The Da Vinci Code

[ziggue]

The Da Vinci Code. I saw something about it on TV the other night.

 

It's on the best sellers list. Has anyone here read the book? Is it worth looking at?

 

They made the book look like a very interesting read.

 

Do you believe that anything about Mary Magdalene and Jesus could be true?

[LucreziaBorgia]

I read the book, and found it to be a very solid novel. Quickly paced, interesting - I find the subject material itself to be interesting. I'm not so sure about Tom Hanks playing the lead in the movie, but... I'm sure it will be a good movie, nonetheless. The book really was a great read.

 

Could it be true? Sure, history and religions are so subjectively biased that many alternates to 'accepted history' could be true in many cases. Is there a person on the face of the earth today that can say with 100% certainty that it could or couldn't have been that way? Nope. They can sift through someone's version of that history, and quote from it all day long and it still would be just someone else's version of history, rather than objective history itself. Stories can corroborate, and for that we can gauge how 'likely' it is it happened that way - but even then...

 

That's what makes history and religion so troubling at times. The only people who can verify history are the eyewitnesses, and even then for every eyewitness you'll get a different story. Ah well, within even the most subjective and biased accounts of history or religion you'll be able to read between the lines for valuable reflections on the cultures that produced them. Reading written history is not witnessing history - it is an opportunity to look at a version of history, filtered through human imagination and perception.

 

Personally, I find the idea of Jesus being a spiritual leader who lived a purposeful life and loved and married and had children a lot more realistic and easier to believe than the religious mythos ascribed to him some decades after his death. Anyone's personal history can be altered with enough money, power, and wishful thinking. Time can alter even the most persistent of 'memories'. Was he? Wasn't he? Who am I to say? All I can say is that I don't know.

 

I just finished reading "The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 tales from history to astonish, bewilder, and stupefy" and it was apparent that people believe what they choose to believe, whether or not its historically accurate. History becomes subjective, and memory falsified. "Accepted history" becomes truth, even as truth fades from memory.

 

Would that make Jesus less of a spiritual leader, to have found and experienced a great love and then married and created a legacy through children? I don't think so, but that's just me. People can believe whatever they want, and whatever they find to be most believable for themselves. I respect the right for people to form and follow whatever belief system that works best for them - whether it be a celibate, miracle performing, G_d incarnate - or just a man who wanted to share a great vision, and did so in the context of a loving marriage and family.

[westernxer]

I read it. Liked the research, not the story.

 

The concept of Goddess worship is fascinating... I've read it elsewhere, too. Interesting how religion evolved throughout the centuries to arrive in its current form. Hell, it's evolving as we speak, because everything is contextual. Symbology also plays an important role in how we worship... everything we adore in religion is a representation of something else, or something like that.

 

Lot of stuff beyond the surface that we take for granted, but it's out there if anyone cares to look into it. Dan Brown simply scratches the surface.

[nightwish33147]

sry to sound stupid but whats the book about? i heard it was good whos that girl u mention?