A senior official at the Vatican has denounced Dan Brown's novel (The DaVinci Code). For the two of you who aren't familiar, and don't read this either, I won't explain the book, but I will say: it...is...FICTION! It is not a true story; it is not a research paper (the movie is not a documentary). I'm pretty sure that the vast majority are fully aware of that and read (and watch) it with that awareness. People who take it as "Bible Truth" probably have issues with killing folk after playing GTA (grand theft auto). Of course the saying "Bible Truth" is not fact either. The Bible relies heavily on metaphor and symbolism. Deeds are written down tens to hundreds of years after they happened by people who were not there, and were often times several people (or generations) removed from the acutal events. It has also been edited by many people, including just about every translation up until the printing press was invented. The Bible is a historical document in much the same way as Gilgamesh or Beowolf or the Illiad or any other ancient story you can think of is. There is truth there, but fact is often lacking.
The other gripe presented in the article is that the media is responsible for people's wacky view of reality because of how heavily it promotes things that are not truth. As evidence that the media eschews truthiness for "'voluptuous pleasure'...[Cardinal Paul Poupard] noted that the mass media showed no interest in an extensive Dictionary of Religions he edited with contributions from many leading experts in the field." Um, so beacuse the media didn't go into a frenzy about a Dictionary of Religions, they don't like truth? Yea, yea, the guy is 75 and French, I suppose he is allowed to be a bit eccentric, but doesn't it seem a tad ironic that this guy is just as detached from reality as the goobers who think DaVinci Code is a work of non-fiction?
There will be a follow up...later.
No comments:
Post a Comment