Finally read the DaVinci Code

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

From my reading, I don't gather that pagan cultures historically were sexist, when women were genuinely revered as life givers (not just historically in fact, this is a present-tense belief system as well). But I felt Dan Brown's (mis-)representation of this, relegating the "divine feminine" to this description of a woman as a "vessel" - was/is sexist. This word, and concept, was pretty central to the whole theory/plot of the book. There's a big difference between being a life-giver - active, powerful - and being a container (for a life to pass through - passive, an object). Like I said, long discussion.

Maybe it's because I am a man that I didn't react to the word "vessel." I was more intrigued with the notion of a culture that revered women.

I felt the central theme of the book was that the male dominated Christianity actively sought to destroy the female dominated pagans. And the entire book was exposing this massive cover up.

It seems that it would be counter to his own objectives for the book to intentionally insert a sexist label into a key passage of the book.

Would there be a more appropriate metaphor he could have used that wasn't sexist?

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

BB

I felt the central theme of the book was that the male dominated Christianity actively sought to destroy the female dominated pagans. And the entire book was exposing this massive cover up.

That was also the impression that I got from the book. Some believe that at one point in history, the Catholic Church felt threatened by the role of woman in the church.

For instance, some believe that in the story of Adam & Eve, Eve is deliberately depicted as being the one who leads Adam to do wrong, instead of visa-versa. Also, some believe that the depiction of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, was a coordinated attempt to discredit her true position in the eyes of Jesus.

I felt that the book was very complimentary toward woman, and tried to point out their importance to the church.

[Hostelling Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hostelling]

Moderator May Want To Shift This To Another Topic

This particular war we are fighting now is not Islam vs. Christianity. Actually, this war does not have a clear purpose, but I know it is not about religion.

Is this self denial? Or another example of the failure of the educational system to teach world history. How can we understand todays events if we do not know what went before?

The muptiple assults, that spanned years, on New York and the twin towers were financed by some of the wealthest men in the Middle East. Therefore they can not tell us this is a case of those who have not, verses those who have.

A distillation of their words; they attempt to distroy us because we are different. How do they express we are different? Religion!! They create group unity by creating a common enemy based on difference.

We face a world political group, which crosses over may national boundries, whoe's intent is world domination. This is not the first time such brutes have used a religious banner for such purpose.

These political leaders may be trying to recreate their past Islamic glory days; the Ottoman Empire. To Ottoman understanding, the state's primary responsibility was to defend and extend the land of the Muslims and to ensure security and harmony within its borders within the overarching context of orthodox Islamic practice and dynastic sovereignty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire

The current national tension in the middle east did not start with the establishment of a jewish state at the end of world war II (a war that had religious overtones in north Africa). The current national tensions can also be traced to world war I and the break up of the Ottoman Empire (a war with definate religious overtones both in europe, north africa, and the middle east).

As we see their struggle for domination (justified or otherwise) in such diverse places as Oceania, Africia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, we fool ourselves if we believe they will leave us alone if we just go home and close the shutters. (after all we are the common enemy from which they derive their unity).We tried that route with the last "Axis of Evil" just prior to being drawn into world war II.

[hope54 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hope54]

Interesting discussion! To me as well it feels like Christianity became patriarchal within the first 200 or 300 hundred years after Christ.

The finding of the manuscript (in the twentieth century) written by Mary Magdalene indicates the huge impact women had on that tradition.

Hope

[shopgirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shopgirl]

I just took out that post about wars, because it was too political. I edited it just after you quoted it. I didn't take the time yesterday to take that post out but should have.

I am not naive about history, which was my minor.