Why "De Vinci Code" is being protested by Chritianity?

Question

As i have read in the news papers and heard that the movie De vinci code and novel is being strongly condemned by the christians through out the world

Answer 1

The Da Vinci Code is a fictitious mystery/detective novel by American author Dan Brown, published in 2003 by Doubleday.

The novel is base'd' on the controversial premise that there is a conspiracy within the Catholic Church to cover up the true story of Jesus. According to this premise, the Vatican knows it is living a lie but 'co'ntinues to do so to keep itself in power.

The novel has helped generate popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. Fans have lauded the book as creative, action-packed and thought-provoking. Critics have attacked it as poorly written, inaccurate and creating confusion between speculation and fact.Bears have also attacked saying it resembles salmon. From a religious point of view, some critics consider it sacrilegious, and decry the many negative implications about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei.

Dan Brown's novel was a smash hit in 2003, even rivaling the sales of the highly popular Harry Potter series [1]. It spawned a number of offspring books and drew glowing reviews from the New York Times, People Magazine and the Washington Post [2]. It also re-ignited interest in the history of the Catholic Church. As well as re-invigorating interest in the church, The Da Vinci Code has also spawned numerous "knockoffs" (as they are referred to by Publishers Weekly) [3], or novels that have a striking resemblance to The Da Vinci Code, including Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar, and The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry.

It is a worldwide bestseller with more than 60.5 million copies in print (as of May 2006) and has been translated into 44 languages. It is thought to be the eighth best-selling book of all time. Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, the book is part two of a trilogy that started with Brown's 2000 novel Angels and Demons, which introduced the character Robert Langdon. In November 2004, Random House published a "Special Illustrated Edition", with 160 illustrations interspersed with the text.

In 2006, a film adaptation, The Da Vinci Code, was released by Columbia Pictures.

As explained by Leigh Teabing to Sophie Neveu, the figure at the right hand of Jesus is supposedly not the apostle John, but Mary Magdalene. According to the book Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ and was in fact pregnant with his child when Jesus was crucified. The absence of a chalice in the painting supposedly indicates that Leonardo knew that Mary Magdalene was actually the Holy Grail (the bearer of Jesus' blood). This is said to be reinforced by the letter "V" that is created with the bodily positions of Jesus and Mary, as "V" is the symbol for the sacred feminine. The apparent absence of the "Apostle John", under this interpretation, is explained by identifying John as "the Disciple Jesus loved", allegedly code for Mary Magdalene (see also Second Apocalypse of James). The book also notes that the color scheme of their garments are exactly inverted: Jesus wears a red blouse with royal blue cape; John/Mary wears a royal blue blouse with red cape — perhaps symbolizing two bonded halves of marriage.

According to the novel, the secrets of the Holy Grail, as kept by the Priory of Sion, are as follows:

The Holy Grail is not a physical chalice, but a woman, namely Mary Magdalene, who carried the bloodline of Christ.
The Old French expression for the Holy Grail, San gréal, actually is a play on Sang réal, which literally means "royal blood" in Old French.
The Grail relics consist of the documents that testify to the bloodline, as well as the actual bones of Mary Magdalene.
The Grail relics of Mary Magdalene were hidden by the Priory of Sion in a secret crypt, perhaps beneath Rosslyn Chapel.
The Church has suppressed the truth about Mary Magdalene and the Jesus bloodline for 2000 years. This is principally because they fear the power of the sacred feminine.
Mary Magdalene was of royal descent (through the Jewish House of Benjamin) and was the wife of Jesus, of the House of David. That she was a prostitute was slander invented by the Church to obscure their true relationship. At the time of the Crucifixion, she was pregnant. After the Crucifixion, she fled to Gaul, where she was sheltered by the Jews of Marseille. She gave birth to a daughter, named Sarah. The bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene became the Merovingian dynasty of France.
The existence of the bloodline was the secret that was contained in the documents discovered by the Crusaders after they conquered Jerusalem in 1099 (see Kingdom of Jerusalem). The Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were organized to keep the secret.
The secrets of the Grail are connected, according to the fictional novel, to Leonardo Da Vinci's work as follows:

