Malachi151

I decided to take this a step further and wrote a proper article about it. Some of the content is the same as my blog post, but much as been added and fleshed out:

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/ar...jesus_myth.htm

Still a rough draft, so if you see errors, spelling, garmmar, or otherwise, let me know.

Thanks

jeremyp

Different car, different situation. In the book, they escape Teabing's French house (surrounded by police) in a Range Rover. The car he uses in London is a stretched Jag.

No English gentleman would own a Hummer in preference to a Range Rover.

The Bishop

Good point, Jeremy!

Malachi, the first thing I would say is that points are moot, not mute. Except I almost prefer the Joey Tribbiani view that they are "moo", like a cow's opinion.

I actually simply don't think it's appropriate to decry the DaVinci Code or any of Dan Brown's writing simply on the basis that "there never was a Jesus in the first place". Dan Brown's book is written against a background of a fairly heavily Christian America (and Christian-cultured Western World), after all, and the Mythical Jesus contingent is, sadly, even smaller than the Jesus Married Mary Magdalen brigade. I liked your graphic contrasting the Brown assertions and Bruno's Catholic-derived refutations of them. But I looked at that and said to myself, "Yeah, yeah, they're both talking out of their arses." Then I glanced up at the scroll bar and saw that this was still near the top of a long article. So I'm like, "do I need to read all this to be told what I know already?"

As I skim through the rest of the article, it seems to be just a summary of Mythical Jesus arguments, and we've lost the link to Dan Brown. I have to say that this gives the impression that you've only included Dan Brown so that your article got a lot of hits.

I think it would be better not to try to debunk both Dan Brown and the Catholic Church at the same time, particularly not by using the MJ argument. The Catholic church is actually a great deal more inclined towards genuine critical scholarship of Bible issues than many other Christian sects I could mention, so it's a little unfair to single out one person who falls back on the Bible.

If I were to write something on that theme, I'd concentrate on "What the hell does Dan Brown have against the Catholic Church?" After all, the RC church has not used any arguments that you highighted that don't put them absolutely shoulder-to-shoulder with Fundamentalist and Evangelical Protestant churches. So what are DB's personal beliefs? Is he actually anti-religious? Did he attack the RC because attacking mainstream Christianity as it is in America would kill his sales? Or is he an anti-Catholic Evangelical who doesn't really believe Jesus went to live in France, but just wanted an excuse to attack Cardinals and Bishops?

Malachi151

Good call on the moot.

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner Yes, of course that is true, hence the reason that my title includes the words Da Vince Code Debunk and Jesus Myth, trying to throw the biggest drag net there

I never intended to write a Jesus myth article for my website, but this seemed like a good reason to do it.

Yes, its piggy backing, and if the Christians are going to do it, then the JMers must do it also to get the voice heard.

The Bishop

Actually, I was just out for lunch now, and I suddenly remembered that Dan Brown knows all about the pagan symbolism behind the Christian myth, because he has Robert Langdon give a lecture to his students on exactly that subject - with particular reference to the Helios and the use of the halo in early Christian art - near the beginning of Angels and Demons. It might be worth while then recasting your article in a form which contrasts what DB says about the Jesus myth in the earlier book with what he makes manifest in the later Da Vinci Code. Actually now I come to think of it, the pagan origins of Christianity also form part of DVC, when talking about the suppression of the Sacred Feminine. By concentrating only on the overt "revelation" about Jesus getting married and creating a bloodline, you have neglected the contrast between this idea and the concept that Christianity was born out of paganism which DB also espouses.

(PS, I'm a huge fan of Robert Graves's I, Claudius books, and had no idea that such a well-preserved statue of Messalina with the baby Brittanicus still existed. Well impressed!)

Wads4

I thought he and Mary moved into a flat on the French Riviera, perhaps at St. Mary de la mer.

Aumgn

One thing I liked about this movie was that seemed to qualify some of the ahistorical nonsense from Brown's novel. I mean, the plot is still ridiculous, but at least some of it is challenged in the movie, by the hero of all people.

Barefoot Bree

Thank you, Bishop. (Your Eminence?)

For me, the most interesting part of the novel was exactly that, the supression of the sacred feminine. I've wanted to start a thread asking how much of that Dan Brown may have gotten right, and how much he made up from whole cloth, but the point keeps getting lost among all the Mary/Catholic/Opus Dei/Priory of Sion chatter.

Anybody got an answer? Did Dan Brown fairly accurately portray (to the best of our knowlege, of course) the symbolism and practices by pre-Christian feminine cults?

Malachi151

Yes, I'm aware of this point, but my main interest is not in addressing The Da Vinci Code, but rather in addressing the claims made by the Christians who are coming out against it.

Your points are valid, but the subject of my article is "Debunking the Debunkers", so I'm addressing what they have to say more than what Dan Brown has to say.

Huon

Audrey Tautou was born on August 9, 1976.