"Cracking Da Vinci's Code"

[subpar]

Since 9:00 PM, the SciFi channel was playing a program called "Cracking Da Vinci's Code." I don't know if anyone else was watching, but I'm pretty pissed off.

First of all, it was the most outrageously biased piece of shit I've ever seen. The show is meant to compare the Da Vinci code to history, and see how accurate it is. But they weren't even discussing it. They were just pointing out supposed "lies" and "inaccuracies" one after the other, giving no chance for anyone to present the other side of the argument. Basically, the entire program consisted of constipated conservative Catholics ranting and rambling about how wrong and immoral the book is, going so far as to say that it's "diabolical." (Yes, one of them actually used that word.)

The entire focus of the program was one viewpoint -- that Dan Brown is a dirty lying sack of shit who is trying to confuse Christians with his lies. But when you look past all the biased shit that they said in this program, it's more likely that he just made a few controversial theories and got some trivial facts wrong along the way. The people interviewed in the program just poked a bunch of little holes in Dan Brown's book, and tried to pull his whole theory down with it.

Understand that I haven't read the book myself, so I'm in no place to defend the historical accuracy of it. Of course the book is fiction. I'm not about to believe that Jesus had kids just because Dan Brown said so. But the people interviewed in this program were being simply ridiculous. They were trying too damn hard to prove Brown wrong, and it was painfully obvious that they were just using a limited number of historical inaccuracies in the book to hammer their religious propaganda into our ears.

And why the FUCK was this on the SciFi channel in the first place? Neither the Da Vinci code nor this program have anything to do with Science Fiction. Just fiction. Is the SciFi channel really so desperate that they have to resort to playing programs about History and Religion?

I fucking hate TV.

[Naitzmic]

The book, as you said, is fiction.
The fictionous part is that the novel is based out from the viewpoint that theories presented in places such as "The Templar Revelation" are true.
Dan Brown made a few errors in enterpreting those theories, but generally speaking, his background research was quite good.
It's like a light-version of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", except Brown's novel pretty much says "this is how it is" instead of "this is how it could have been".

Those people you're talking about were both biased, and uninformed.

[mightypotato]

I think its based off a book of the same name. The book aimed to prove everything that was in the fictional novel wrong. I don't know why this is creating such a fuss. I read The Da Vinci Code, and it didn't change my opinions on religion. It was just a fun story. People need to take it as that, and nothing more.

[SenorPresidente]

I cracked Da Vincis code ages ago you noobs!
The answer was monopoly, MONOPOLY!!!! MONOPOLY!!!
And the protogonist did it all for attention.

[Taime]

I've lost count off all the programs Ive seen advertised about this stupid code.

[Masculine]

The book WAS made up.

[HellzYeahCCR]

I had to write a four page report for my Public Speeking class at school a yesterday, and I wrote mine over Religious Criticism.

I included 2 paragraphs about the over-seriousness of the Christians and DaVinci's Code.

Needless, to say, even though my paper was fair to all religions, some Christian individuals started calling me a sinner, and said I'd go to Hell.

Go figure.

[subpar]

At 5/18/06 11:05 PM, mighty_potato wrote: I think its based off a book of the same name.

Yeah, I saw that when I Googled the name of the program...

... It was just a fun story. People need to take it as that, and nothing more.

Ironically, that's basically what they said at the end of the program... that the book is fiction, and nothing more. I find it rather amusing that they could get so passionate about disproving it, if it was just fiction. I mean, Dan Brown must have been on to something if he pissed off this many people :-)

[subpar]

At 5/18/06 11:07 PM, Masculine wrote: The book WAS made up.

I'm not really pissed off about the fact that they said the book was Fiction... just the way that they discussed it, and how they relentlessly attacked Dan Brown's work.

I've seen other programs on the History Channel that actually present both sides of the argument, and look at all the facts, and although they generally come to the same conclusion -- that the Da Vinci Code is a damn good book, but not exactly a historical one -- they weren't as obnoxious as this "Cracking Da Vinci's Code" shit.