Leonardo was a member of the Priory of Sion and knew the secret of the Grail. The secret is in fact revealed in The Last Supper, in which no actual chalice is present at the table. The figure seated next to Christ is not a man, but a woman, his wife Mary Magdalene. Most reproductions of the work are from a later alteration that obscured her obvious female characteristics.
The Mona Lisa is actually a self-portrait by Leonardo as a woman. The androgyny reflects the sacred union of male and female which is implied in the holy union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Such parity between the cosmic forces of masculine and feminine has long been a deep threat to the established power of the Church. The name Mona Lisa is actually an anagram for "Amon L'Isa", referring to the father and mother gods of Ancient Egypt (namely Amon and Isis).
A number of different authors also speculate about the possibility of Jesus becoming a father. There are at least three children attributed to him, a daughter Tamar, born before the Crucifixion, and two sons Jesus (the Jesus Justus from the New Testament) and Josephes, both born after the Resurrection. Their names are now part of the common culture of conspiracy writers, however only two decades ago, when Holy Blood, Holy Grail was written, the names were never mentioned. The royal descents that lie at the heart of The Da Vinci Code mysteries centre on the family of Josephes, who is supposed to be the grandfather of Aminadab del Graal, first of the "Fisher Kings". However the genealogies that are quoted in Grail lore appear to record too few generations, with children regularly being born to fathers in their 40s.

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The mystery within the mystery
Part of the advertising campaign for the novel was that the artwork in the American version of the bookjacket held various codes, and that the reader who solved them via the author's website would be given a prize. Several thousand people actually solved the codes, and one name was randomly chosen to be the winner, with the name announced on live television, Good Morning America, in early 2004. The prize was a trip to Paris.

Warning: Solution details follow.

The five hidden puzzles reveal:

That the back of the book jacket conceals latitude and longitude coordinates, written in reverse, light red on dark red. Adding one degree to the latitude gives the coordinates of the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Northern Virginia, which is the location of a mysterious sculpture called Kryptos. The coordinates were taken from part of the decrypted text of part 2 of the sculpture (part 4 has never been solved). When Brown has been asked why the coordinates are one degree off, his reply has been, "The discrepancy is intentional".
There is a secret message hidden in the text of the book flaps. The message: Is there no help for the widow's son.
The words "only WW knows" can be seen on the back cover. This too is a reference to part 2 of the Kryptos sculpture.[4]
A circle with numbers, when combined with text from the book, reveals a secret message.
There is reverse writing on the cover of the book.
Brown, both via his website and in person, has stated that the puzzles in the bookjacket give hints about the subject of his next novel, The Solomon Key. This repeats a theme from his earlier novels. For example, Deception Point had an encrypted message which, when solved, said, "The Da Vinci Code will surface".

In the simplified Chinese version of The Da Vinci Code, the cover has a secret text; however, this text can be easily seen. It reads: "13-3-2-1-1-8-5 O, Draconian devil! Oh, Lame Saint! P.S. Find Robert Langdon." This might mean that other versions of The Da Vinci Code also contain messages.

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Inspiration and influences
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Direct inspiration
The novel is part of the exploration of alternative religious history. Its principal source book is listed as, as per the court case, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince's The Templar Revelation, as well as the books by Margaret Starbird. Holy Blood, Holy Grail (which is explicitly named, among several others, at the beginning of chapter 60), was stated by Dan Brown not to be amongst his primary research material for the book. It has been claimed that The Da Vinci Code is a romanticised version of this work, which was itself based on a series of documentaties that ran on the BBC in the 1970s, all written and/or directed by Henry Lincoln. The main similarity includes the idea that the Merovingian kings of France were descendents from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. In reference to Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent (two of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail), Brown named the villain of his story "Leigh Teabing" (an anagram of "Baigent Leigh"). Brown confirmed this during the court case. Arguing that Lincoln has medical problems resulting in a severe limp, like the character of Leigh Teabing, Brown stated he was unaware of Lincoln's illness and the correspondence was a coincidence. After losing before the High Court in July 12, 2006, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh appealed to the Court of Appeal[5][6].

Brown has reworked themes and characters from his own earlier novel Angels and Demons, specifically the main character, Robert Langdon.

