Thoughts on the DaVinci Code..

I can't help thinking that I'm terribly out-of-step with pop culture here. Who cares about the DaVinci Code? That is so 2006. We are on to Angels and Demons now! Well I guess you'll have to check back somewhere around 2012 for my thoughts on Angels and Demons - if the world hasn't self-destructed by then.

Don't worry - I'm not about to offer some sort of apologetic response, pointing all of the lies and historical fallacies in the movie. Obviously that has been done a few times already.

I watched the movie last night with Kaitlyn in an effort to be more relevant (don't laugh!). I enjoyed it, but I think Kaitlyn found it a bit spooky. It is a bit weird to see a murderous self-mutilating psycho-monk focused on Christ so much in his twisted version of 'obedience.' Anyways, it got me thinking about how so many people are naturally drawn to stories of mysterious cults, secret societies, and massive conspiracy theories. I know because I am one of them. That stuff just fascinates me.

The power of conspiracy-filled stories like the DaVinci Code is not in their ability to disprove Christianity or anything historical - they really has no factual basis for doing that. No - the power of such stories lies in their ability to sow seeds of subtle doubt that anything deserves certainty. Being essentially skeptical, they discourage the notion that anything, especially anything old, can be known with any degree of certainty. The skeptic's attitude is always to suspect that whatever the evidence points to, "That's what they want you to believe." Certainty is a futile quest. They do not attempt to argue on any actually factual basis, but on the basis that whatever you think you believe, you might actually be wrong.

On the other hand, I found that the DaVinci Code also fuels that human desire to know hidden truth, the mysteries of history and the world. I don't mean that good and healthy desire to know the truth; I mean that prideful craving for ultimate knowledge - to know the mysteries, to be among the few enlightened ones, finally above the unwashed masses who are blind in their ignorance. The Matrix played on that desire as well.

To such desires, I find Psalm 131 to be a beautiful remedy.

My heart is not proud, O Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.

Remember that this was written by King David, who surely was concerned with "great matters" of international politics, economics, wars, and God's plan for Israel. Yet he knew that He was merely a man and that there were still many things that even he as the king of Israel was not meant to know.