Get out your hankeys v2.0: Top Cardinal Blasts 'Da Vinci Code' as 'Cheap Lies'

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Attacking it with reason and justified cause is proper, since religion is an error of humanity.

some people think gays are errors of humanity. how are those two statements any different?

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia


some people think gays are errors of humanity. how are those two statements any different?

Because gay people cannot control who they are... religionists can abandon their philosophy of errors.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

hmmm thats very true . . .

[Bosh]

Imran: some of the bits of criticism in the wiki article you posted are pretty strange, its like they're denying the strength of Arianism and the role of Sophia (often conflated with the holy spirit) as a female figure in Gnostic Christianity.

That's not to say that I don't think there's lots of BS in the book...

[molly bloom]

This is presumably some kind of early April Fools' Day jape by the Vatican- I mean, a Cardinal criticising a book for telling big hairy fibs about religion ?


Whatever next- the Vatican telling the truth about the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, or coming clean about what is and isn't fiction in the bible ?


" Who killed God's banker?

Jim McBeth


The £9,000 Patek Philippe watch on the wrist of Roberto Calvi was exclusive, but not waterproof. Its hands had stopped at 1:50am, the approximate time the man, who was to become known as "God’s Banker", died.

Since that day - 19 June 1982 - the official story is that he committed suicide.

Calvi’s body was found suspended under Blackfriars Bridge in London by a length of orange cord around his neck and the water of the Thames swirling about his hand-crafted leather shoes. Seven bricks were stuffed into the pockets of his clothes and the waistband of his trousers. In the inside jacket pocket of his elegant grey suit, he had four pairs of spectacles and a false Italian passport. His wallet contained £10,000 in Sterling, Swiss francs and Italian lire.

In the week before his death, the former head of the disgraced Banco Ambrosiano, the largest private banking institution in Italy, had made a gruelling, clandestine journey, smuggled from his homeland to London. It involved three false identities, eight flights around Europe, a speed boat journey from the former Yugoslavia, four different car trips and 14 temporary residences in Zurich, Amsterdam, Edinburgh and London.

Calvi, who became known as "God’s Banker" because of his close association with the Vatican, had been forced to flee Italy after his Banco Ambrosiano went bankrupt with debts of up to £1 billion.

It was later learned that much of the money had been siphoned off via the Vatican bank, which was run by Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, an American.

The Vatican later refused to admit any legal responsibility for the bank’s downfall but did acknowledge it had a "moral involvement" and paid £200 million to its creditors.

However, the Vatican, in the person of Pope John Paul II, has consistently refused to hand Marcinkus over to the Italian authorities. The Archbishop, whom John Paul II brought with him on his 1982 visit to Scotland, is now living in a humble US parish under the protection of a Vatican State diplomatic passport. "

http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=1086942002&rware=KZUXMOZMTBMV&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=1

[Alexander's Horse]

This reminds me of when the Onion did an article claiming the Harry Potter books were Satanic and the story started circulating amongst some Baptist churches as a true warning to Christians

We had local pastor denying he had warned his flock based on the article

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
This reminds me of when the Onion did an article claiming the Harry Potter books were Satanic and the story started circulating amongst some Baptist churches as a true warning to Christians

We had local pastor denying he had warned his flock based on the article

Yeah, but we're talking about Baptists. For all that I criticize the Catholic Church it can still look back at a scholarly tradition which includes people like Aquinas and William of Ockham and Duns Scotus Erigena.


Who are the Baptists going to counter with ? Pastor Fudd of Thrubbville, Miss. ?

[MikeH]

Fiction book in not fact shocker.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by MikeH
Fiction book in not fact shocker.

Yes but the author has not done himself any favours by claiming in television interviews that his book is more akin to (ghastly word) 'faction'.


It's not exactly 'Schindler's Ark' we're talking about is it ?


It's a concatenation and conflation of myths, hoaxes and misinterpretations into a worldwide bestseller, lapped up by the usual slack-jawed credulous types who'd believe anything with a spurious wrapping of historical 'authenticity' . There are apparently already 'Da Vinci Code' tours of Paris:

" Da Vinci mystery tour piques Paris

Amelia Gentleman, Paris
Sunday September 12, 2004
The Observer

The Church of St Sulpice has many attractions - notably its Delacroix mural. So it is a matter of deep regret to church officials that most visitors are now attracted primarily by a huge bronze candlestick, used by an evil albino monk to batter a nun to death in Dan Brown's best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code.
Some 20,000 people have visited the Left Bank building over the summer, most in search of the vivid murder scene set in the church.

With more than 10 million copies sold worldwide - 500,000 in French - The Da Vinci Code has now given birth to its own tourist industry: three companies have recently launched tours of Paris taking in the book's principal locations - the Gare St Lazare, the Ritz, the US Embassy and the Louvre.

The Louvre's official position is disdainful. 'None of our curators will talk about the book. It's a work of fiction and we don't see it as our job to discuss it,' a woman in the press office says.

But, at the information booth, Daniel-Richard Leroy is more helpful. Most intriguing to him is the question of whether Pei's glass pyramid really has 666 panes of glass, as the book suggests, in a deliberate Satanic reference. He has counted only 634: 'It's very simple to calculate, and it's quite obvious that there aren't 666 of them.'

The Da Vinci tourists make their way from the pyramid to cast a quick glance at the Mona Lisa, but are primarily interested in the stretch of parquet where the naked body of the Louvre's elderly curator is discovered. "

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0%2C%2C1302649%2C00.html

Aaahh yes. Here's a work by one of the most famous polymaths ever to have lived, showcasing his technique of sfumato, a painting world famous for the enigmatic expression on the subject's face.

And here's a bit of parquet flooring mentioned in a trashy bestseller.


Ooohh, that gloriously wrought parquet, how wonderful to me and infinitely preferable to a portrait by da Vinci.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by molly bloom


Yes but the author has not done himself any favours by claiming in television interviews that his book is more akin to (ghastly word) 'faction'.

Of course he has, look at his sales.

The controversy is absolutely brilliant for him, he should do all he can to stoke it.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by MikeH


Of course he has, look at his sales.

The controversy is absolutely brilliant for him, he should do all he can to stoke it.

Aaah, evidently I wasn't referring to the units he shifted- rather his credibility.


I find him as credible as ooohhh, say, Jeffrey Archer.

[MikeH]

He's a popular thriller writer not James Joyce.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

"Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons (?)" were both enjoyable fluff along the lines of a Michael Chrichton read. The more interesting bits were discussions about church history wrt knights Templar and Illuminati respectively. Whether there is any basis to the so called renditions of those 'histories' is another matter.

[MikeH]

Exactly. A pretty enjoyable thriller, good train, plane or holiday fodder. Doesn't require too much thinking.

[Shi Huangdi]

Unfortunately, not everyone gets that is fiction. One of the Churches that the book centers around in France gets plenty of pilgrims of people who think the book is real.