this is stuff you like and I do not like
The Da Vinci Code. I mean I read it once
and thought it was a pretty zippy book
the writing quality didn't really bother
me and the pacing was fast so it was, you
know, entertaining enough plus I do like
puzzles and we got to take a nice kind
of virtual tour of Paris... but boy oh boy
if you know anything about Christianity,
church history, the Renaissance, logic... the
code mentioned in the title will drive
you to despair. did you know that there's
an amazing new theory rocking the world
of flat earthers? did you know that there
was a world of flat earthers that was
there to be rocked?
there was this YouTube video published
not so long ago entitled no forests on
Flat Earth the theory hypothesizes that
the trees and forests that we see on our
earth today are in fact mere pale
imitations of the giant trees that used
to inhabit this flat earth of ours
before being cruelly cut down by giants
with very large chainsaws? I'm not really
sure and the reason I bring it up is
that the Flat Earth Society is an
excellent example of motivated reasoning.
religious belief or no religious belief
may depend on motivated reasoning but
there's no way to prove the existence or
non-existence of a god or gods - how would
you even do that.
but it is reasonably easy to prove that
the world is roughly spherical we can go
into space and orbit the earth we can
see the curve of the horizon from a very
tall mountain or when we go up in a
plane. The ancient Greeks figured out
that the earth wasn't flat by observing
how ships disappeared over the horizon
but if you believe that the earth is
flat then you can also believe in a
massive conspiracy to cover up the truth.
I'm not sure why you'd want to cover up
the shape of the earth regardless of
what that shape is but there we go. the
important thing is that motivated
reasoning says your argument has a tiny
logical flaw and is thus fundamentally
unsound but my argument is
fundamentally sound and thus any minor
logical flaws don't matter. Watching The
Da Vinci Code is a little like how I
imagine a meeting of the Flat Earth
Society. There is a massive secret being
kept from humanity which would rock the
foundations of the world because because
well it just would okay. the plot of The
Da Vinci Code the movie for clarity goeth
thusly:
Robert Langdon is a professor of
religious symbology at Harvard. while
lecturing in Paris he's supposed to meet
a dude for drinks who never shows up
turns out he was murdered and left
himself in a weird vitruvian man pose
to provide clues to solve his murder.
Langdon is a suspect but is told by
Sophie cryptographer and granddaughter
of the murdered man that he needs to
bust out of there and solve this case
with her. and so he does.
turns out Sauniere was a grand master of
the Priory of Sion who protect the
source of God or the church's power on
earth which is the Holy Grail
which is the bloodline of Jesus and not
a cup and they have to compete with Opus
Dei who are also trying to find the
bloodline so they can end it and with
the police in order to find it. and solve
the clues left by Sauniere a with a little
help from the truth revealed by Leonardo
da Vinci in his paintings because he
was a former Grand Master of the Priory
of Sion who are totally not a hoax
orchestrated by a group of proto trolls
in the mid 20th century ho no they were
a real thing honest. That the Priory of
Sion is a hoax is just what they want you to think.
and it turns out Sir Ian McKellen has
been orchestrating the whole thing to
find the Grail and in the end surprise
Sophie is the last remaining descendant
of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is buried
under the glass pyramids at the Louvre
and maybe Robert has an intense
spiritual moment that was what happened
in the book anyway.
the end. Hoo-boy where to start. The da
Vinci Code's dubious grasp of history is
largely down to its source material:
things like Holy Blood Holy Grail for
example. I mean it's totally fine to use pseudo-historical sources for your
fictional novel Dan Brown but maybe
better not to claim at the start of it
that it's totally real and true all of
it very well researched yes yes it is
although doing so means Tony Robinson
ends up getting a job making BBC
miniseries about how all of the claims in
your book are rubbish so I guess you're
providing him with some work. "From the
gospel of Mary Magdalene herself" NO "what
about that figure on the right hand of
our Lord?" that's a dude "Constantine held
a famous ecumenical gathering known as
the Council of Nicaea" oh that's actually
right "the prostitute? She was no such
thing!"
