butswana

Last night my wife came home with the US News and World Report:Secrets of the Da Vinci Code Special Edition.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/store/p...od_davinci.htm
It has some really good stuff in it about the Gnostic beginnings of Christianity and Mythicism written by Freke and Gandy. I was amazed to see thier position presented without being looked down upon, sneered at or dismissed as a crazy fringe "theory".
I wonder how many people will pick this up. Most people have never heard that Juses might not have been a real guy. I'm going to try to talk to my wife about it. Our religious discussions don't go too well.

exile

I take this stuff with a gigantic pinch of salt.

The so-called "Priory of Sion" (which is the core of the Da Vinci theory) is a hoax.

It's true that we know very little of the historical Jesus but that's no excuse to make up stuff and claim it's true because we can't disprove it. At least the Christian Jesus Mythology has a couple of thousand years of tradition behind it. This stuff was concocted in order to sell books.

As an atheist I might be expected to go for this, just as a way of showing Christianity to be a fraud. Well, I don't. I don't wish to subsitute one pile of tosh for another.

Clivedurdle

BBC RAdio4 had a discussion I caught the end of and I don't know what the programme was where they had a gnostic guy stating quite clearly that Jesus was a myth, being poo pooed by a couple of theologians and then allowed to conclude the programme by repeating his point!

The others gave no evidence at all, they only asserted of course Jesus is historical.

(Don't tell anyone - the emperor has no clothes!)

gurugeorge

That sounds like it was Timothy Freke. The radio show is still online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/progra...ef/index.shtml

I think Timothy gives a pretty good account of himself, actually. I was pleasantly surprised.

butswana

I finished the magaizine last night. It had a solid account of early church history that was in line with what seems to be the general consensus here at IIDB. There was no fundy literalist screaming that Jesus was the most well documented historical figure ever(with no evidence) like on tv. This whole thing is kind of freaking me out. The facts about Christianity are just sitting there on magazine racks across the country. Right next to Cosmo and The National Inquirer. The DaVinci Code could be a gateway to Mythicism for millions. Fat chance that one, but a guy can dream.
My wife asked me what i thought about it and I told her that it was really refreshing to read what the evidence really points to(myth) in a mainstream publication without it being dismissed out of hand or an out of context blurb. Hopefully, this has opened her up to the possiblity that I might not just be pissed off at church people for being mean to me when I was a kid after all. That is her explaination for my professed lack of belief.