The Importance of The Da Vinci Code

Over the weekend I went to see The Da Vinci Code and I have been trying to get through the book. The movie was good, I have no complaints as far as movies go, but I've been fighting my way through the book. I know most people rave about the book but in reality the book is not well written, but this is not what I want to talk about.

There are a lot of people fighting over the book/movie. What each side views as truth and lies, but is this what is truly important about the book? For me no; I'm not a church going and I respect everyone’s right to believe what they want. What I think is most important are the questions that the book raises regarding the formation of the church.

In order to understand the validity of the bible and what it says you have to understand how it was created in the first place. I can't say if how the movie/book shows the bible was created it accurate or not, but I think it does ask question worth asking of any religious book. Who wrote or created the book? What did they choose exclude? What was the ultimate goal of the creators?

Any religious or spiritual book/writing are the portrayal of "facts" as the author hopes to convey. Did the author intend on helping others? Or, is there intent to fool the read? Or, is it simply a misinterpreted work of fiction?

For these reason I believe that the ultimate source for the truth is within. It is within that you will determine if the bible speaks to you or if the Da Vinvi Code makes you question the church. It is our own truth that matters more than anything else.

What the Bleep - Review

So I did some research on the movie, to see what I could turn up. There were some really neat things in the movie, like what your thoughts can do to water. A man name Masaru Emoto did the work on this. From what I read, his work has not been confirmed by anyone else and most scientists would questions his experiments. Basically he did all the tests himself. This meant that he prepared the water and examined it, knowing how they had been labelled. From what I understand to get impartiality, you would need to have one person prepare the water and then another person, with no knowledge of the label on the water, takes the picture. Even still I think that this is a really interesting experiment and I hope that someone picks it up, uses the right methods and reproduces the effects.

The other thing I turned up was the web site of one of the "Experts" in the movie. Her name is JZ Knight, and she is not a scientist, the movie doesn't imply she is so no complaint there. She runs a "School" call "Ramtha's School of Enlightenment". I think that most people that visit her site are going to say this woman is crazy, I don't think so. But, I do think that she had a large influence on the movie. I don't say this as a bad thing about the movie, only because I think people going to see the movie need to know. I do find her beliefs very interesting, and at the risk of sounding like a nut, they are similar to my own beliefs. There are some major differences but there are enough similarities that I don't disregard her instantly.

I also found out the scientists that were in the movie were fringe scientists. What I mean by this is that they are not part of the main stream. Their ideas/theories push the envelope of main stream thinking. Again I don't see this as a bad thing, I think most good, ground breaking theories start off this way.

There is a Wikipedia entry for the movie which I think would be valuable for anyone going to see the movie.

Finally, I would like to say, I really like this movie. I think that if you go in with an open mind, but with the realization that these are not main stream people, the movie will get you thinking and to me that is never a bad idea.

What the Bleep

Yesterday was a busy day for me. My mother-in-law was watching the boy, so my wife and I did a cleaning of the house. My wife said she was hosting a Baby group today and wanted to clean the house; so it was a bigger cleaning than normal. Then yesterday afternoon the neighbour/editor and I went out to see a movie at a small book store/restaurant/theatre here call The Book Shelf. The movie was really good it was called "What the Bleep". It's a movie on Quantum Physics, but it is nothing like you would expect. It's really good and I recommend you go see it. I'm planning on posting something on it because it was really interesting and is something I'd like to share.

So anyway, when we get home the neighbour says she wants to come it and see if the boy is back. I don't think much of it; she always comes over to see him. So I step in the door and see my wife and her parents standing there. No surprise there, they would often stay a little while after dropping the boy off. Then I notice that there is a whole group of people there yelling "Surprise".

My wife was having a party for my 30th birthday (which was at the beginning of the month). It was a lot of fun. Some friends of mine who I don't get to see very often were there, along with a few other good friends and family. I was completely caught off guard. Apparently I'm oblivious, but I'm glad because it was a really good surprise.