a howling hit is that it resurrects the great unspoken doubt in the minds of all Christians, that has existed ever since the doctrine of the Incarnation. It is about whether Christ can really be man and God at once.

If you walk round the Louvre at a less frenzied pace than Tom Hanks and co, you will notice a fascinating gradual change in the depiction of the ancient gods. As the human race gains in intellectual self-confidence, the image of the divine becomes more and more anthropomorphic.

{Dasavataras anyone?}

[b]Egyptian jackals, Babylonian curly-bearded cow-hoofed centaurs: they all give way to the human-shaped gods of the Greeks and the Romans until finally, at the very moment when the Romans have first declared that their emperor is a god, a Jewish heresy also announces that God has been made man in the form of Christ, and from then on there were those who couldn't get their heads round it.

[/i]{Here is the core/kernal of the clash between Church and State in Christianity and carried into Islam.}[/i]

If he was a god, how come he died? And if he was a man, how did he rise from the dead? From the very beginning of Christianity, there were Gnostics, who contested the full divinity of Christ, and by the third century AD the chief exponent of this type of view was a Libyan Christian bishop called Arius.

The Catholic Church said Christ was of the same substance as the father, coeternal. No, no, said Arius, he couldn't be of the same substance; he was just similar; he was just a chap really; not homoousios, but homoiousios. 

Arius spoke for everyone who has ever said that "Jesus was a really great guy and a great teacher, but I don't think he was really the biological son of God". He had many supporters, and the wrangle engulfed the Christian world until Constantine settled it rather incompetently at the Council of Nicaea in 325, and the doctrine of the Trinity was pronounced.

But the controversy rumbled on for hundreds of years, until it produced its most potent successor, Islam, which regards the idea of the son of God as blasphemous. 

Her is where Islam's heretic origins come into paly. now tell me is Muhammed wanst a follower of a Christian sect(could be Arrian), why would he deny Jesus was San of God and termÂ it blasphemous?}

By depicting Jesus as a man who fathered, Dan Brown is making the same objection as Arius, and putting his finger on the logical problem in the doctrine of the Incarnation. Are the descendants of Christ meant to be divine? Patently not. But why not, if Jesus was God?

The answer must be that Jesus was not of one substance with the father, and that is why the Catholic Church is so rattled. This book may be bilge, but it awakens an ancient and distinguished heresy. Dan Brown is the new heresiarch, and I vote that he, the Pope, Austen Ivereigh and the rest of us convene a new Council of Nicaea to settle the matter.

Boris Johnson is MP for Henley


The whole mess came because the early Church founders picked up the Hindu concept of Divinity existing as an avatar among the humans and couldnt transalte it into their culture.

Another thing to ponder is among the Apostles St Thomas is vilified as one who doubted Christ. Now why did he doubt. Also note St Thomas is buried in Chennai at San Thome mount.

05-20-2006, 12:44 AM

QUOTE
The whole mess came because the early Church founders picked up the Hindu concept of Divinity existing as an avatar among the humans and couldnt transalte it into their culture.

Another thing to ponder is among the Apostles St Thomas is vilified as one who doubted Christ. Now why did he doubt. Also note St Thomas is buried in Chennai at San Thome mount.
[right][snapback]51430[/snapback][/right]


This whole thing about St. Thomas being martyred and buried in Chennai is a hoax. Most serious historians do not beieve that St. Thomas came to India (ref: Google)

ramana · 05-20-2006, 01:44 AM

But that does not negate the fact that Thomas gets a bad rap as the 'doubter'. Till recently Judas was the 'Betrayer' till they found the Judas gospel where it is explained why he did it.

Judas: History's haunted heretic

05-20-2006, 02:32 AM

x-post of post on Thomas

Bharatvarsh · (This post was last modified: 05-20-2006, 03:09 AM by Bharatvarsh.)

St.Thomas myth exposed in detail:

http://hamsa.org/

ramana · (This post was last modified: 05-20-2006, 04:02 AM by ramana.)

Guys I beg you. Dont get distracted by the St Thomas story. I ask you again what explains the title "Doubter" to his name? One more St thomas story I will request the admins to delete this thread.

X-posted ...
QUOTEDa Vinci Code sparks wave of resentment

Special Correspondent

It is commercialisation of religion, say Catholic leaders

# Views The book has done great injustice to the authenticity of Christianity as a faith
# The film has tried to undermine the spirit of religion for monetary gains
# The book has done a great injustice to the authenticity of Christianity as a faith
# The film has tried to undermine the spirit of religion for monetary gains
# Certain congregations of the faith had been depicted in a poor light
# Many individuals and small groups of community leaders have written to the Government to make suitable changes

MANGALORE: A feeling of resentment over Da Vinci Code has gripped this coastal city, which is known as known as "Rome of the East."

