Okay, so I rented it

[Brian_C]

You know what I mean…The daVinci Code. Haven’t watched it yet but intend to. Purely for entertainment.
a.I can certainly say it won’t introduce any doubt into my beliefs given my degrees in history and anthropology (if 7.5 yrs of college didn’t, this cheesy movie won’t).

b.I feel quite confident (not boasting) that I know more about Church and European history than Dan Brown

c.I have unshakable faith that I nourish daily.

So…I still feel terrible for paying money to rent this movie. Would it be a good penance to add an equivalant amount of money to my offering next Sunday or should I discuss it with a with a priest, first…

Hmmm, or maybe a “debunking the daVinci Code” night in RCIA…

 

[Missa_Solemnis]

You know what I mean…The daVinci Code. Haven’t watched it yet but intend to. Purely for entertainment.
a.I can certainly say it won’t introduce any doubt into my beliefs given my degrees in history and anthropology (if 7.5 yrs of college didn’t, this cheesy movie won’t).

b.I feel quite confident (not boasting) that I know more about Church and European history than Dan Brown

c.I have unshakable faith that I nourish daily.

So…I still feel terrible for paying money to rent this movie. Would it be a good penance to add an equivalant amount of money to my offering next Sunday or should I discuss it with a with a priest, first…

Hmmm, or maybe a “debunking the daVinci Code” night in RCIA…

Im afraid it is the book that shakes peoples faith (and only weak people at that)

The movie is hardly theological on any level…and in terms of entertainment well it pretty much for lack of a better term…

…sucks

 

[Lion]

You know what I mean…The daVinci Code. Haven’t watched it yet but intend to. Purely for entertainment.
a.I can certainly say it won’t introduce any doubt into my beliefs given my degrees in history and anthropology (if 7.5 yrs of college didn’t, this cheesy movie won’t).

b.I feel quite confident (not boasting) that I know more about Church and European history than Dan Brown

c.I have unshakable faith that I nourish daily.

So…I still feel terrible for paying money to rent this movie. Would it be a good penance to add an equivalant amount of money to my offering next Sunday or should I discuss it with a with a priest, first…

Hmmm, or maybe a “debunking the daVinci Code” night in RCIA…

You said for “purely entertainment reasons”… what if you also use the movie to understand the other side’s arguments so that you can more effectively debunk their arguments and/or beliefs? Kind of like what you suggested with the RCIA class and perhaps other aquaintances as well.
BTW, i heard the movie was actually really quite bad so hope you didn’t waste your “entertainment dollars”

 

[Brian_C]

Points well-taken

 

[brotherhrolf]

Now Brian. We are both anthropologists and we were trained to set ourselves apart from cultural biases. I read the book long before the movie came out and I just saw the movie on DVD a few weeks ago. :yawn: My faith is neither shaken nor stirred to mix metaphors. The book was better and this “theory” has been around in many iterations since the 50s. :yawn:

Fiction is, after all, fiction. I thought the movie was tedious. There are ALL sorts of better written books out there on the subject. As well as on the Templars, the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant…Consider it a “guilty pleasure”. If anything the greater “sin” is to your professional resume …

 

[jbuck919]

Dan Brown is an extremely educated person who knows perfectly well that he is fills in the cracks with cement of nonsense, unlike, say, P.D. James, who always makes her murder mysteries true to reality however far fetched they may be in some respects. I don’t know how he feels about the fact that he is taken seriously as a sort of historical conspiracy theorist, because he doesn’t speak in public. Self-evidently, he has earned many millions because people think he takes some of the premises of his fiction seriously.