Norwegian readers and critics noted some striking similarities between the "Da Vinci Code" and a Norwegian novel, "Sirkelens ende" ("Circle's End") by Tom Egeland, published in 2001 (two years before the Da Vinci code). Like the "Da Vinci Code", "Circle's End" involves an ancient mystery and a worldwide conspiracy, the discovery that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and an albino as one of the central characters. In both novels, the main female character turns out to be the last living descendant of Christ and Mary Magdalene, and the daughter/granddaughter of the last grand master of a secret order. Many Norwegians speculated that Dan Brown had plagiarized Tom Egeland's book. Since the Norwegian novel had not been translated into English by the time the Da Vinci Code was written, it is generally assumed today that the similarities between the two books, although striking, are coincidental.

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Indirect inspiration
Umberto Eco's earlier Foucault's Pendulum also deals with conspiracies, codes, a chase around the monuments of Paris, including the Holy Blood conundrum (which is mentioned in passing) and the Knights Templar, but does so in a more critical fashion — it is in fact a satire about the futility of conspiracy theories and the people who believe them. Foucault's Pendulum has since been dubbed "the thinking man's The Da Vinci Code".

Foucault's Pendulum itself is reminiscent in plot, theme and structure to the earlier The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson, published 13 years earlier.

Opus Dei was cast in the role of the "evil opposition", used to destroy the bloodline. As the bloodline is not real, but merely a theory proposed in "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", there is no direct inspiration for this. It is believed Opus Dei's alleged controversial past allowed Brown to weave the organisation into his novel. On a symbolic level, the Priory of Sion (male and female membership and leadership, "good") and the Opus Dei (male-only leaders, "bad") are at opposite sides of the scale. The latter is thus depicted as the attack dog of the Catholic Church, seeking to destroy the former and maintain the status quo. According to the novel, man needs woman for wholeness and, in fact, for experiencing the divine by means of sex (see the Hieros Gamos ritual)--for example, as the novel points out, in one's orgasm, there is a short period of time when the persons's mind is completely empty, when one makes contact with God.

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Literary significance and criticism
Main article: Criticisms of The Da Vinci Code
The book generated criticism when it was first published, due to speculations and misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity, the history of the Roman Catholic Church, and descriptions of European art, history, and architecture. The book has received mostly negative reviews from Catholic and other Christian communities, as well as historians.

Critics accuse Brown of distorting and fabricating history. For example, Marcia Ford wrote:

Regardless of whether you agree with Brown's conclusions, it's clear that his history is largely fanciful, which means he and his publisher have violated a long-held if unspoken agreement with the reader: Fiction that purports to present historical facts should be researched as carefully as a nonfiction book would be. [1]
Richard Abanes wrote:

"The most flagrant aspect … is not that Dan Brown disagrees with Christianity but that he utterly warps it in order to disagree with it --- to the point of completely rewriting a vast number of historical events. And making the matter worse has been Brown's willingness to pass off his distortions as ‘facts' with which innumerable scholars and historians agree." [2]
The book opens with the claim by Dan Brown that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents [...] and secret rituals in this novel are accurate"; but this claim is disputed by many academic scholars in the fields the book discusses [3].


As widely noted in the media, there has been substantial confusion among readers about whether the book is factual. Numerous works have been published that explain in detail why any claim to accuracy is difficult to substantiate, while two lawsuits have been brought alleging plagiarism in The Da Vinci Code. The second, by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail claiming textual infringement of copyright, was found in Dan Brown's favor.

Dan Brown himself dilutes the suggestion of some of the more controversial aspects being fact on his web site: "The "FACT" page makes no statement whatsoever about any of the ancient theories discussed by fictional characters. Interpreting those ideas is left to the reader." [4]. However, it also says that "these real elements are interpreted and debated by fictional characters", "it is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit." and "the secret behind The Da Vinci Code was too well documented and significant for me to dismiss." It is therefore entirely understandable why there would continue to be confusion as to what is the factual content of the book.

In 2005, UK TV personality Tony Robinson edited and narrated a detailed rebuttal of the main arguments of Dan Brown and those of Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, "The Real Da Vinci Code", shown on British TV Channel 4. The program featured lengthy interviews with many of the main protagonists cited by Brown as "absolute fact" in The Da Vinci Code. Arnaud de Sede, son of Gérard de Sede, stated categorically that his father and Plantard had made up the existence of the Prieuré de Sion, the cornerstone of the Jesus bloodline theory - to quote Arnaud de Sede in the program, "frankly, it was piffle". The program also cast severe doubt on the Roslyn association with the Grail and on other related stories like the alleged landing of Mary Magdalene in France. Detailed analysis of many other claims by Brown in The Da Vinci Code in the program showed them to be unverifiable or unhistorical.