It is "commercialisation of religion" and "selling the lives of great souls for profiteering," feel leaders of the Catholic community.

Senior administrator and priest Fr. Lawrance D'Souza said it had disturbed a section of society. Certain congregations of the faith had been depicted in a poor light. he said.

That over 290 Christian groups had appealed to the Government against the film pointed to the fact that there had been considerable resentment in the country against it, he said.

Fr. D'Souza said he was personally against sensationalising religious beliefs. The film, Da Vinci Code, was a product of fiction and the matter should stop there, Fr. D'Souza added. Senior scholar of Christianity at the St. Joseph's Seminary at Jeppu Fr. Santhosh told The Hindu that the book had done great injustice to the authenticity of Christianity as a faith. There was unnecessary reference to the administration of Vatican and the various congregations, he said.

Fr. Santhosh said there was no doubt that the book and the film were products of fiction, but one could not project something untrue as true even in fiction.

He said there was no factual or historical evidence showing that the books written by Peter and Thomas could be recognised as gospels. Hence any reference to the happenings in the life of Jesus Christ â whether he married Mary Magdalene or he died in India â could not be established with authority.

Kingdom of God

"As we know, Jesus Christ lived to proclaim the kingdom of god and there cannot be any other joy to true Christians than that," Fr. Santhosh added.

This was a major attack on the very roots of Christianity, which had to be condemned in no uncertain terms, said Fr. Francis Serrao, Rector of St. Aloysius institutions.

Christianity had been attacked so many times in the recent past, but this was the worst.

Spirit of religion

The film had tried to undermine the spirit of religion for monetary gains, he said. Christianity had always stood for proclaiming compassion, but this time it had gone beyond limits, and the pain had gone to the heart Fr. Serrao said. Many individuals and small groups of community leaders had written to the Government to make suitable changes in the film.


Is it possible that in new areas there is turmoil in the faithful but not in Old Europe?

05-20-2006, 04:33 AM

QUOTEIs it possible that in new areas there is turmoil in the faithful but not in Old Europe?
In old Europe less than 6% attend regular church service. Old Europe it doesn't matter. In South America no of Catholics are going down.
Greeks are trying to bring back pagan religion.

It will generate doubts in new faithful.

05-20-2006, 04:33 AM

QUOTESome area Catholics fear novel and film based on it: The son of a Chester County man reads The Da Vinci Code and reportedly plans to leave the church. A Reading priest refuses to read the book or see the movie.

Reading Eagle (Reading, PA); 5/18/2006

Byline: Rebecca Vandermeulen

May 18--A few weeks ago, Matthew Pinto and his family were taking a walk when they ran into their neighbor. Pinto of Westtown Township, Chester County, was carrying a few copies of "The Da Vinci Deception," a book meant to discredit statements made in Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code." Pinto's neighbor said his son had read Brown's book and planned to leave the Roman Catholic Church because of it.

That's part of the reason Pinto fears Brown's book and the movie based on it, which is set to hit theaters Friday. Pinto is president of Ascension Press, a Catholic book publisher based in Westtown. He also coordinated Da Vinci Outreach as a response to the movie. Educational materials on the group's Web site have been downloaded about 30,000 times in the past eight weeks, Pinto said. The Rev. James M. Torpey of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Reading said he hasn't read Brown's book, doesn't plan to and won't see the movie. Responding to people's questions about Christian history doesn't require knowing "The Da Vinci Code," he said. "When people say 'Have you read the book, or are you going to see the movie?' my response is, 'Have you read the Bible?' " Torpey said. Edward Sri, co-author of "The Da Vinci Deception" and a theology professor at Benedictine College in Atchinson, Kan., said he worries about people being taken in by Brown's book. "So many statements in 'The Da Vinci Code' are as easily disproved as 2 + 2 is 5," said Sri, a Catholic whose own book was published by Ascension. "The average reader is set up to think, 'I'm going to learn a lot about history while I read a great story.' " Torpey disagrees with Brown's assertions that statements about documents and organizations in "The Da Vinci Code" are true.

Those statements include that of a 2,000-year-old conspiracy to hide the fact that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, and Brown's story of a monk from the Catholic group Opus Dei who kills in order to keep the secret. Opus Dei is a real organization of conservative Catholics that is governed by a bishop but doesn't include any monks.

"We're certainly not afraid of decent dialogue," Pinto said. "Where does one start dialogue with the premise that an albino monk is killing people on behest of the Church?" Pinto does not belong to Opus Dei but said he has friends in the group. He said Brown's novel exaggerates some Opus Dei members' practices of wearing spiked chains on their thighs and hitting themselves with small whips. These activities aren't much different from exercising, fasting or getting plastic surgery, Pinto said. So what should Catholics do when "The Da Vinci Code" hits movie theaters? Pinto's group says they -- and everyone else -- should see the DreamWorks family film "Over the Hedge" instead. "Do Christians want to go give money to something that's directly attacking Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, the Christian faith?" Sri asked. Torpey advised his parishioners to see "Over the Hedge" before he knew about Ascension's effort. "Put your money in the other place," he said.

