DaVinci film -- BS fills gap in layfolk's knowledge

DaVinci bull

Many Christians are offended* by the new film, "The Da Vinci
Code", based on a novel of the same name.

Tho the novel and film are fiction, they are based on an earlier
book which presents itself as fact. [ Tho I read that book years ago, I can't remember its name; try googling "grail".] Its thesis was that the
"true Holy Grail" (chalice) was
the womb of Mary Magdalen,
which carried the child of herself and Jesus.
As I read the "nonfiction" book, I was astounded by
its bizarre method of leaping from one unlikely "fact" to the next.
Like, the book would prove that X "might" have happened
(like, X wasn't quite impossible);
then say, "IF X happened, then could X+1
possibly have also happened?" And so forth. After you go thru many what-ifs,
where there's maybe a two percent chance of each event occurring....
Well, you get something a lot closer to fantasy than to history.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

What's more, if it were true
(that Mary had Jesus's baby),
it wouldn't even matter.

Jesus wasn't preaching celibacy;
nor was he trying to create a new religion.
+++++++++++++++++

Jesus (in my view) was always a Jew; believing in strict
monotheism ( ONE god only, not a three-headed Trinity).
I don't mean that he was like Jews of our time. Rather, in his time, Israel was under Roman occupation; and Jews were actively debating among themselves.
These debates were ostensibly religious
and philosophical; since open political debate might attract hostile attention from the Romans and their local agents. Careful readers of
the New Testament may figure this out on their own.

But they won't see the various "lost gospels", and other religious writings from the first two or three centuries after the death of Jesus
[ -- writings which were excluded from the Catholic and
Protestant Bibles, as we know them now].
The New Testament is an anthology of short "books" and long "letters" (epistles)
-- and these "lost" items were left out by Roman Church leaders.


Most Christians know nothing of these excluded writings.
Nor do most Christians realize that there were many competing ideas,
philosophies, and theologies among early Christians
-- flourishing BEFORE Christianity
became the official religion of the Roman
Empire.
Indeed,most Christians know almost nothing of the history of
their various churches and sects;
which allows them to be fooled by
modern leaders who claim that one sectarian brand of modern
Christianity
is the same as that which Jesus preached.
Thrust into this massive ignorance, a bullshit movie can
really shake up people who haven't seriously studied -- let alone
questioned -- the assumptions which they have inherited.


I wish, however, that it had been a film about Jesus'
social and ethical ideas,
rather than about his (imagined) sex life.

-- Tortuga Bi LIBERTY
......

*[Indeed, the film ALSO manages to offend albinos.
A spokesperson for the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation says The Da Vinci
Code is the 68th recent movie [since 1960] to feature an "evil" albino. ]
.........

--- reposted from

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sfbarea/

.........
Please also see review of DaVinci code film:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/17/DDGI3ITO8D4.DTL ]
.......