Faith and reason-DA VINCI CODE NONSENSE
by NICK CHAKWERA - Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 15:08:00

Some of you may have heard of the best-seller The Da Vinci Code which sold over 40 million copies worldwide by novelist Dan Brown. This book and the movie based on it shook the world with its controversial claims since its release in 2003.
I have hesitated to tackle this book even though a pastor friend of mine has suggested this topic long time ago. The reason is because there is so much nonsense and lies spewed in this book about the history of Christianity and the Bible and it is upsetting just to think of countering outright falsehoods. It is not progress when you have to go back and discuss old discredited nineteenth century theories about Christianity instead of tackling new research and arguments in these issues of faith and reason.
When a member of our congregation told me how her workmate was pestering her about the book’s allegations about the Christian faith, I felt it was high time that this pagan-friendly, error-infested, fact-challenged, blasphemous book was dealt with. Dan Brown was either intellectually dishonest or as ignorant and as brainless as a rock when it comes to the history of the Bible, Christianity, renaissance art and even modern history.
If you think I’m mean-spirited, wait until you see the facts which are more savage and brutal to this intellectual infant by the name of Dan Brown. In fact, if anyone thinks this book offers valid information on Christianity, and you are willing to defend it, let me know. I would like to challenge you to a public debate. I will sponsor your travel and accommodation etc. All you need to do is show up and get your intellectual butt whipped. I will grind you into meat balls for my Christmas lunch. This nonsense must stop.
Now, the author is not a bad writer at all. His research for this book was sloppy and he admitted as much in court in UK answering plagiarism charges. He said his wife did the research for him and he never thoroughly read the books he heavily depended on. He just used the summaries given to him by his wife. But he is brilliant writer, in this case, brilliantly communicating inaccuracies.
On the first page, he wrote: “FACT: All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” He repeated this claim many times in interviews, saying “All the history, artwork, ancient documents, and secret rituals in the novel are accurate -- as are the hidden codes revealed in some of Da Vinci's most famous paintings.” This is why even atheists, liberal scholars and non-Christian historians criticize him.
The plot of this fast-paced, suspense thriller and mystery novel is as follows: Robert Langdon, a Harvard university “symbologist” (fictitious field of study) on a business trip in France is called to help solve a murder committed at the Louvre (Paris’ glass museum). The victim is the caretaker of the museum. Symbols were found at the scene. Langdon teams up with a French police cryptographer Sophie and scholar Sir Leigh Teabing.
The dead curator was part of the Priory of Sion, one of the secret organizations supposedly formed in 1099 A.D. to guard the secret of the bloodline of Jesus through his child Sarah from his marriage to Mary Magdalene. Famous people like Isaac Newton, and Leonardo Da Vinci belonged to this secret group. Leonardo revealed these secrets by putting codes in his paintings but the Roman Catholic Church for two thousand years has been doing everything to suppress this truth from getting out. Soon Langdon becomes a hunted man himself as he gets closer and closer to the truth.
Mary is a goddess to be worshiped and the one Jesus intended to be leader of the Church. Apparently, “Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, and burned.” Jesus was voted to be God in a close vote at a council called by Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D.
“Fortunately for historians” Dan Brown claims, “some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea scrolls were found in the 1950s.” He alleges, “The New Testament is based on fabrications” and that “nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras – called the son of God and the light of the world – was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. December 25 is also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus.”
On and on the book challenges the reliability of the Bible and the history you might have learnt about Christianity. The only good that came out of this perverted book is the opportunity to teach basics of the Christian faith to a curious generation. I hope this book sparked your interest in history otherwise a boring subject for many. I hope your interest is enough to keep you reading this column because I intend to deal with this book thoroughly, probably for the rest of the year.

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