Column: Liberally Speaking
I was reading the Statesman the other day on my way to class and I noticed a section that listed students’ favorite books, music and movies. Browsing through the book section, I noticed that “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown was the second most popular book students are reading.
Hearing only good reports of the book, I picked it up the next day and began flying through the pages. Between class, after class, before I went to sleep and any other free second I had was devoted to finishing the thrilling mystery. I was entirely impressed with the novel by the time I reached the halfway point, and then things became a lot more interesting.
Without giving away the plot, the book brings up some conspiracy theories that are controversial, to say the least. Dan Brown writes of a secret society whose members devote their lives to protecting a secret that would rattle the foundation of modern religion.
It is suggested in the book that the Holy Grail is a secret case of documents that prove Christ was romantically involved with Mary Magdeline. Not only that, but Christ had a child or children with Mary – meaning there is a bloodline that can be directly traced back to Christ on the Earth today. The book claims the Roman ruler Constantine settled debates on the subject when he unified his people under one Christian religion. The religion Constantine put into effect did not recognize Christ’s romantic relationship and announced him as the literal Son of God. He then had all documents that did not agree with his unified religion destroyed, except for a select few that were saved and are said to be the Holy Grail. This information rose many questions for me, as I imagine it did for other readers.
First, does this storyteller, Dan Brown, really know what he is talking about, or is he merely out to make money off historical fallacies? On the other hand, is it really possible that Jesus Christ, the most famous individual to walk the earth, had a wife – or even children?
Being a business major, I have many conservative friends I talk politics with on a regular basis. When I brought up the subject, I received generally the same answer. “Don’t you think the Bible would make mention of something so significant?” and “Wouldn’t this information be documented somewhere other than hidden in a chest somewhere that may not even exist?” While these were all valid arguments, my question still begged to be answered.
As I thought more about it, I realized that the Bible itself was written by man. Not only that, but couldn’t the Bible have been rewritten, or even adapted over time to better cater to modern beliefs? And shouldn’t there be some scripture written in Christ’s own hand or were these some of the documents destroyed by Constantine? I also noticed that modern religion makes no effort to answer any of these questions and almost ignores them completely.
Maybe Christianity has concluded that these conspiracy theories are just that, a conspiracy. And everyone knows that Americans love a good conspiracy, right? But maybe this one has a little more truth to it than the alien abduction stories and bigfoot sightings. While my questions are still unanswered, they are still questions that exist – questions that have great importance, questions that should maybe be given a little more thought.
Adam Strong is a sophomore majoring in business and can be contacted at adamstrong@cc.usu.edu.