5.22.2006

Letter to the Editor - The Orlando Sentinel

With all the dialogue surrounding The Da Vinci Code, I'm dismayed that everyone is not just missing but ignoring the point. The real problem is that once you allow yourself to believe one story devoid of factual and historical evidence, you leave yourself open to believe just about anything. Religious leaders and the devout must know this, thus their outrage over Dan Brown's novel.

Despite continual attempts to place Jesus in history, Christian apologists always fail. There is no evidence Jesus even existed, much less that the stories of his life are true; and there is good evidence that Jesus is modeled on earlier dying/rising savior god myths.

Once you've accepted a story as true, and based your life, wealth and power on it, you'll do anything to hold onto it. This is what drives the outrage and fear of this new take on the Christian myth, and results in workshops and sermons to help the faithful convince themselves and others that their fiction is true while Brown's is not. The Gospel writers had just as much evidence for their story as Brown has for his -- none.

Dianna Narciso

Palm Bay

No comments: