Thursday, August 10, 2006

Does "The Da Vinci Code" Shake Your Faith?

Have you seen the movie The Da Vinci Code? Or read the book?

Though touted as "a mix of murder and myth" by the New York Daily News, the author, Dan Brown, has accelerated the curve.

He has suggested that there is historical evidence that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene who was carrying their child at the time of the crucifixion.

Their descendants supposedly still live in France – all kept secret for two millennia by a male-dominated church.

Now, if this were to be true, the ramifications could shake Christianity to the core. At first glance, these views would appear to be laughable.

However, in a Today Show interview with Matt Lauer, Brown claimed that “all of it (The Da Vinci Code novel) is based on historic fact.” And the difficult thing, for those of us of faith, is that a considerable measure of academics are of similar mind.

Fortunately, for those of us of faith, there are clear thinking intellects on our side as well. One such model is Philip W. Eaton, president of Seattle Pacific University.

His recent guest editorial in the Seattle Times dealt with the topic. In his piece, titled Debunking "The Code," Dr. Eaton effectively probes Brown's assertions of authenticity and invites healthy discussion on this, or any, topic of widespread interest to both Christians and non-Christians.

Click on the title in the previous paragraph to read Dr. Eaton’s commentary. His approach is fresh, incisive and engaging. Well worth the read.

In addition, click "comments" and read longtime-friend (53 years) Bob Rodde's remarks about Carl Olson's book, The Da Vinci Hoax. Click here to reach the Carl Olson web site.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not certain I earlier mentioned, but we recently had Carl Olson http://www.carl-olson.com at our Straight Talk speaker series in Danville. He co-authored the book "The Divinci Hoax" which debunks the so called "facts" of Brown's novel. Very interesting presentaion. If you have a chance to meet him, I would strongly encourage.
Interesting blog site.
Sorry we missed you in June/July
Bob

Roger Koskela said...

Thanx for the info, Bob. I checked out Olson's web site and found it quite interesting. He calls himself a "Catholic, husband, father, author, editor, apologist, smart aleck.... and lousy tennis player". I like his style already. I'll add the link to the actual blog post.