Nevertheless, the success of this book and movie shows that there is an interest in criticism, and brings into further question and debate such matters as the life and teachings of the historical Jesus and the origin of Roman Catholicism.

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Release details
The book has been translated into over 40 languages, primarily in hardcover [7]. Alternate formats include audio cassette, CD, and e-book. Most recently, a Trade Paperback edition was released March 2006 in conjunction with the film.

Major English-language (hardcover) editions include:

(US) The Da Vinci Code, March 18, 2003 (1st edition), Doubleday, ISBN 0385504209.
The Da Vinci Code, Special Illustrated Edition, November 2, 2004, Doubleday, ISBN 0385513755 (as of January 2006, has sold 576,000 copies).
(UK) The Da Vinci Code, April 2004, Corgi Adult. ISBN 0552149519.
(UK) The Da Vinci Code: The Illustrated Edition, October 2, 2004, Bantam Press. ISBN 0593054253.
(US/Canada) The Da Vinci Code (Trade Paperback edition), March 2006, Anchor Books.



On March 28, 2006, Anchor Books released 5 million paperback copies of the book, and Broadway Books released 200,000 paperback copies of The Da Vinci Code Special Illustrated Edition.
On May 19, the day of the film's release, Doubleday and Broadway Books released The Da Vinci Code Illustrated Screenplay: Behind the Scenes of the Major Motion Picture, by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, with the introductions by Ron Howard and Dan Brown. It included film stills, behind-the-scenes photos and the full script. There were 25,000 copies of the hardcover, and 200,000 of the paperback version [8].
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Film
Main article: The Da Vinci Code (film)
Sony's Columbia Pictures has adapted the novel to film, with a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman, and Academy Award winner Ron Howard directing. The film was released on May 18, 2006, and stars Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu, and Sir Ian McKellen as Leigh Teabing. The Film had an opening weekend gross of $77,073,388. Until June 25th it had grossed about $205 million in the U.S. alone and has done well in other markets. For example it grossed £42,437,372 in the U.K.

Answer 2

The followers of Buddha would be upset if a movie or book was out there questioning their beliefs. Just like any other follower of a God would be offended. So don't single out the Christian's. Anyone who takes their beliefs seriously would be upset.

And everyone seems to forget that the author said that he actually believed in what he wrote. It was offensive to everything Christian's believed in.

I can't believe anyone would call Christian's narrow minded. I guess if they're narrow minded then vegetarians are too. So are cultists because they're all firm in their beliefs and they don't want anyone belittling them or altering them anymore than the next person.

Its America people. If anything you should respect those who are strong enough to stand up for what they believe in. Not pass judgment on them and try to belittle them.

Answer 3

Even though it may a novel, the author, Dan Brown has claimed that he has done a lot of research for writing the book and so the view that Jesus married Magdalemine does not find favour with Christians. He has also stated the church wanted to suppress this fact.
VR

Answer 4

When you have carefully constructed a mythological explanation of events, and from that devised a set of laws, and formed a power structure to administer those laws and benefit from them, you don't like someone tampering with the foundation stones of that mythology, now do you?

Answer 5

Because the bible says Jesus was a virgin and the davinci code is about Jesus having children with mary megdelin and the blood line that followed.

Answer 6

Because they are simple minded people who can't handle a fan being pointed at their fragle house of cards.

And hey, maybe they can't handle the fact that their religion is actually fiction too.

Answer 7

AHAHA yeah ITS FICTION and they just dont know it... they feel that its subverting their religion... if it is fiction then they have nothing to worry about... its just entertainment... they need to lighten up... i thought the book was much better then the movie... they cut a lot out in the movie

Answer 8

because of the notion contending that jesus was married to mary magdeleine and they produced a daughter and thus a bloodline that continues till today...if it was true then the very foundation of today's version of christianity would fall apart

Answer 9

because they are morons who won't realize its fiction.