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Actually I’m not surprised that no outrage has occured within most protestant circles over the Gospel of Judas, simply because I don’t think these groups have the intellectual capacity to understand that such is a more potent attack against the traditional views of Christ than this fictional movie.

The movie sounds boring anyway.

Anyhow, to engage in the DaVinci Code book is a waste of time (it is a silly novel)… But to go from saying it is a work of fiction to saying the movie version should be banned from the cinemas is a huge and illogical leap. What’s next? Banning Dracula for its “lies” about the church? Or Indiana Jones? It is fiction. Let it go. Sure, some people will take it too seriously; but some people believe in vampires or whatever.

I, for one, am sick of enthusiasts, whatever their creed.

The DVC mentions the “historically unlikely scenario that Jesus would not have married” as proof that He must have been married, yet goes on to insist on the even more historically unlikely, no, impossible, scenario that Jesus would have established Mary Magdelene, a woman, as the head of the Church. Such a thing would have been impossible to Jew, much more than celibacy. Many Jews of Christ’s day, the Essenes for example, practices celibacy. So the DVC posits that Christ was too much of a conformist not to get married but an absolute feminist rebel!

The claims of the DVC, the best-selling novel in world history, are not taken seriously by any real scholars. The fact is that the books New Testament is dated historically to the 1st or early second 2nd Centuries. The now popular “Gospel of Judas” and the rumors Dan Brown based his book on come from centuries after that. Anyone with any training in the discipline of History would know the earlier sources are more likely to be accurate.

I offer these texts for your edification:

Dismantling The Da Vinci Code

Cracking The Da Vinci Code

http://www.opusdei.org/art.php?w=32&p=7017

As for the “persecution of scientific thinkers” you mention, it is a historical fact that what we call science developed in Christendom. Great civilizations like China, India, and Arabia had some notable scientific and technical achievements, but all were surpassed by Europe in the so-called Dark Ages, as were ancient Greece and Rome. It’s amazing how we moderns so easily ignore the engineering skill that went into the great mediæval cathedrals.

Again, for your edification:

How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization

An old theology for modern times: A review of Rodney Stark’s Victory of Reason

The Galileo Affair.

Baduk,

I appreciate your spirited defense of orthodox Christian doctrine. Everything you say is spot-on, except this: “Holy Mother is worshipped by Catholics.”

I, too, used to believe this when I was a Protestant. Catholics do not worship Mary; worship (Greek: latria) is reserved for the Triune God. We venerate (Greek: dulia) Mary.

We recognize, as I’m sure you do, that Christ was fully God and fully man: one Person, two Natures. Therefore, it is a testimony to Christ, not his mother, to say that she is the Mother of God (Greek: Theotokos, “God-bearer”).

Dividing Christ was one of the oldest heresies, Arianism.

We also recognize, as I’m sure you do, that the Trinity is One: three Persons, one Essence. Thus, it is by no means scadalous to say that Mary, “to the wonderment of nature, bore her Creator.”

Everything about Mary points to her Son and His Incarnation.

Actually, the crux of Chritianity is the resurrection of Jesus. If you want to demolish Christianity, attack the aspect, as the book, “Passover Plot”(before your time?), did. That book is more damaging to Christianity than this present-day garbage.

Some people, including myself, have studied Bible and the church tradition for decades. I found your observation on Christianity ridiculous.

1) “historical wrongdoings of organized Christianity”
-The book presents some ridiculous arguments. See my objection (copied from a Catholic site). I am a Protestant but we agree on nearly all points.
http://koreanamerican431.blogspot.com/

2) “Oppression of the feminine influence in religion and marginalization of women”
-Holy Mother is worshipped by Catholics. (Protestants don’t)
-Christianity has freed women all over the world. Would you like to wear a wrapper all your life (Islam nation) or be a concubine (old Korea) or a hooker (Thailand)? Christians respect women and the sanctity of marriage.

3)”repression of the original gnostic gospels and persecution of scientific thinkers”, “Constantine’s cynical invention of the modern Bible for the purposes of political consolidation”
-See my website. These are groundless claims in the fiction. You are misled.

4) “groundless portrayals of Mary Mag as a prostitute”
- I agree with you on this point. People have brought in their groundless imagination into the doctrine of the church. Church elders had to make decision on what is reliable and what is not. The Da Vinci Code is a heresy.

5)”repression of sex”
-What do you want? Free Sex?

6) “and perpetration of the historically unlikely scenario that Jesus would not have married (which would have been an aberation)”
- People, more honest and sincere people than you, have been studying Bible for two thousand years. There is no ground for this. The fact that you don’t like Christians does not give you a license to make up stories.

7) “Historically speaking, the book is spot on.”
-It is what present generation wants to believe. The book sells because people like you want to smash Christianity and Christians. You may have met some bad and hypocritical Christians. Well, they are not good Christians. Meet some good Christians and you will change. Think of Mother Teresa. Or, two nuns came from Europe to help take care of Korean lepers, who even Koreans wouldn’t touch.

“discover the real history that today’s irrational Christians would still prefer to hide from”
-All in your head. Break out of your Christian-hate. There is true happiness and eternal life through Jesus Christ. I and many people all around the world believe THE TRUTH. It is international. You are still a frog in the pond writing something you don’t know much about and pretending you know everything about Christianity.

Start reading Bible. You and this garbage’s author do not know even one tenth of what I and other Christians know. If you hold a strong opinion about something you really do not know much about, then you are a bigot and a simpleton.

The book was the worst book I ever read, right up there with Tom Clancy’s best.

Since movies are usually worse than books, this movie is guaranteed to suck.

The whole issue about opening the Korean movie market to foreign movies has been revolving around economics, but the real issue is class.

Import Hollywood movies you’re taking a step into the proverbial sewer.

They all suck.

Well, 90% anyhow.

Sorry Random Guy, you said address the electoral college system, not get rid of. I may have been jumping the gun regarding my disagreement with you.

no harm, no foul. before I read this, I was going to say I agree with you on what you said about the electoral college, both bits

i don’t think we need to get rid of the electoral college, just needs some tweaking with the times.