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Which is true?
| The Bible |
| [ 23 ] 95% |
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| The Da Vinci Code |
| [ 1 ] 4% |
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Total Votes : 24 |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
 Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:37 am |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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| Which do you believe is true, and if so, why? Feel free to post your comments. |
| I had to put something here. |
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| Cobra |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:21 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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For those who are unaware, the essence of the controversy is this:
Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code wrote: "’As I mentioned... the early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore, any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted from the Bible. Unfortunately for the early editors, one particularly troubling earthly theme kept recurring in the gospels. Mary Magdalene.... More specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ.... It’s a matter of historical record.’"
Pretty serious stuff, huh?
Now, when I first saw Anonymous Prodigy’s thread, my gut reaction was that no good could come of a debate on a controversial religious topic -- as we all know, people take their faith very personally, even to the point of taking challenges to it as personal insults. I do not want that sort of tension on these boards, so I deleted the thread.
Of course, that action itself was taken as an insult by some. I don’t really want to play the censor anyway, so the Da Vinci Code thread is back -- debate away!  |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:40 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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| If you’re going to ask the question: "Which is true?", that’s easy. Which is fiction: the Bible or the Da Vinci Code? Which is nonfiction? |
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| Cobra |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:49 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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First off, as a Christian, I’ve got to vote for the Bible.
However, The Da Vinci Code does raise an important point. In the early days of the Church, there were dozens of gospels written about the life and death of Jesus. But for political reasons, the Roman authorities chose to endorse a few as the "official" gospels, and suppress the rest.
Now, the specific premise of The Da Vinci Code isn’t really a serious issue anymore -- even on its own terms it has been proven false. The only real source for it was the Gospel of Philip, which refers to Mary Magdalene as Jesus’ "companion" -- a word that in Aramaic also means "spouse." That would be quite interesting, except that the Gospel of Philip wasn’t written in Aramaic.  So the whole theory comes crashing down.
But there is a broader issue here that I find very interesting -- what don’t we know about the life Jesus Christ? We have a big gaping hole where the stories of his childhood and early adulthood should be. And when you take a step back and consider all the imperfect elements (re-telling, translation, interpretation, and especially censorship) that are involved in keeping a story alive for almost 2000 years, it’s pretty hard to be a Biblical literalist.
I hope the above discussion hasn’t offended anyone, but I also hope that Christians reading this can keep an open mind! I find that contemplating these sorts of questions only strengthens my own faith...  |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:54 pm |
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The Da Vinci Code directly contradicts the writings of the Bible. According to the Da Vinci Code, Jesus didn’t really die, he instead ran off and married Mary Magdalene and started a royal bloodline that "set up by the Vatican at the council of Nicea in 325," the Templar Knights guarded as a secret from the rest of the Catholic Church.
The Da Vinci Code makes reference to the Vatican setting this up in 325, whereas the Vatican was not formed until the 10-1200s.
The Da Vinci Code says that Jesus was not executed and arose. This makes 2 marks against Christianity. 1) The Bible is true, and it is the Word of God. If The Da Vinci Code is right, then one of the primary building blocks of the Christian faith is not true. Therefore this cannot be. 2) The very core of Christian Faith is centered around both the crucifixtion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If this is not true, there is no Christianity.
Therefore by just these 3 points (made by my feeble mind) the Da Vinci Code is wrong. Or 2 billion people that inhabit the earth are wrong. |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:03 pm |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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I am currently reading The Da Vinci Code to see what it says, and I plan on reading The Da Vinci Deception afterwards. Bottom line: The Da Vinci Code is male cow feces. It totally contradicts everything involving Christ and His supernatural resurrection from the tomb.
For those who think that the Bible was planned by a group of guys trying to make some weird religion, check this out: there are references to Jesus outside of the Bible. One historian and scholar in Jesus’ day named Josephus said something like: "There was at this time a certain man named Jesus, if it is right to call him a man, for He did amazing miracles..."
That’s my . Jesus is the only one who deserves  and glory. Dan Brown can take his Da Vinci book and shove it.  |
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| Cobra |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:19 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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Just a couple points regarding tOO’s post:
theOmnipotentOne wrote: The Da Vinci Code directly contradicts the writings of the Bible. According to the Da Vinci Code, Jesus didn’t really die, he instead ran off and married Mary Magdalene...
Hmm, I could be wrong, it’s been a while, but I don’t believe the Da Vinci Code suggests that at all. If Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene (which we all agree is not true, but hypothetically), it would obviously have been before his crucifixion -- Jesus was in his early thirties when he died. So if someone chose to believe that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were husband and wife, it wouldn’t contradict Christianity’s existing beliefs, it would just fill in some of the gaps.
theOmnipotentOne wrote: The Da Vinci Code makes reference to the Vatican setting this up in 325, whereas the Vatican was not formed until the 10-1200s.
