An interesting altenate view's shared in the De Vinci Code, by Dan Brown..Love to hear both sides on an argument, so this is up my alley

Interesting take. It's good to see a book get so much drama.

This book presents a very important message. It is fascinating as a whole and parts of it are great. But near the middle and end it starts to bog down in extra details and history.

It ends well with a very clear message and conclusion. The authors even throw in a little symbology of their own, a very nice touch. I recommend it.

help me in standing firm on what i believe.

2.5 stars-- More than just "it was okay," but less than I "liked it."

I have a few problems with this book.
1) Every chapter after the first has a cheesy little story as an introduction. We meet Carrie, a college student, who obviously is going through some issues. And somehow she doesn't have her head on straight enough to not be persuaded by friends about the sacred feminism, sex, and whatnot. She does have her head on straight enough, though, to tell her boyfriend that she wants something more spiritual than just sex. Oh my god, beat me in the head. Okay, so this little story is a waste of two to four pages at the beginning of every chapter. I'm just skipping them. Uck.

2) The authors sound like they're lumping all "feminists" together and characterizing them all as angry radical feminists who shout at men. We're not all like that, really. And then they seem to classify feminists with pagans, too... Where'd that come from??

3) Okay, fine, the Bible doesn't (in your view) "demonize" and "repress" women. Okay, so we can say that, in your interpretation of the Bible, Dan Brown got that one wrong. Can we address, then, the issue of what some Bible-believers have done to demonize and repress women, and yet still call themselves good Christians? Even though the book, itself, may not specifically say "Women are bad" some followers say "Women are bad. The Bible says so." Let's look at that, and at least acknowledge that, and then say that those people who read the Bible that way are incorrect. Don't just gloss over it and say Dan Brown is the only one who's wrong. Sure, he interpreted your literature incorrectly one way, but many of your followers are interpreting it incorrectly, just in a different way.

4) The authors make some claims that I find completely outlandish. Their *two* chapters on sex made me laugh so much I now don't remember most of them (sex in marriage is good, sex not in marriage is bad and heathenish, homosexuality is baaaaaaad). And at one point, they claim that the Church/Christianity saved women in different cultures by convincing the cultures that their treatment of women was wrong. Somehow, I just don't believe that. Granted, I don't know, but am I really supposed to believe that there was no more "sex-selection infanticide" in China after the Christians came and "saved" the country in the 1880s?

5) Some of their examples seem weak, too. In the chapter about women and how much the Bible and Christianity says they're wonderful, they list different women the Bible speaks about or who were influential in the Church's history, including: Tamar (a widow who sleeps with her father-in-law), Rahab (a prostitute), Ruth ("a woman with sterling character"), the woman who had an affair with King David, Mary, and St. Augustine's mother. In these three pages, they list (with only a brief description) twelve women: one prostitute, two women who have affairs, and two women who seem to only be included because they are mothers to men who advanced the Church (and that doesn't even include Mary, Jesus' mother. Okay, let's count her, too. Now we have three mothers). That count doesn't seem very convincing about what great roles women have played in the Church. And if the women who had affairs did so for noble reasons, please tell me those reasons. Otherwise, you've just implied that they, too, are ... disreputable. So three tramps and three mothers? Those are your stellar models of what Christianity thinks of women? They also use the example of "Katherina von Bora [without whom] Martin Luther could never have become the leader of the Protestant Reformation." Okay, I'm dumb -- who is she? Why couldn't he have lead the Reformation? If you're going to cite an example, could you please explain why that example is relevant? Otherwise, you haven't really made your case, which means your case against Dan Brown is also weak, since you're not *completely* proving your point against his point.

6) The authors make a couple of claims about Dan Brown that I find completely wacky, and they are later summed up in one sentence: "...what Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code told his Harvard undergraduates to do: enjoy illicit sex and invent a spirituality to go with it". Wait, say what? Where was that in the book?? I missed it! Dude, if Dan Brown/Robert Langdon had *told* me to enjoy illicit sex, I would have remembered that!

7) Their citations in the last few chapters get sloppy -- way too many end notes don't match the text they're supposed to refer to. It makes me wonder if it's just sloppy layout or if they're signs of errors in the research.

8) The chapter on symbols cites lots of sites (ha!) that seem a little ... odd. I'm not going to look at these sites myself (I don't want to get on some weird "You visited our site, thanks for worshiping the devil!" mailing list), but I *hope* that the authors did the proper academic research into the background of the websites they used to make sure they were valid, reputable sites.

9) The authors seem strongly intolerant of other belief systems, like paganism, Wicca, and Buddhism. Okay, paganism and Wicca I can understand (these are God-fearing authors, after all), but Buddhism? I didn't know there was anything controversial about the peaceful Buddhists!

10) The last few chapters sound like they're trying to completely scare the Christian readers. Hell! Fire! Devil! Pagans! Witches! Buddhists! They're all trying to change our world! They're going to take over!! Run! They even strongly imply that the hippies of the 1960s led to paganism of today. Whaaaa? And the quote they use of that culture is Bob Dylan lyrics. Okay, wait... Bob Dylan led to paganism?!?