Since I do not want to be here all day, I will use Angels and Demons as an example instead of The Da Vinci Code. There is an office called Camerlengo (chamberlain), but it is always held by a cardinal, not an ordinary priest. Cardinals thought to be likely candidates to be elected pope are called “papabili,” not “favoriti.” If a pope wanted to have a child by a nun, he would not exculpate himself by using artificial insemination (for more than one reason). Churches in Rome do not stay open past 5:00 p.m. And, nothing related to ecclesiology, you cannot jump out of a helicopter two miles above the Earth (if you can find a helicopter that can rise that high in the first place) with a plastic tarp held over your head and hope to survive.

I haven’t seen the Da Vinci Code movie, though I might. But it is a work of fiction in every sense, and like the pulp novel it is based on, likely to be only worthwhile as the mildest entertainment.

 

[MStreeter]

I actually thought the book was pretty good, but more because of the suspense and mystery.

As for the anti-Catholic and “historical” parts - I found the inaccuracies and loose “connections” quite humorous. However, I must admit that it’s sad that people actually believe the junk.

Mark

 

[LilyM]

And, nothing related to ecclesiology, you cannot jump out of a helicopter two miles above the Earth (if you can find a helicopter that can rise that high in the first place) with a plastic tarp held over your head and hope to survive.

He seriously wrote that? :bigyikes:

 

[Brian_C]

Now Brian. We are both anthropologists and we were trained to set ourselves apart from cultural biases. I read the book long before the movie came out and I just saw the movie on DVD a few weeks ago. :yawn: My faith is neither shaken nor stirred to mix metaphors. The book was better and this “theory” has been around in many iterations since the 50s. :yawn:

Fiction is, after all, fiction. I thought the movie was tedious. There are ALL sorts of better written books out there on the subject. As well as on the Templars, the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant…Consider it a “guilty pleasure”. If anything the greater “sin” is to your professional resume …

No, I know. I boycotted the movie when it came out because of a.) the timing (the fact that it opened close to Easter was a real slap in the face) and b.) the way Ron Howard and Dan Brown acted about the whole issue. You know, with the Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson was very forthright in addressing his critics. While Ron Howard and Dan Brown ducked the issue all together. That and the fact that one of my Tulane PhD.'d archaeologist collegues (a sporadic Methodist) read the book and was quite suckered in. It was just quite distressing.

I just hate giving them my dime…

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

Ok, y’all are never going to believe this, but…reading the Da Vinci Code (and the Left Behind series) actually brought me back to the Church. I had lapsed for about 5 years or so when I read these books. I found Da Vinci Code a very light read but I liked the suspense. I was disappointed in the ending. These books, especially the DVC were filled with such poppycock about the Catholic Church that I was actually researching right and left to disprove all the false notions. In the course of the research, Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and told me it was time to come home.

By the time the movie came out, I wanted no part of it. I didn’t want to spend a dime supporting the filmakers for the sole reason that the audience was being lied to about the Church I love and about Jesus Christ. However, my husband rented several weeks ago and he wanted me to watch it. I sat down to watch at his insistence. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to find that it was such a non-engaging film . It was so boring my husband fell asleep and I was able to go do something else.

God can make great good come out of even the Da Vinci Code. Now that you have rented it, you can educate yourself on its claims and thoroughly debunk them.

Another idea for your “penance”, make a donation to the folks at Catholic Answers. They spent a goodly amount of money trying to debunk the DVC a long time ago. Just a thought…

 

[Roman_Catholic_1]

And, nothing related to ecclesiology, you cannot jump out of a helicopter two miles above the Earth (if you can find a helicopter that can rise that high in the first place) with a plastic tarp held over your head and hope to survive.

He seriously wrote that?

I think this part was in Browns other book Angels and Demons, unless I am getting my Brown books mixed up… Despite this part liked this book far better than the Da Vinci Code.

 

[Verita]

Ok, y’all are never going to believe this, but…reading the Da Vinci Code (and the Left Behind series) actually brought me back to the Church. I had lapsed for about 5 years or so when I read these books. I found Da Vinci Code a very light read but I liked the suspense. I was disappointed in the ending. These books, especially the DVC were filled with such poppycock about the Catholic Church that I was actually researching right and left to disprove all the false notions. In the course of the research, Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and told me it was time to come home.

