The DaVinci Code Controversy
With this week's release of the movie version of Dan Brown's blockbuster best selling book controversy is raging about the story. I must admit I'm at a bit of a loss to explain the reaction. I read the book a couple years ago and enjoyed it. A good read. It's fiction though folks. Fiction. A made up, good story. Neither Dan Brown nor anyone else is going about saying it's fact or the direct word of God.
People on the extreme right wing who contend that every single word in the Bible is straight from God (I know, it's amazing how many fools exist) are outraged about this movie. They claim it's heresy. Folks, no one alive has any idea what really happened two thousand years ago. Who knows what other holy scriptures lie locked away in the Vatican. Who knows how many monks transcribed the texts currently in the Bible over the centuries? Who knows how many errors occurred in those transcriptions? Who knows what some of those ancient words meant in Biblical times? Who knows if they were correctly translated? Biblical scholars are at a loss to answer some of these questions. Every time I open my Bible I'm reminded of the words on the cover: King James Version. This means it's one man's version of the book, not God's. He may have been a King but he wasn't God.
The DaVinci Code is nothing more than a figment of Dan Brown's imagination. He uses a basic literary device: taking a couple snippets from reality and crafting a tale around them to tell a story. Writers do this regularly. Brown takes the existence of two shadowy organizations and presents a credible enough extension of them to entertain folks. That's all he did: entertain people with a made up story.
Expending all this energy over a story and a movie seems like a waste of time. However it is doing a service by shining light on the secretive cult Opus Dei. I did quite a bit of research into this group while trying to clarify what relationship Senator Rick Santorum has with them. The more I learned about Opus Dei the more concerned I became about the group and any connection between them and Santorum.
I'll have more to say about that soon.
People on the extreme right wing who contend that every single word in the Bible is straight from God (I know, it's amazing how many fools exist) are outraged about this movie. They claim it's heresy. Folks, no one alive has any idea what really happened two thousand years ago. Who knows what other holy scriptures lie locked away in the Vatican. Who knows how many monks transcribed the texts currently in the Bible over the centuries? Who knows how many errors occurred in those transcriptions? Who knows what some of those ancient words meant in Biblical times? Who knows if they were correctly translated? Biblical scholars are at a loss to answer some of these questions. Every time I open my Bible I'm reminded of the words on the cover: King James Version. This means it's one man's version of the book, not God's. He may have been a King but he wasn't God.
The DaVinci Code is nothing more than a figment of Dan Brown's imagination. He uses a basic literary device: taking a couple snippets from reality and crafting a tale around them to tell a story. Writers do this regularly. Brown takes the existence of two shadowy organizations and presents a credible enough extension of them to entertain folks. That's all he did: entertain people with a made up story.
Expending all this energy over a story and a movie seems like a waste of time. However it is doing a service by shining light on the secretive cult Opus Dei. I did quite a bit of research into this group while trying to clarify what relationship Senator Rick Santorum has with them. The more I learned about Opus Dei the more concerned I became about the group and any connection between them and Santorum.
I'll have more to say about that soon.
posted by PA progressive @ Saturday, May 20, 2006
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