11) "The Bible's claim to uniqueness is not motivated by narrow-mindedness, intolerance, or fear" (228). But your book/claims/proof seem to be. *eyebrow raise*

********************
Okay, breathe. Strangely, this book is still better (in my opinion) than The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in the Da Vinci Code. I'll definitely keep reading it I did finish reading it, because it *does* have some valuable points. There are just points that I have to say "Wha?!?" or roll my eyes, and there's definitely a whole lotta propaganda.

For those who need to develop a balanced view after reading Dan Brown's Davinci code..

I just finished this book. I have many friends that have read or that are reading the DaVinci Code and I saw the movie and was thinking I really need to read something that explains this book. Cracking the DaVinci Code: You're Read the Fiction, Now Read the Facts was so great with explaning their beliefs. I feel equip now that I can explain to them not only where their beliefs don't line up but, how to explain the true circle of Life.

Why anyone would think Brown's book, The DaVinci Code, was factual, with historical evidence is beyond me. Cracking Da Vinci's Code is a fascinating read and debunks the greater of Brown's claims in clear, understandable language. To refute all of the fallacious claims would require a vast tome.

Cracking Da Vinci's Code is worth reading.

mencoba membeberkan kembali kebenaran yang dianggap salah oleh novel The Da Vinci Code. tapi tetap saja kedua buku itu ada salahnya...sebelum mereka membaca al Quran. maaf buka bermaksud membela Islam, tapi...ada hal2 yang mereka tidak ketahui dan membuat mereka sendiri malah bingung sehingga begitu banyak versi2 injil dan alkitab, itu disebabkan krn perbedaan bahasa yg digunakan dan disebar oleh Paulus, bukan oleh Yesus (nabi Isa). sehingga hingga saat ini selalu timbul perdebatan. Kata buku ini maklum saja kalo alkitab modern menjadi berbeda dgn alkitab awal2 Kristen krn para Rasul (yg dimaksud mereka sbg Kristiani adalah murid Yesus) menyebarluaskan ajaran Kristen ke berbagai negara dlama bahasa yang berbeda2. Sedangkan al Quran, hanya 1 bahasa, bahasa Arab dan jikapun diterjemahkan dalam Al Quran harus tetap mencantunkan versi bahasa aslinya untuk menjaga keasliannya. Sedangkan penulis buku ini mengatakan wajarlah jika terjadi perubahan sedikit pada alkitab...
Nabi Isa (Yesus) pernah menatakan yang juga dicantumkan pada buku ni bahwa, akan ada Seseorang yang akan meneruskan Aku, yang akan menyebarkan ajaranNya". Di mana yg tak lain dan tak bukan yg dimaksud Nabi Isa adalah Nabi Muhammad sebagai nab terakhir, tetapi para murid Yesus menganggap bahwa merekalah yang akan menyebarkannya sebagai saksi2 hidup di masa itu..
banyak ajaran Isa yang diubah oleh Paulus termasuk danjurkannya sunat bagi lelaki diganti menjadi baptis, berdoa dengan cara bersujud diganti dengan duduk atau berdiri dgn menyatukan kedua tangan, berdoa tanpa memakai sepatu menjadi pakai sepatu

The title is a play on words. Instead of explaining the secrets and decoding codes supposedly hidden in the Da Vinci code as described in Dan Brown's book, this book literally cracks the code and confronts its claims with truth.

This book answers the core attacks of Brown's book and addresses them for what they are: promotion of goddess paganism and a direct attack against the truth of God's word. This book takes a careful look at Brown's claims of the Bible's demeaning treatment of women, patriarchal vs. matriarchal societies, lost "gospels", church control over books not included in the canon, church suppression of individual expression, church shame related to human sexuality, the "truth" about Christians which ignores true/false conversions (and lumps all Christians under many of the atrocities of so-called Christians, especially during the time of Roman Catholic church control), enlightenment discovered in mysticism, and encouragement of doubting the Bible even as he misrepresents it.

Each of the main issues are answered unashamedly and biblically. As the authors also note, many of the issues revived in Brown's book are nothing new and are confronted in the New Testament with the rising popularity of Gnosticism and syncretism even in their generation. The fact that many of these issues are reviving today shows a connection to a larger spiritual battle in which Satan is actively working through deception, attacking authority of Scripture, and destroying God's people. This book gives helpful counterattacks to Brown's book and flips the deceptive secret knowledge to its proper place as shown in the light of the true knowledge of the Bible.

James L. Garlow wrote this book in a similar way with the novel, which uses a story then he explained. Gives you not only what is fiction fact in Da Vinci's Code, but also all the historical evidence.

This was a fascinating read about the history of Christianity and it's basic beliefs. The authors were at times a little over the top in their commentary about the facts but it was still very insightful.