I believe you!

My conversion was speeded considerably by my having to defend the Church against my mother’s anti-Catholic ravings that I had to put up with after I married a Catholic. Rather than show me how wrong the Church was, she spouted such unhistorical nonsense that it made me realize she was probably wrong about their doctrine as well. When I went to my husband for answers to her accusations… well, I don’t think she knows what role she played in leading me to the truth.

I want to see the movie, just because I am curious about whether or not they actually put any of that “divine feminine” nonsense in a major motion picture. But I’m not paying for it, I’m borrowing it from a co-worker.

 

[anonymoususer]

Wow, it must be nice to have unshakeable faith. Has there ever been such a thing? Why not just sit right down, make two cups of hot cocoa, one for you, one for jolly ole Lucifer, and talk about the da vinci code. Unshakeable faith, gimme a break.

 

[Verita]

Wow, it must be nice to have unshakeable faith. Has there ever been such a thing? Why not just sit right down, make two cups of hot cocoa, one for you, one for jolly ole Lucifer, and talk about the da vinci code. Unshakeable faith, gimme a break.

I think there is such a thing. I think I have it. Not because of any virtue I possess, but because it is a gift to me from God. There has never been a moment in my life that I have had the slightest doubt of His existence. It has been this way since my earliest childhood memories. Just thinking speculatively about the non-existence of God leave me with feelings of unspeakable horror. So, sorry, I can’t give you a break. It is real.

 

[anonymoususer]

If you have unshakeable faith, it would mean you don’t sin. Correct? Each time you sin, your faith should be shaken, because you just succumbed to temptation, and turned from God.

 

[Em_in_FL]

If you have unshakeable faith, it would mean you don’t sin. Correct? Each time you sin, your faith should be shaken, because you just succumbed to temptation, and turned from God.

I disagree. Having unshakeable faith does not mean you don’t sin. It means that influences that may weaken someone else’s faith wouldn’t weaken yours…

I feel similar in that regard…

I’ve read both these books (DaVinci Code and Angels and Deamons)… and never questioned my faith once!

How else are we to argue against this nonsense if we haven’t been exposed to what we’re arguing against?
Dan Brown is skilled at writing suspenseful stories. That’s the only credit I will ever give the man. The books were entertaining in that regard.

I was more interested in reading these in order to argue against them!
So in that regard, I understand the conflict of not wanting to support Dan Brown financially…

But as for shaking my faith… it certainly didn’t happen with those books!

I’ve heard the movie stinks… as far as movies are concerned… we may NetFlix it to make fun of it!

 

[Verita]

If you have unshakeable faith, it would mean you don’t sin. Correct? Each time you sin, your faith should be shaken, because you just succumbed to temptation, and turned from God.

I don’t know where you get that idea. Having strong faith doesn’t automatically lead to a sinless life. As Paul said to the Corinthians, if I have faith that can move mountains… and have not love, I am nothing. My struggle is more with the love part than the faith part.

 

[Zahmir]

My girlfriend and I watched the movie with my family who is… less than orthodox. Both of us were laughing out loud at certain points in the movie that just didn’t make any theological sense whatsoever. It was a great time to make of something so bad.

 

[anonymoususer]

strong and unshakeable aren’t synonymous

 

[Verita]

As far as having an “unshakeable faith”. Perhaps that is not the right word to use (in my opinion)…even Saint Therese of Liseux had doubts at the end of her life. Maybe a solid-faith would be a better term? I am not saying that there are those here that do not currently have a good faith…but unshakeable means it can never be shaken!!! Please beware you are vulnerable so be ever watchful…we all should be.

You are right. It is presumptuous to assume that your faith will always remain as strong as it is now. However, I do truly believe that God has given me this gift and that He will continue to give it to me as long as I want to receive it. In that sense, my faith is unshakeable.