BellaOnline Forums Family Siblings DaVinci Code, Fact or Fiction? Christian Feminism

I agree with you. Many people don't want to know the truth because they think the life they are living is better than that of God and don't want to give up their so called freedoms. My life became much freer when I re found God then when I was drinking and partying and all that. It was fun but I was always missing something, a peace and contentment that I have now.

I'm sorry to hear that the churches in your area band it and are railing against it. My church brought the book in for a 4 week sermon and addressed the conspiracy head on with the truth outside of the Bible and within the Bible. It was very interesting and thought provoking and only confirmed that Jesus and the Bible are truth.

I suppose that makes about as much sense as those groups who use CS Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" as part of their religious instruction.

Categorizing Dan Brown's work as part of some greater conspiracy against... what--the Church, Christianity, religion?... seems a bit of a stretch to me. If he'd claimed it was a factual account, had been sponsored by some sort of anti-something group, was head of some anti-something group, etc. I might buy the conspiracy bit.

But this is a work of fiction. With just the tiniest smidgen of fact... just enough to make interesting reading.

I really didn't like the book all that much, although I found the ideas behind it amazing, and necessary in this day and age. The sacred feminine, what a great phrase for something many of us study under various other guises, such as paganism or Wicca.

Anyway, I'd classify this book as fact based on theory.

And some interesting theory too. I can't get over one thing, a parsing of letters which may be quite relevant:

san greal = the grail
sang real = holy blood

I come from the life view that all women are the Goddess. At a minimum, manifestations of her.

It's easy to see why the church is against the idea of Mary having his baby. Then you'd have a dynasty and they couldn't choose who gets to be pope.

The Priory of Scion is an admitted hoax, so admitted by the man who began it. However, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. The P of S hoax has little to do with the overall concept of Mary being his wife and having his baby.

Read the Gospel of Mary. Read the Nag Hammadi documents found in Egypt, as well as the Gnostic Gospels. In them, you will find that Mary was "loved more" and "differently" than the other apostles. She was also first to observe Christ after the ressurection. She is not just an apostle but a very high ranking one, and perhaps his closest one, according to documents written quite close in time to his death.

There is also the legend of the Mary with "servant" Sarah who came on an oarless boat to the coast of France. Sarah means Princess in Hebrew. While that may have little meaning, who was this Mary who arrived there from Egypt? We do know Magdalene went to Egypt with Joseph and his mother, Mary. Did they stay together because she was their daughter-in-law? Why was the true identity of Mary's "servant" kept when they reached France? You'd have to have a good reason to hide the identity of your own daughter. Why is she worshipped there today (long before any of this code uproar started)?

Lastly, the cup or vessel (V) has long been associated with the feminine in pagan traditions, as has the dagger or point ^ represented the masculine. To not realize that they may be combined in symbolism in some cultures today is to not understand the history of male/female god/goddess worship.

ok cant figure out the quote thing but i am achirstian and i have wondered if the Cannon (the people who selected the books for the Bible) did not let some books in that said some thing about women... after all back in the day women were less than human... why would they think God would give women instuction other then submett to husband and all that jass. so it may be possable that there were ather books. my queastion is how do we know that all of those "extra" books are God inspired and not imaganitive? how do you pick and choose the books you believe and dont believe in? and where you draw the line. 600 years AD or 2050 AD?

here is a nother thought provoing thing. What would have been the point of Jesus haveing a line of desenance? If God sent Jesus to Die for our sins on Calvery to save the world why then would He not die and Raise again in Body on the third day? just like the Bible says? Lee

There are 5000 complete copies of the gospels found throughout the ancient world. These copies match by 98.5% the other 1.5% are grammerical differences.

There were 54 copies of the Gnostic Bibles found together in Eygypt. The Gnostic beliefs in these books vary from each other. The one underlying belief is that you attain spiritual fullfillment within yourself and not through God or Jesus. They are a mix of Eastern Religion Philosophies with Christian Characters.

The Gnostics were not found complete and there are missing pieces.

Mary was a diciple on Jesus there were hundreds of diciples and only 12 aposels.

Jesus loved Mary because of her unending devotion and love for him, she never doubted him and honoured him more than any other diciple. All the aposels at one time or other either doubted him, looked for selfish rewards, deserted him, or betrayed him. Mary always stayed with him, along with the other Mary and another Women. This shows that women are very important to Jesus and God. It does not make them all goddesses.

The books that were put into the Bible was decided in 325AD at the council of Nicene. There were a number of criteria each book had to pass:

Had to be written before 100 years after Jesus' death
Had to be written by an aposel or a contemporary of
Had to be fully accepted as doctrine by the early church already
The books were either accepted as a whole or rejected, none were edited.
The doctrine in the book had to reflect the ideals and teachings of Jesus and the Old Testement

The Gnostics do not fall into any of these catagories.

The Council of Nicea began the era of suppression in the Catholic church. You'd think they'd want to include all good writings, especially those by Mary, who was quite important to Christ.

The entire Catholic religion is very anti-woman, I agree with you, freebubbles. You have a woman demanding the head of John the Baptist, the original sin being woman created. There is no need for it. As God created mankind in his own image, all men and women are gods and goddesses.

