Has reading DaVinci Code had any impact on your spirituality?

Question

I'm halfway through the book and while I KNOW it's fiction, I'm also realizing that it makes a lot of interesting connections that I've never made before and raises questions I'd never thought of. (As a researcher by trade asking questions is very important to me.)

As I've been reading I've occasionally stopped to check out a few of Brown's supositions on the internet, (to keep my minor crisis of faith in check) and have found out that some of his angles are blatently misconstrued, but other things aren't so clear (especially the bits about women.)

The Bible is just a book too right? (One that millions of people got behind, documenting a story that millions believe implicitly and without question.) But written by men... could some of the feminine elements not have been distorted?

What was your reaction to reading the book? Anger or Ah-ha? And have any of the lights that went on while reading made you stop and wonder why you believe what you believe while you're at church?

Answer 1

Good questions and point of view, I think.

DVC is just a novel--a murder mystery. So it has not changed my faith or spirituality.

Some ideas are tantalizing, but either unprovable, or severely contradicted by dozens of other experts.

There is an element of sexual politics in Judaism and Christianity. Although religions used to feature Goddesses, (Isis, Hera), the new monotheistic religions called God a man, and generally pushed the role of women aside. Eve, for example, is seen by some as causing Adam to sin and fall, so that mankind's misery is traced to a woman.

We could do without that woman--bashing. We could also do without the reference to the Tempter as a "serpent". The reason that was done, was to attack earlier religions, many of which featured snakes as objects of veneration.

Example--bellydancers have danced with snakes. And Egyptian religions featured asps and other snake images. All of this battle of the icons was political, as judaic monotheism attemted to gain a foothold and then to wipe out the older, feminine--based forms of worship.

I believe that Jesus himself tried to reinstate women to a higher place. Then came the Catholic Church, which disallows them to be priests. Go figure.

Answer 2

A good point that the "Da Vinci Code" made was the corruption that goes with Religion. Religion is is plagued with Politics just like other Governments. Before actual governments separated themselves from the Church, the Church had very strong influence in Political Matters.

If a real Messiah ever was born into the world, there really could be secret organizations that would be bent on suppressing such an individual if his (or her) Spiritual Views didn't align with the Orthodox Church.

Many people, who are extremely religious, are talk about the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ and are certain of such a return. However, the even though the Church embraces the doctrines of the Bible, you never really see any of the Clergy expressing any anticipation or excitement of such a return.

If such a return were to happen and there was a Jesus Christ made of flesh and blood, it would mean that individual developed current ideals based off of whatever faith, environment, upbringing, family ideals, and political ideals respective to the region in which he (or she) was raised.

The question is whether those ideals would align with that of the Church. In Business, you have entrenched management that likes the way things are done and doesn't want change. The Church has always been about 400 years behind Modern Civilization when it comes to ideals.

There would be a huge Religious Upheaval if Jesus Christ did surface and attempted to update or upgrade the values of the Church. People have killed over Religion and people fear change. We live in very troubled times.

The "Da Vinci Code" is very educational regardless of whether it is rooted in fiction or not.

Answer 3

The thing about the Bible is that it is a collection of writings, not really one book at all. All of these writings were copied by Jewish scribes, who are famous for their persistence in following a strict method of copying and then reviewing for exact accuracy. Early into the Old Testament's history, it was copied into Greek and later Latin. The popularity, multiple language translations, and sheer number of duplicate copies make the Bible unique among ancient texts. While we may have concerns about entire chapters of ancient works like the Iliad, the Bible's accuracy can be confirmed by comparing it to hundreds of other ancient copies.

Have you read the entire Bible? I'm amazed at how many answer no to that question. My suggestion is that the first Christian book you should read would be the Bible. It's long, but it's worth it!

And perhaps this is a little over the top, but don't you think the Devil would be thrilled every time any part of the Bible is put into question? If you can find that just one part is untrue, well that puts the entire book into question, right? Evil doesn't come right out at you as evil, it tries to look like Good. Wolves in sheeps clothing, as the Good Book says.

Answer 4

The Da Vinci Code is a great book if you like mystery and suspense filled detective stories. It's got all the necessary ingredients to create a book that will keep you up all night reading it. But you have to understand that it is just fiction. The Teaching Company put out a one hour lecture on this book by a Dr. Urlich(I think that was his name). He's a professor of comparative religions at the University of North Carolina and one of the premier experts of early christianity in the world. He said that though it was a great read, there is virtually nothing in it at all that's true. My thoughts are that it's a good read until that professor Teabing comes on the scene. From that point on there's about 6 historical errors on every page. The New York Times had it right. They had it listed #1...........on the New York Times FICTION book list.

Answer 5

The story of the book is a fiction, of course, but many of the facts inside are real or have been debated long before Dan brown wrote it. There are a lot of historians that brought to discussion this Mary Magdalene issue before Dan brown did. There are a lot of books written on this subject and also on the Jesus was a man subject. If you read some of them, you will see that Dan brown was just underlining some of the most spectacular hypothesis... As for the davinci code, what can I say... The Roslyn Chapel is real, the pyramid in Louvre is real, Opus Dei is real, you just have to decide what else is a fiction and search for the facts in other books... good luck!

Answer 6

It is a book for entertainment purposes only! Sure it might make some sense, is it true? But in fiction writing? Who knows. I found it entertaining.

The only people that seemed to have been upset about it are the people who are so seeded into their religion. That any kind of question that makes them think on their own and will question their dependance on their religion, they get mighty upset about. It upsets them and sets them off, thinking for yourself is obviously a big no no for hardcore religious believers. It is sad they are so close minded that a book for entertainment purposes will set them off like a hornet nest getting kicked.

Just enjoy the book, it isn't meant to be a second version of the bible!

Answer 7

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Answer 8

I'm an atheist and think there are 2 problems with the book. 1) It has become famous thanks to the Christian's getting their panties wet about a book that is self described fiction. 2) Because of the Christian explotion against it and false statements that imply the author tries to pass it off as fact, it makes us skeptics seem like we make up proof.

Answer 9

No.

I thought it was a decent book, I enjoyed reading it.

I always thought the Bible was false so reading the DaVinci code was not offensive to my beliefs.

The only book I've read that strengthened my belief that the bible was false, is the bible.

Answer 10

it makes me question more about all the claims of catholic church. It makes me question more about the real origin of mankind.. if we started from adam and eve or maybe science is right that we came from apeor life begins in single cell