You may be right about the Vatican, I do not know the history of the city.
But Christianity did become the official religion of the Roman Empire, which certainly involved some sort of reorganization, in the 4th century.
And the Papacy itself is very, very old -- Catholics consider St. Peter to be the first Pope, from the time of Christ’s death (32 A.D.). The original Pope Benedict took office in 575. By 590, there was a Pope (Gregory I) who was popular enough and powerful enough to be called "The Great!"  |
| Last edited by Cobra on Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:00 am; edited 1 time in totalhttp://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games. |
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| AdultLink |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:43 pm |
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Joined: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 253
Location: Hyrule
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My whole take on this is that it is sad that The Da Vinci Code book (and movie) even exists. What a bunch of garbage! If I may be allowed a few points:
1. Dan Brown’s work IS fiction, he states it (for legal purposes) and then tries to make us believe that it isn’t. He also got into problems because many of his concepts were COPIED from another book callNOLINKed something like "Holy Cross, Holy Grail" or something like that. So his fiction book was not even original. He did not lose the lawsuit over this so I have heard, but I still say he copied
2. The work has no good proof behind it, and it is pretty ridiculous. Da Vinci himself named all of the apostles in his painting of the last supper, and he clearly stated that the apostle on the left of Christ is St. John, not Mary Magdalene.
3. The real thing the book is about is predjudice... The book definately throws stones and insults the beliefs of Christians. In particular it throws stones at the Roman Catholic Church, and tries to portray it as a secret society like the Nazi’s or the free-Masons. By trying to make us think that we have been lied to, secrets have been hidden, and that Christ was not as we all believe him to be, all Christians are being insulted here, but especially Catholics.
4. Cobra mentioned that there were many ’gospels’ written. Many of them were also false! Written by false people, but the ones that are in the Bible (Matt. Mark, Luke and John) are the ones that were carefully found to be true. I must throw in a new topic and refer to the so-cNOLINKalled gospel of Judas which is also a bunch of garbage. Here’s a question: How can the ’gospel of judas’ be a gospel? Judas hung himself before Christ was crucified. The gospels were written about Christ’s life, and how could he write about his life if he was dead? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s just silly, and is making a bunch of people go crazy.
the Da Vinci Code is just a stupid scam to get cheap money. We see a lot of that these days and that’s what it is, pure and simple. Dan Brown is going to have to answer someday, to the very person he wrongly portrays... |
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| AdultLink |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:47 pm |
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Joined: 15 Dec 2005
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| also: as we were discussing the ’gaps’ in Christ’s life. Mostly the bible just says that he grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men. I think the reason that we know so little, is that this time was not important to Christ’s work. He did not start his public ministry until he was 30. His common life (callNOLINKed the "hidden life" for our lack of knowlege) was not what gave us salvation. The gospels are about his work! Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! |
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| Cobra |
| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 10:05 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
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Location: Austin, TX, USA
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AdultLink wrote: He also got into problems because many of his concepts were COPIED from another book caNOLINKlled something like "Holy Cross, Holy Grail."
Yeah, I heard about that too, just today. The book you mention was I think the first one to put forth the idea of Mary Magdalene being Christ’s wife.
AdultLink wrote: The work has no good proof behind it, and it is pretty ridiculous. Da Vinci himself named all of the apostles in his painting of the last supper, and he clearly stated that the apostle on the left of Christ is St. John, not Mary Magdalene.
Agreed!
AdultLink wrote: By trying to make us think that we have been lied to, secrets have been hidden, and that Christ was not as we all believe him to be, all Christians are being insulted here, but especially Catholics.
This is definitely a valid point, there’s a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment coming through in the book I think.
AdultLink wrote: Cobra mentioned that there were many ’gospels’ written. Many of them were also false! Written by false people, but the ones that are in the Bible (Matt. Mark, Luke and John) are the ones that were carefully found to be true.
Now this I "sort of" disagree with. You are quite possible right, but you’re making the assumption that the people who organized the standard Bible were interested in the truth above all else. Given that those people were politicians (part of the greedy, corrNOLINKupt Roman elite), I’d rather not make that assumption.
I do not doubt the truth of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, but personally I am also willing to consider that the gospels of say, Peter and Thomas (also disciples of Jesus) may also be true.
The recently-discovNOLINKered gospel of Judas, on the other hand, seems pretty sketchy to me. |
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