After the Council of Nicea, if you did not follow what they chose to be in the bible, you would be killed, and many priests were killed and many books burned. This is not Christian. I don't believe they followed their own rules; many turned from the church at that time because of the contradiction.

And the reason we don't have complete copies today is because of, and not indicative of the paucity of meaning in, the burning and destruction of anything not following within their new political order.

I do not believe in the suppression of any book. I think we were given free will and intelligence to determine for ourselves what is valid and what is not. I like the internal seeking that Mary spoke of; I believe this is closer to what Jesus meant. He was challenging the old order, the handing over of your free will to a priest to tell you what is right to do and what is wrong.

Of course, I'm Buddhist/pagan and I believe in the book of no book. Books are usually used as weapons against and not paths to.

intersting!

Carennedy, I was not sugesting Change the Bible at all. What I was wondering is... ok the Cannon split over the (can spell the books) "extra Books" in the Catholic Bible. why. I am Nazerine so i know VERY LITTLE about other relgions but I feel called to dig in to them and learn more. I am trying to understand what they belive and why. and I would like to read the Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnostic, or any other book from that time. but what i want to know is how do i know if the coppy of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a copy of the originaly and not some Authers opinion or imagineagtion of what it says. I know when i pick up a Bible its the Bible because i was raised reading it...but the others i dont even know whats suppost to be in them.lol
any ways sorry for the mix up.

Go Barbaro, Read Genisis 3 the Fall of Man.
Poltics has Made women the blame for the fall of man but Adam played his part too. While the serpent was talking to eve were was Adam her protector her night in shine armor. verus s6...and that the tree wasdesirable to make one wise, she took from is fruit and ate; and she also gave to her husband WITH HER and he ate.
Adam stood right by her side and heard every word new the exact same thing she did and he did not stop any of it he JOINED IN.
this explanes a lot. what is the worst thing a man can do to irratant you... for his to sit and do nothing say nothing. then blame me!!!

I agree with churches being anti-women read also Proverbs 31 the perfect woman. I do not think that God intended for His church to put down women. but there are churches out there who see that man played a big part in the fall of man. some churches are enlighted enough to realize that Mary and the other women was Just as important to the early church as the men. and you are 100% right Mary did not leave Jesus or Doubt Him. It was after all WOMEN that Jesus showed Him self to first!!! but i would really like to know what good would it do for Jesus to have a line of Desenance and If Mary Magdelina was the Wife and Mother Why would she run back and tell every one that He was Alive and Well if it was a conpirace and all of them were in on it? what would be the Point of God sending His Son to Die for our sins and raise on the third day, if he did not really die and had a wife and kids? this dont make no cents to me explane please

It's all theory, but I don't think the theory has any conspiracy on Mary's part but on the church's part. As for the baby, the theory is she was his wife and was carrying the baby before he was crucified.

For me, I am very open-minded; that means I don't hold up any one book and say this or that is the truth. That sword cuts both ways in discussion with some relgious folk. They hold some things as absolute truth, and expect others to believe that too.

I hope you all understand this as I mean it, with kindness. I view all writings as the works of man. They may be inspired, as we are all inspired by our "muses," but they are still fallible - written down by man and subject to mistakes.

So to attempt to prove something that all Catholics believe as fact by citing to the very book that the myths originated from is circular logic. I could point to Harry Potter and say that on page 32, line 17, it says that to make polyjuice potion you need...but the whole idea of polyjuice CAME FROM the book itself. It's just circular reasoning that is actually a logical fallacy.

See what I'm saying? To each his own, and if any choose to believe that the gnostic gospels are not good, or the Nag Hammadi should have less weight than, in relation to the bible, that's fine.

However, I choose to believe in reading all text and not putting more weight on one that the others. That gives me the free will God gave us, and uses the intelligence I was born with. Ultimately, I am left after a lifetime of reading with an understanding that all religions are talking about the same thing. It is the idea behind it, and not the text, that matters.

okay point taken. your right that it is circular logic and im not tryong to say my believes are better then your or anybody elses. I just wanted to point out that there are major differnces beteween God and church politics over time. I was raise that CHURCH BELIEVES are GOD. I do not believe that in any way shape or form. now. i want to learn more about other religions because I think they all strive for the same thing Peace and Good will to all... but i dont know what other relgions believe or where they come from ect. thats what i am working on but most of my sorces are books i have read that are wrote from Christian auther and have heavly oppions that i think may not be true. for instanse; your Buddhist/ Pagan Right? ok so the book i read just said that Buddhist believe in reincarnation and that the hight thing you can hope to come back is a cockroach and the lowest is a woman. then it talks about how wrong that is and why. this struck me as officive both to my intelagence and to the Buddhist. maybe im wrong but for a relgian that old and with that many followers... something is wrong with the book or auther one. I live in Tx so there are not many Buddhist here. so this is my way of learning... and i hope that is not offending you or anyone else. I am open minded too for the most part even if im not looking for a new religian i think i need to learn more about what other believe and why to inlighten myself. does that make scence?