Copyright Â© 2006, Reading Eagle, Pa.

gangajal · 05-20-2006, 05:16 AM

This seems to be much ado about nothing. There is no eye witness record of Jesus. No contemporary historian, Tacitus, Livy, Flavius mention Jesus. Seneca, Plutarch do not seem to have heard about Jesus. Contemporary Jewish records do not mention Jesus. Given the complete absence of historical evidence about Jesus, I do not see how his supposed marriage to Mary Magdalene can be of any interest. The only thing that this is doing is making the Church's conversion effort more difficult.

05-20-2006, 07:49 AM

QUOTESenior scholar of Christianity at the St. Joseph's Seminary at Jeppu Fr. Santhosh told The Hindu that the book had done great injustice to the authenticity of Christianity as a faith. There was unnecessary reference to the administration of Vatican and the various congregations, he said.

I don't understand all these padres getting upset over a book which is clearly marked as work of fiction. Why didn't they object to the non-fiction Holy Blood, Holy Grail published over 24 years ago? If I'm not mistaken this book was the first to link Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

QUOTEHe said there was no factual or historical evidence showing that the books written by Peter and Thomas could be recognised as gospels. Hence any reference to the happenings in the life of Jesus Christ â whether he married Mary Magdalene or he died in India â could not be established with authority.

There's a book written and published by an Indian (forget his name) which deals with Mary living/dying in northern parts of India - town called Mari in present day PoK. No one seems upset with this fakery.

05-20-2006, 08:12 AM

Ramana,

Did you know that Jesus never existed?

The whole story of his life is fiction and was cooked up by a man named Paul.

Read more here:
http://www.burningcross.net/crusades/did...exist.html

There is no need to bother with Da Vinci code once we know that the story of Jesus is pure mythology.

I heard the town of Nazareth never existed in the Roman records.

dhu · 05-20-2006, 08:05 PM

Christianity seems to be nothing more than an elaborate hoax..

"Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
-- Matthew 26:52-54 (NIV).

05-20-2006, 08:30 PM

Guys - with all due respect, the scope of the thread is "Impact of the book". Whether Jesus existed or not, if the christutva is an elaborate hoax or not, is not relevant to this thread.

Please stick to the spirit and the scope of the topic.

Thanks.

05-20-2006, 09:03 PM

Da Vinci is no masterpiece - IBN
QUOTEThe book does for Christianity what "JFK" did for the Kennedy assassination -- portraying it as the ultimate cover-up, which the book then unravels

............
Is that wilting feminine figure to Jesus' right not the apostle John but, in fact, Mary Magdalene? And, if so, was she Jesus' wife, the progenitor of his bloodline?
..........................

What's revealed along the way is that the truth of Christianity has been concealed -- not just the facts of Jesus' life but the nature of Christian faith, its links to pagan goddess worship, to the "sacred feminine."

That reality, says The Da Vinci Code, has been hidden for a millennium by the Catholic Church but also guarded, as a sacred secret, by the Priory of Sion, a noble shadow cult whose famous members include Leonardo and Isaac Newton.

...............
Yes, a soupcon of research reveals that the Priory of Sion is a hoax invented in 1956, and surely it can't be proved that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were ever intimate (though Martin Luther believed so). But what we want from a film of The Da Vinci Code is the fervor of belief.
.................

It may be less history than hokum, but it's a searching product of the feminist era, when even many true believers have grown weary of the church as an instrument of moral reprimand and male dominion.

The film is faithful enough, but it's hard to imagine it making many converts.

dhu · (This post was last modified: 05-21-2006, 12:15 PM by dhu.)

The only thing that matters is the effect this movie will have in india.. Indians will continue to sing hosannas to jesus, there is no dearth of evidence pointing to christians' two-faced motives to the destroy indian culture, their brutal past in goa, etc, but nothing can change the psec propenesity to give proven charlatans the benefit of the doubt. ptobably, they will say look what a great father jesus christ was, what a great husband, blah blah blah.

G.Subramaniam · 05-21-2006, 07:39 AM

There are over 300 gospels discovered at Nag Hammadi
In 325, the church kept only 4 gospels and got the other gospels destroyed , but a few copies survived to be excavated by archeologist at Nag Hammadi in 1950

In several of these gospels, Jesus is described as having an affair with Mary Magdalene and also with his own sister Sophia

05-21-2006, 08:33 AM

If you guys get a chance read this book. Interesting stuff about religion.
"The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (Hardcover)"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039303515...471011?n=283155

Login




Remember me Lost Password?