[mightypotato]

At 5/18/06 11:08 PM, subpar wrote: I mean, Dan Brown must have been on to something if he pissed off this many people :-)

Not necessarily. Anything in the mainstream media which goes against what the church says and believes is bound to attract a lot of negative attention. Look at the recent example of the Gospel of Judas in the latest National Geographic issue. It created a huge stir as it portrays Judas as the only disciple who understood Jesus, not as the traitor history made him to be.

[EnJay]

The book is very historically inaccurate. Any historian will tell you its pure fiction. Even Dan Brown's "Theory" is simply discustingly inaccurate with history. It's not a theory, it's a piece of fiction. People who take it as fact are either idiots or just haven't learned history.

One of the problems is that the church is afraid people will take it literally.

The problem with the book is that People DO take it serious. Not that they believe that theory, but in the book, the Catholic Sect Opus Dei are portrayed as murderous, machiavellian religious criminals. People read the book and actually belive that the Opus Dei are murderers, when in fact, they're one of the most ethical sects of catholism. A survey showed that something like 40% of Da Vinci Code readers belived that the Opus Dei had murdered people. About 3% who did not read the book did.

The book is a whole lot of biased and dangerous propaganda. The Church has the right to defend themselves against baseless defamation.

[Dash-Underscore-Dash]

Because the one thing hardcore fundamentalists love the most is science fiction.

[subpar]

Maybe they played it on the SciFi channel to target the conspiracy-loving SciFi audience. Showing the program to people who already don't believe the book wouldn't change anything, but the kind of people who like Science Fiction are probably the same people who would be "fooled" by Dan Brown's conspiracy theories.

Still, it has nothing to do with science fiction :-/

[mofomojo]

Faith doesn't matter anyways, so who gives a shit? Not me, that's who.

[JackPhantasm]

At 5/18/06 11:15 PM, EnJay wrote:
The book is a whole lot of biased and dangerous propaganda. The Church has the right to defend themselves against baseless defamation.

It's called creative fiction.

Since when is that real opinion.

[CryogenChaos]

At 5/18/06 11:15 PM, EnJay wrote:
The book is a whole lot of biased and dangerous propaganda. The Church has the right to defend themselves against baseless defamation.

It's not a "baseless defamation". It's a fucking fiction book. Any sensible organization would realize that there's no point to defend yourself from a piece of fiction. Yes, there are idiots who are out there, promoting the book's truth. But the sensible readers, the intelligent readers, the readers who actually have a brain don't believe it's all real. Sure, they may think it's possible that some things in the book happened. But they don't take it to the extreme and say the Church is one large scheme out to keep the truth from them.

In my opinion, this entire "Da Vinci Code" deal has been blown way out of fucking proportion.

[EnJay]

At 5/18/06 11:38 PM, CryogenChaos wrote:

At 5/18/06 11:15 PM, EnJay wrote:
The book is a whole lot of biased and dangerous propaganda. The Church has the right to defend themselves against baseless defamation.

It's not a "baseless defamation". It's a fucking fiction book. Any sensible organization would realize that there's no point to defend yourself from a piece of fiction. Yes, there are idiots who are out there, promoting the book's truth. But the sensible readers, the intelligent readers, the readers who actually have a brain don't believe it's all real. Sure, they may think it's possible that some things in the book happened. But they don't take it to the extreme and say the Church is one large scheme out to keep the truth from them.

In my opinion, this entire "Da Vinci Code" deal has been blown way out of fucking proportion.

Put it this way: If a popular book came out and said: "All Jews in the world murder christian babies to make their matzah," and people belived the book and started critising all jews over this baseless accusation, don't the jews have a right to stick up for themselves? Even if the author meant it as a fake story, the Jews have the right to protect themselves.

It's the same thing with the Opus Dei. Not that it's the central issue, but its a big one. People actually belive that members of this sect are murderers. In disturbing numbers. Check the surveys.