Neo-Gnosticism 2/28/11

Today in religion class we unraveled neo-gnosticism, a foreign idea to most of us. We discovered that neo-gnosticism is a philosophy, not quite a religion, in which the ultimate goal is to discover your inner self, your true meaning. This philosophy is very different than traditional Christian views. It brings up the clash of selfish vs. selfless. Christians like to view Christianity as a selfless religion, helping others and stereotypically, as Steven Timmis said, helping little old ladies with lots of bags cross the street. Christianity, unlike neo-gnosticism, is a very companionship-full religion, all about others and helping them. However, neo-gnosticism has its own views. It is very selfish, as we would put it, where they only strive for self-fulfillment. There is no salvation in neo-gnosticism, just the pride of knowing your true self. If this is true, I would not think that anyone would be neo-gnostic, something that was not made clear in the presentation. However, I believe it was a very informative presentation, but not completely clear at times.

Group 1 - Why was the Da Vinci Code so popular and controversial? 2/24/11.

Today during religion class, the Da Vinci code was introduced to me as a very controversial topic. The Da Vinci code contains many factual errors, but that is not a significant problem since it is labeled as fiction. However, when asked how much of his book was true, Dan Brown (the author of The Da Vinci Code) replied, "all of it". This is a very big claim, since much of the book's historical information can easily be proved wrong. He was accused of deliberately presenting a fictitious book as historical fact. There are many possible explanations as to why Dan Brown would have written this book this way. Perhaps he was trying to convey the difference between true and false information. With his, book, he is displaying false conspiracies that may exist, and telling about whether they are true possibilities or just scams. Perhaps, like Steven Timmis said, the book became popular because popular people have read it and talked about it, making more people interested. For example, if Oprah read and complimented the Da Vinci Code in one of her shows, half of the world's women would get and read the Da Vinci Code. Also, because the Da Vinci Code was written as a fictitious novel, it is not assumed to have factual information included, contradicting Brown's statement. Brown creates this controversial environment very meticulously, and is a great teaching aid to questioning teenagers.

The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code is a mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. The overall plot of this novel is describing Robert Langdon's attempts at solving the murder of renowned curator Jacques Sauniere of a museum in Paris. The movie goes on to discuss the methods of Langdon, and what he discovers the more he investigates. They discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to Mary Magdalene.

Myth of Christian Origin

Dan Brown has recreated some of the great myths, in fictionalized forms, of the postmodern world. He has taken a set of ideas and unsure historical reconstructions, each non-yielding in itself, and intricately combined them into an exciting plot, with several implausible elements appear as if it were true. Books of this type seem to believe that mainstream Christianity thinks of Jesus as a divine, keeping the Church's political power, whereas secular traditions see him as a human. If we see Jesus' body under a hill, can we accept that he was ever divine? There are five main parts to the myth of Christian origin. First, there are hundreds of other books about Jesus, and the ones discovered in Egypt sixty years ago give the real truth about Jesus. They preach him more as a religion teacher and a human being rather than a divine being. Second, the Gospels were written later, aiming to divinize Jesus. They were accepted at the time of Constantine, and secular voices were silenced. Third, Jesus was not as the Gospels depicted him. He was a mortal human, a spiritual teacher, that's all. He may even have been married and expecting a child, when he died. Fourth, Christianity was based on a mistake. Mainstream christianity is sexist and anti-sex. It is aimed at social power and wealth. Fifth, it is time to give up what the Church has preached about Jesus for so long, as it is incorrect spiritually and historically. This may revive the truth for why he lived, and even died.