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The DaVinci Code

I saw The Davinci Code last Monday night, and I can’t say that I thought that it was good.  If anything, it’s a so-so movie for me.  I haven’t read the book myself, but it seemed like it didn’t belong in movie format.  There was maybe a bit too much to digest too quickly, and that made the plot seemed to be very mechanical and rocky.  It wasn’t a bad movie either, and I was mildly entertained throughout.

However, the gem of the movie was the scenes that showed “history” such as how the Bible was written, and all the little conspiracy theories surrounding the church through the ages.

Yesterday I chatted with a friend back home about the movie, as she’s a devout Catholic.  Interestingly enough, the movie really challenged her beliefs.  She mentioned that before she used to take in whatever her church told her, and that the Bible was unshakably the “truth”.  That was that.  But after seeing the movie it provoked her to question the validity of the Bible, if there were many parts missing, or if some parts were simply added.  It serves as a good reminder that the Bible, like any book, is written by man.

That in itself is enough to go see the movie.  I’m glad that the movie did come out, and I find it predictable that many churches would denounce it.  I’ve heard that many churches have warned their goers about the movie, and to avoid it if necessary.  How can we search for the truth if we only look for it in one direction?

In my mind there’s a clear separation between religion and spirituality.  Religion to me is an attempt to formally organize spirituality, and in doing so it often misses its mark.  It ends up being a method to control the masses and become too political, and too strung up on its own power.  The “truth” stops being something one discovers for oneself, and becomes a string of dry words, pre-packaged in a book for mass consumption.  Spirituality on the other hand is the search for the truth, and discovering how we belong to our “reality”.  I think it’s something we have to pursue and find for ourselves, and that there’s no quick and easy answer.  We can’t hit up the church/temple/synagogue/Quickie Mart for easily digestible goodies.  If conscience cleaner was cheap they’d be selling like hotcakes at the supermarket.

So basically all I’m getting at is that The DaVinci Code is a good thing for many of us, as a lot of us are too lost in the blindness that is “faith”.  Whatever happened to some good introspective critical thinking?

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