CNN Debunks The Da Vinci Code!

Yesterday CNN did an article on the Da Vinci Code. And once again, I was absolutely astonished that the media would actually tell the truth. First 60 Minutes, now CNN? That's it, the world is going to end!

The battle of 'The Da Vinci Code'
With movie release imminent, debate heightens

What follows is my critique of their article. I think it was a very good article!

CNN Article: Why didn't Brown get his facts straight?

I think this is because that straight fact never seems to impress anyone, it certainly doesn't make for a New York Times best seller. Otherwise, Philip Schaff would have sold a million copies of his 34 volume set of Church History.

CNN Article: The Da Vinci Code is looked at as more than mere fiction because it starts with the word "FACT".

I think this is the main problem, people will object to the Christian protest with "Well, it's just fiction after all" but when Dan Brown says that his book is based on fact, and that the "descriptions of documents" are accurate. This implies that it's not merely a fictional book.

I think this is a very clever thing that Brown has done, he can claim that it's based on fact when the book is popular, but if he was taken to court or threatened with his life, he could say "Hey, it's just fiction!"

Da Vinci Code: Priory of Sion

In a shocking turn of events, the media actually published something of actual truth! I find this absolutely fascinating.

60 Minutes did a show on the Priory of Sion and discovered a shocking secret (a secret that a lot of people knew about, but nobody bothered to ask them) – that the Priory of Sion, the mysterious and ancient religion touted in the Da Vinci Code is actually something created in the 1950's.

But it makes for a more interesting story when there are cover-ups and intrigue and of course the church is The Corrupt Profiteering Glutton That Suppresses Truth.

There is actually one cover-up, the guy who founded the Priory forged some "ancient" documents to make it look like his club was older than it was.

Of course Dan Brown fell for it, and now millions of people who have bought the Da Vinci Code have also fell for it. Brown continues to claim that the Priory is protecting a mysterious secret:

The Secret Life of Leonardo da Vinci
A prankster and genius, Leonardo da Vinci is widely believed to have hidden secret messages within much of his artwork. Most scholars agree that even Da Vinci's most famous pieces—works like The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Madonna of the Rocks—contain startling anomalies that all seem to be whispering the same cryptic message…a message that hints at a shocking historical secret which allegedly has been guarded since 1099 by a European secret society known as the Priory of Sion. In 1975, Paris's Bibliothèque Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. French President, Francois Mitterrand, is rumored to have been a member, although there exists no proof of this.

People always claim that the book is based on truth, the only truth there is in the book is that yes the documents and groups talked about are real, but the content of what Brown says is in those documents or those groups is almost completely false.

Read the story for yourself: 60 Minutes: The Priory Of Sion