Steve Morrison, Ph.D, director of Research for Christian Answers of Austin, Texas/ Christian Debater (Steve is the creator of our 3 websites: http://www.BIBLEQUERY.ORG, http://www.HISTORYCART.COM & http://www.MUSLIMHOPE.COM) analyze the supposed "truth" claims of Dan Brown's best selling fiction book, "The Da Vinci Code" (which has also been made into a movie). Brown's "tall tale" novel sold over 40 million copies and he has an estimated worth of around $56 million. Part of Brown's book's success is due to its outrageous claims such as: 1. Until 325 A.D., Jesus was viewed as a mortal prophet, not the Son of God. p. 233, 2. More than 80 gospels were considered for the New Testament. p. 231, 3. Today's Bible was collated by Constantine. p. 231, 4. Nag Hammadi Gnostics deserve to be called other Christianities, p. 234, 5. "Jesus' establishment of Jesus as "the Son of God" was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea. --A relatively close vote at that," p. 233, 6. Original Christianity had a feminine goddess, and sexuality is divine, etc. pp. 237-239, 434, 444-446. There are other similar claims as well. These are easy to refute, and many scholars have already refuted these claims on a point-by-point basis in numerous books and websites.
Rather than asking why Dan Brown selectively ignored history or asking why he wrote a book like this, the real question is why so many could think that the history presented in this book might be true. In fact a survey in the Ottawa Citizen 6/24/2005 said that 16% of Canadians read the book, and of those, 33% really believed some of the claims. |
