Da Vinci Code is fiction!

And historical bullcrap as well. People are taking da Vinci code way to seriously, people have even gone into the Louvre and damaged the art, trying to reveal the da Vinci code like in the book. Again, bullcrap. And Dan Brown should be flogged for his historical inaccuracies. For example, he claims the Romans worshipped a mixture of Animal Spirits and a 'Goddess', they weren't Wiccans you idiot! Anybody even remotely familiar with Roman religion can tell you that the Romans worshipped a Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, the most powerful of which was Jupiter, God of the Sky and King of the Gods. The Priory of Sion is a hoax invented in 1956, by a man named Pierre Plantard. Nor did the Pope order the eradication of the Templars, in fact, the Pope at the time did all in his power to stop the Inquisition of the Templars, and when he failed, he secretly pardoned the Templar order of all their charges. And the Templars weren't founded to find the Holy Grail, they were founded to protect Pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem from murderous Saracen highwaymen. They were staunchy Catholic and didn't worship any pre-Christian gods, those were false charges thought up by the King of France since he wanted their wealth and was jealous of their power. And the whole thing about the Merovingian Dynasty being related to the Line of David was just a ploy thought up by the Merovingian Kings to increase their power and popularity with the religious peasants "We have a King of holy blood, he must be the true King".

There, I just blew the Da Vinci Code wide open as the fiction it is and always was. Anybody else tired of people taking the Da Vinci Code seriously?

people have even gone into the Louvre and damaged the art

Wow...when was this? I thought the Louvre had some of the best museum security in the world.

Originally Posted by Eric

people have even gone into the Louvre and damaged the art

Damn, people can be stupid as **** sometimes.

The Da Vinci Code is fiction. Doesn't stop it being a halfway decent read. Though granted, Angels and Demons is much better.

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. The book is purely fictional. It is written to excite people, to entertain, and, you guessed it, to sell, sell, sell. It is no basis for reference.

Though, I think people have started to see that now, with all the da Vinci fuzz dying down.

Yes.. thats why its sold in the fiction section - who knows why some people take it seriously but i dont think the author ever intended it to be taken as fact or history.

Any sort of source on the damaged paintings? Hadnt heard of that.

Dan Brown wrote a fictional story, and in doing so, chose to adopt one of several interpretations of historical events.

its not known what the templars found beneath the temple of soloman, only that they found something of great value.
one interpretation (as seen in the film National Treasure) is that it was treasure in its most simplest form. gold, jewels etc. Dan Brown merely uses another interpretation. he doesn't and didn't make this stuff up... there's plenty already written about it

as for the fall of the templars... most of the blame for that can be placed on Phillip the Fair of France, but it WAS pope Clement V who ordered the dissolution of the order... by Apostolic Decree (Bull of 22 March, 1312)

at what point did he declare romansd worshipped animal spirits? i don't recall that in the text and i've just finished reading it...
there are strong links to animals in the roman pantheon, Mithras, and the Bull... Baal, and the Ram.

and during the time of Constantine, the Cult of Sol Invictus was supreme over Jupiter Maximus. Zeus was king of the greek gods, but the romans were ecumenical and adopted many many gods, all of whom rose and fell over the time.

as for Goddess worship... the egyption cult of Isis was as popular in roman society as the Cult of Mithras, Venus, and Gaia were also worshipped as mother goddess type figures, not to mention other female deities like Juno Minerva and Persephone

some of the religious claims made in the book are backed up in the dead sea scrolls among others. the vote on the divinity of christ during the council of nicea is a matter or record.
the quote from Peter in the Gospel of Mary is pretty much an exact translation of the greek in the original text

the major lack of credibility comes from the use of the priory of sion, and his claim on the front page that it existed, despite it being officially debunked in a 1993 french court case, 10yrs before the code was published. thats either the result of some very poor researching (which doesn't reallty seem in character) or siomply proving the fact that its a fictional work by ignoring inconvenient facts for the sake of the novel

many writers of historical fiction do this (see for example Rosemary Sutcliffe) and Dan Brown doesn't even claim to be among those..

but regardless of all that, Dan Brown makes a very compelling fictional thriller. he doesn't claim its fact.