Personally, I think it is wrong for the Church to tell people not to read something, it's like telling them not to have an open mind, treating the followers as children and slapping their hand when they do a "no-no". This is their way (in my opinion) of controlling people, just like they have done for centuries.
I read this book recently. The angles and ideas were neat but overall I found the writing style to be a little off for my taste.
Nice work piecing together history. Makes me feel like joining a secret society.
The mention that people are not supposed to read the book seems to ooze 'insecurity'. Why doesn't the church have an nice big book burning festival?
They don't like the idea of someone, from their view point, making a fictatious story about Jesus.
Allthough, I have heard that there are more books of the doctrine that were not included in the bible that states the same claim. Seen that on Discovery channel.
i'm actually going to defy the Cardinal and read the book. All this controversy just makes me want to read it more.. in fact, i'm going to the library right now. Ha! Stupid Cardinal Censorship, take that!
nettie said - This, to put it simply, is why I'm an athiest.
So, the only reason you're an atheist is because you want to defy the Church? I'm honestly not trying to be offensive here, just curious. The reason I'm an atheist is because I've never managed to take the whole "God" thing seriously. I just never needed a mythological figure in my life.
The reason I'm an athiest is because of all the stupid bullshit that goes along with it all. You can't just have a belief, there's all these rules and can and cant do's, read this, don't read this, go to church, have faith in something that can't be proved, don't argue, suck the priests...hang on, getting sidetracked. I just find it easier to think what I want to think. As long as you're a generally good person, does it really make that much difference? Will reading a work of fiction make me a bad person? I don't think so
Hey, if anyone does listen as stops reading the book it'll probably make the people at Saint-Sulpice Church feel better. Apparently the tourists following the clues have been quite a disruption.
Are book burnings really illegal? I don't see why they would be. I mean, if I wrote a book it would be great if there was a book burning for it. First the people burning it would buy a hundred or so copies of it to burn which I would recieve royalties for, then there would be controversy and media surrounding it creating free advertising.
The girl makes a point. Lets endourse book burning!!!! (I'll let Alex in on the secret)
Want me off the shelf???? Then buy me. Then the publishers would have noooo problem printing 30,000 copies.
If you ask me, the Catholic Church would have done way better to just ignore the book entirely; all they've done is give it a bigger scandal, and thus more publicity.
Seems to me that by telling people not to read the book, they're saying "Everyone who feels open-minded go buy the book."
In my opinion, the book still looks like it sucks regardless of the scandal, but the average bear eats this kinda stuff up.
I assume you'd need a permit for book burnings. Otherwise people would complain of smoke-related ailments.
DFStuckey
in Auckland New Zealand
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 | 11:15 PM
To add a point of theoelogical reality to all this, the bible in many translations has the disciples referring to Jesus as "Rabbi"; Although the translation is often "Teacher", the original Aramaic is more correctly the former.
Now, since all the disciples would have been Orthodox Jews, then calling an umariied man "rabbi" would be like calling a pre-ned student "doctor" today: Marraige was part of the qulaifictaion of rabbis, and still is today if memory serves.
either these guys were as defiant of their church as people are today ( There was a word for that at the time - Essenes. ), or there's more to the gospels than the Catholic Church will admit. Anyone heard of the St Matthew Juvena, for example?
