Thiering, Revelations and da Vinci
I have just finished reading The daVinci Code and I loved it!
In Uni days I took the class “Biblical Studies” as an interest elective. The lecturer was Barbara Thiering and I felt at the time that she did an excellent job of revealing several belief-shattering concepts to us…
- most societies have creation stories that are similar to the one(s) appearing in the Old Testament
- there are other flood stories out there (Utnapishtim from the Gilgamesh Epic comes to mind) - move over Noah
- the Bible’s contents were decided in committees via votes
- there were many other sacred writings that were rejected for various reasons by the committees
- the Dead Sea Scrolls helped to sort fact from fiction in the accepted biblical accounts
While my friends in that class did not perceive a conflict, I found it all to be profoundly disturbing. This notion (held since childhood) that God somehow dictated the bible was established in our minds by the stories of Moses receiving the 10 Commandments, God talking through the burning bush and Saul/Paul hearing the voice of God on the road to Damascus.
To find out that the Bible was all a man-made notion was quite something at that age - especially having had quite a deep involvement in church up to that point.
And now to read the wildly successful daVinci Code - complete with interesting mathematical and other mysteries throughout - was very satisfying.
It seems inevitable that people need some kind of religion. Why are many of those religions perverted so badly in the hands of men (usually men - few religions give women much power) and end up causing a lot more harm than good? Some possible answers…
- power
- greed
- money
Hmm… same list of reasons that people go into politics and business…
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Tang Kim Seng said,
January 29, 2005 at 6:17 am
It’s interesting to know of someone like Barbara Thiering who would speak so boldly about the truth when she revealed those belief-shattering concepts. She impressed me as someone sensible and logical, as she approached the subject matter based on facts rather than belief. In the ancient days of say, Joan of Arc, Nostrademeus or Martin Luther, such relevations would have been branded as heresy - a risky business treaded with caution by many, except for a few bold ones who made their names in the history books.
I believe all religions are intrinsically good. Otherwise, why the large followings ? But I also agreed that some were perverted so badly in the hands of men due to power, greed and money that they became no different from say, politics or business.
This reminded me of one of Mel Brooks’ madcap movies where he tried to make fun of the ancient past. There was a scene where Moses came down from Mount Sinai holding 3 instead of 2 tablets. Then, he tripped and one of the tablets was shattered. Oops! Anyway, this explained why there were only 10 commandments instead of 15. Another scene he made fun of the Inquisition doing their infamous stuff on the Jews! Maybe he was trying to push his luck even further, but I wasn’t amused. He was later scorned by the critics and media for his anti-semitic views. Ahh, risky business indeed!
fred said,
February 3, 2005 at 3:43 pm
But Mel Brooks is Jewish…?
Honey said,
January 5, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Well if the Bible account is correct, then of course other societies have creation and flood stories. All nationalities have descended from Noah, so many would have this historical information handed down from one generation to the next in some form or another. I don’t see how this is anything but convincing evidence in support of the Bible being factual.