First, let me offer apologies to those of you who actually make it a point to come to this site to read whatever babble I may feel the need to get out of my head. However, there is a good reason for my lack of posting. I have rediscovered a former favorite pastime of mine: Reading.
In the past two months, I have caught up on (I think) all of the James Patterson paperbacks, discovered a new fiction "hero" in Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson, learned just how far behind I am regarding Patricia Corwell's offerings, and realized how much I can relate to John Lescroart's flawed protagonist Dismas Hardy.
But I really, REALLY want to talk about Dan Brown's offering. Perhaps you have heard of it - The DaVinci Code.I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. But, for those of you out there that are averse to reading, you can always wait until the movie (starring Tom Hanks) comes out in 2006. And if you do opt for the book, pay the extra two bucks or so for the "illustrated" version complete with pictures of the artwork and architecture that are the framework of the plot.
Now that the preamble is out of the way, I will state that I have always been skeptical (at best) of organized religion. Generation after generation have been raised to believe the way to salvation is only through certain routes. Catholicism, Islam, Juddism, Paganism - it doesn't matter what the nomenclature is, there is a certain path to be followed and not questioned.
That's the sore spot for me - "not questioned". I suspect there is a reason a group of parishoners is commonly referred to as a "flock". Sheep. Lambs. Blindly following and unsuspecting. I first turned a cold shoulder toward the church when I was about 7 or 8 years old. My mom, who was raised Catholic, tried taking her five children to a local Baptist church (my dad's religion) and all I got out of those few Sundays was that in the Bible Belt, congregations seemed to be about which "clique" you belonged to. We belonged in the "poor" one, so there was no friend-making to be done for me on those days of "worship". I was disenfranchised at an early age.
My cynicism was reinforced during my teen years when, while working at a fast food restaurant, I came to dread a certain bus rush. We often got busloads of people while they were on trips. High school sports teams, school bands, etc. But we knew that when a church bus pulled up we were in for quite a challenge. By rule, these groups were the rudest, messiest, and most destructive of all. And the sponsors of the youth didn't seem to care. They were, after all, overseeing God's children and we all know that He works in mysterious ways. Kids will be kids, respect be damned.
Also, years later, I heard perhaps my favorite church story of all time. My dad always made it a point to attend church on Easter Sunday. A wife, kids, a career - it didn't matter what was going on. Easter was the one day my dad went to church despite what may be going on in his own life. Then, on one such Sunday, the pastor (or preacher, or whatever) began a rant about folks who only went to church on Easter. My dad, offended in a way I completely understand, arose in the middle of the sermon and walked out never to go back.
Now, for every negative reaction I have to organized religion, I'm sure many of you can point to the many positives. They are there, I know. And I know that not all churches or denominations (I had to retype that - it originally came out "demonitnations") exclude like the church I went to did. And I know they all do not judge like the church my dad walked out on did. But that brings us back to the "not questioning" theme, which is exactly where I want to go, using Dan Brown's book as a quasi-guide.
Although the conspiracy hypothesized about in the book begins with the death of Jesus, to me the most significant selling point centers around the Roman Emperor Constantine. He is the one who was most responsible for bringing Christianity to a large portion of Western civilization. Some say he fully converted while others opine that this move was based on purely political (i.e. power) motives. Constantine was a noted Pagan who was not baptized until shortly before his death. (Church supporters will say that baptism often came late in life during that era.) He was largely responsible for the writing of the New Testament, and pagan roots can be found in much of the doctrine. Most notably is that the day of the Sabbath was written as Sunday. In early Christianity, Saturday was considered the Sabbath. Under the reign of Constantine, it became Sunday - the Pagan holy day derived from "day of the sun".
However, one concession Constantine made was that the sacred feminine was excluded from the Bible, and that was contrary to pagan beliefs. Eve became villified. Mary Magdalene became a prostitute. Women became secondary, at best, and would remain so for centuries. Thus begat the secret group written about in The Da Vinci Code. The Priory of Sion was founded in 1099 and was charged with keeping a secret that would make the Roman Catholic Church crumble while casting doubt upon the teachings extolled by the Vatican. The Priory was headed by many recognizable figures throughout history, but none were as overt about their beliefs (albeit through clever imagery) than Leonardo Da Vinci.
The book details the hidden messages in Da Vinci's paintings and I do not want to ruin those surprises for you - as if you'd even remember them when you go to Blockbuster in 2007 to rent the movie. But the startling theory that abounds in the book concerns the story of the Holy Grail.
(Semi-spoiler alert here...)
We have all heard the stories of the Holy Grail. It is the chalice that held the blood of Christ. But what if the Grail was not an actual physical object? It only takes a small leap of faith to believe that this "chalice" was in fact a reference to the womb of Mary Magdalene and that the "blood of Christ" was the offspring of Jesus and Mary - his wife, not a prostitute. Dan Brown takes great pains in explaining this theory, one that has been around for ages and written about countless times, and the evidence is at least compelling enough to give it serious thought. It is rather fitting that it has taken a work of fiction, written in historical context with a wealth of references, to bring this conjecture to the masses. After all, religion is basically a form of mythology. It is lore handed down from one generation to the next, never questioned, and taken at face value.
Christ was crucified and then ressurected three days later. So was an Egyptian god who "existed" long before Christianity. Coincidence?
And, in keeping with this "word of mouth" continuity, I have written all of the above based solely on memory of a book I finished reading a month ago. As such, I probably made errors in some of my wordings and perhaps misused a word or two. And I probably stated as fact some things that either cannot be proven or were never proven.
And that is the inherent danger of "believing". Well, maybe not so much in the believing itself, but the "teaching" of thoughts that others may be averse to. Just because it is written does not mean it is true. And that goes for everything I have just typed, too. I don't expect everyone to fall into the line that is my way of thinking.
I only want you to think about it. And question everything. A special thanks to Dan Brown for making me turn my mind to something I habitually gave very little thought to.
(If you are still reading this, I assume you are interested in the subject. Or maybe you are just scrolling down to see if any comments have been left. Anyway, to read a very well-written religious debate - by both sides, totally unrelated to The Da Vinci Code - click here. And to read about the National Geographic special that was inspired by the book, go here. It appears to be a very straightforward, nonbiased critique of Brown's story. Brown, to his credit, said that while researching the book he thought the theory behind the Priory of Sion to be ludicrous. In the end, he became a believer. What you choose is up to you.)
Love to all.
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- Ali | 01.30.05 | 2:09 pm
you're right. I love, love, LOVE this book!!!!!!! I read it in (I think) two days because I couldn't put it down. The illustrated version wasn't out when I read it, so I had to look up everything online, but it was worth it. I couldn't get enough of it.
Angels and Demons is decent, too. Also Robert Langdon, but this time, it's about the Illuminati and the Vatican.
Amen (ironic, no?) to what you said about church. I couldn't agree more. In my online searches, I found that there are churches that center around Mary Magdalene as being the joint head of it along with Jesus, as some theorists believe was how it was meant to be. Made me actually want to convert to their "cult", as naysayers called them.
Your memory served you well, no misremembering on your part, sir.
You need to come over on Sunday. We could all sit and talk about it in between bad football.
Love you
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