Post by Kender on May 16, 2006 17:29:59 GMT -5
I took a peek at Current Affairs and found a thread about the Da Vinci code, responding to the protests of the Vatican. I'm not posting there anymore - my account is disabled. I could enable it again, but they're not allowing hotmail or yahoo accounts to be used anymore, and I'm not giving them a real one - so fuck 'em.
Still, I thought I'd post something here, and maybe some of these points might end up filtered over there.
www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=359500
They asked why the Church was threatened so much by a fictional story. The funny thing is that they focused on the most irrelivant parts of the book, and missed the entire point of the debunking efforts.
The perception seems to be that the Catholic Church is on the defensive because the Vatican and Opus Dei were in the book, and not as the heroes. I think that it is helpful to step back a bit further. The truth is that the Catholic Church is not the only denomination that is concerned. Even our protestant brothers and sisters are concerned enough to write books to separate fact from fiction. Why would that be, if this was just a Catholic thing?
Mr. Brown wrote a novel - a fictional story. He has, however, said that the novel is based on facts. When those facts are examined, it becomes clear that Mr. Brown has gotten his facts wrong. Some of the facts that he got wrong are about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei, but it goes deeper than that.
Who was Jesus? Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully human, and fully divine. According to Brown, Jesus was not considered divine until 325 AD at the Council of Nicea. According to Brown, Jesus became divine thanks to a close vote.
"Jesus' establishment as the 'Son of God' was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea" "Hold on. You're saying Jesus' divinity was the result of a vote?" "A relatively close vote at that," Teabing added
The facts, however, are that the Council of Nicea was formed in response to Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. The facts are that out of over 300 bishops, only 2 voted against the new creed - which affirmed Christ's divinity (hardly a close vote).
Evidence that Christ did not "become divine" in 325 - but that the council merely affirmed what had been believed since the beginning can be found in the writings of Paul and of the early church.
I could go on, but exposing the lies of Brown has filled books. One such book is Cracking Da Vinci's Code: The Hidden Agenda Unveiled by James L. Garlow and Peter Jones.
The Church is not concerned because it is concerned about its image. It is concerned that people will be led astray.
Still, I thought I'd post something here, and maybe some of these points might end up filtered over there.
www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=359500
They asked why the Church was threatened so much by a fictional story. The funny thing is that they focused on the most irrelivant parts of the book, and missed the entire point of the debunking efforts.
The perception seems to be that the Catholic Church is on the defensive because the Vatican and Opus Dei were in the book, and not as the heroes. I think that it is helpful to step back a bit further. The truth is that the Catholic Church is not the only denomination that is concerned. Even our protestant brothers and sisters are concerned enough to write books to separate fact from fiction. Why would that be, if this was just a Catholic thing?
Mr. Brown wrote a novel - a fictional story. He has, however, said that the novel is based on facts. When those facts are examined, it becomes clear that Mr. Brown has gotten his facts wrong. Some of the facts that he got wrong are about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei, but it goes deeper than that.
Who was Jesus? Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully human, and fully divine. According to Brown, Jesus was not considered divine until 325 AD at the Council of Nicea. According to Brown, Jesus became divine thanks to a close vote.
"Jesus' establishment as the 'Son of God' was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea" "Hold on. You're saying Jesus' divinity was the result of a vote?" "A relatively close vote at that," Teabing added
The facts, however, are that the Council of Nicea was formed in response to Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. The facts are that out of over 300 bishops, only 2 voted against the new creed - which affirmed Christ's divinity (hardly a close vote).
Evidence that Christ did not "become divine" in 325 - but that the council merely affirmed what had been believed since the beginning can be found in the writings of Paul and of the early church.
I could go on, but exposing the lies of Brown has filled books. One such book is Cracking Da Vinci's Code: The Hidden Agenda Unveiled by James L. Garlow and Peter Jones.
The Church is not concerned because it is concerned about its image. It is concerned that people will be led astray.