correct well done "smeared by the church
in 591 Anno Domini poor dear" never ascribe
to slander what can accurately be
ascribed to 20% of Judean women in the
first century having the same name. "Jesus
was mortal one day and divine the next!" You have
no idea what first century
arianism actually is do you. the matter
of Jesus divinity was not actually in
question at the Council of Nicaea. the
matter in question was whether Jesus was
begotten by the Father and thus had
always existed or if Jesus divinity was
conferred to him by God the Father who
had created him out of nothing. The
former belief won out by the way but
neither position argued that Jesus was
not divine. Honestly do your research you
can find this out on Wikipedia! The book
and the movie both dig into the Gnostic
Gospels and claim that they thought that
Jesus was just a man. No that is the
exact opposite of what the Gnostics
thought the Gnostics thought that Jesus
had no human body it was illusory and
that he was pure spirit because ugh
would want an icky gross human body urrgh! but
if you really wanted to learn about
Gnosticism or the Council of Nicaea
or the historicity of the gospel of Mary
Magdalene yeah there are other places
you can do that. Right so back on topic
because all this griping aside Dan Brown
is an author of fiction he writes
fictional things which are not true
making stuff up is kind of his
stock-in-trade but oh wow this was a
definite thing when the book first came
out and then again when the movie came
out.The church universally derided it as
abject nonsense some even developed
courses using The Da Vinci Code as a
jumping-off point to talk about the
historicity of the Gospels and Jesus and
Christianity and all of that stuff so
bonus? I mean it's nice to know we can
still agree on some things but really
Dan Brown you can't claim that you've
done all of this very careful research
and then say stuff which is either
dubious like the stuff about the gospel
of Mary Magdalene or just factually
inaccurate like the stuff about the Last
Supper and da Vinci. But it is a tempting
conspiracy theory the idea that there is
a secret about the Sacred Feminine which
has been hidden from the rest of the
world but you you know wassup because you
are special. And given the church's
somewhat dodgy history as regards women
even more tempting. If you're going to
make up stuff for your work of fiction
that's totally fine but it would be nice
of it at least kinda made sense because
as it stands it goes: the source of the
church's power on earth is the fact
that nobody knows that Jesus was just a
regular dude and that he was married to
Mary Magdalene and that they had a kid!
also she's the Sacred Feminine or
something! Because no divine entity in
the mythologies of anywhere ever has
ever ever had sex with a human and
produced offspring. And obviously the
church doesn't believe that Jesus was
fully human and so
couldn't have gotten married and had a oh wait. Once again it was the Gnostics who
thought that Jesus was entirely spirit.
logically Jesus being married or not
married does not change the fact of
whether or not he was divine. and if your
argument here is that he wasn't divine
that's fine, but then why is his wife the
Sacred Feminine? why do his offspring
have quasi magical powers? why would you
then kneel at the tomb of Mary Magdalene
who isn't a goddess she's just a normal
lady? Like there's no reason to assume
that Mary Magdalene is a goddess if
Jesus is just a regular dude then surely
she is just a regular woman and even if
Jesus was a God or divine or whatever
having sex with someone does not
transfer divinity to them! And if your
argument is Jesus had a baby and the
church hid the truth why why this is
never adequately explained and again if
Jesus isn't divine then why do his
descendents have quasi magical powers?
maybe he's a mutant oh maybe he's
Wolverine! but why why do we believe
conspiracy theories why would we believe
this incredible collection of illogical
what? I guess the question is why does
anyone believe anything that's a bit out
there why do people believe in religions
why do people believe in conspiracy
theories why do people believe in I
don't know string theory homeopathy
vaccinations anti vax the science of cow
pats and yes I know obviously all of
those are not considered equally wacky
or out there but that's kind of my point
how do we decide whether or not to
believe something? well when we're young
we tend to believe everything even when
those things are mutually contradictory
because our critical reasoning faculties
aren't really brilliant but as we get
older and our reasoning abilities
improve there are two different
processes which go on when we hear
something depending on whether or not we
want to believe it, depending on whether
or not it fits in with the collection of
beliefs that we have already achieved.
Can I believe it? Or must I believe it?
The part of your brain that believes or
disbelieves information kicks in before
your logical reasoning processes so
first you believe or disbelieve and then
the rationalization happens. It takes
either a complete disinterest in the
outcome (I don't care of X or Y is better)
or a concerted mental effort (I'm going
to try very hard not to let my
preconceived ideas affect this) in order
to even partially combat our need to
believe or disbelieve something first
and then figure out why. we are
pattern-seeking machines and we go with
our gut more times than not. if we want
to believe something: can I believe this?
if we don't: must I believe this? if we
want something to be true if we believe
in the inherent suspiciousness of say
the Catholic Church or large
pharmaceutical corporations or Donald
Trump than anything which confirms our
belief that they are inherently shady
must in fact be the case (There is
obviously a ridiculousness threshold but
depending on a strong your belief is
that can be quite high). If on the other
hand we believe something that is called
into question by new evidence like a
study showing that vaccines are safe or
pictures from the International Space
Station or from Mars or something then
we ask ourselves: must I believe it? and
so we comb it for justification like
minor methodological flaws or conspiracy
theories. everybody wants to be special
and everybody wants to be right and that
my friends is how you get conspiracy. so
you can probably find someone somewhere
who believes the da vinci code is an
important work of fiction with deeply
factual roots in the real Priory of Sion
and etc etc Holy Grail whatever. I mean I
have seen the curve of the earth from
planes... and yet the Flat Earth Society
still exists. Thanks for watching this
episode of stuff you like I hope you
enjoy me ranting about daft things if
you want to support the show then you
can go to the patreon link which is near
my face if you want to leave a comment
do you please tell me what you thought
of The Da Vinci Code but also Tom Hanks's really weird haircut and regardless
I will see you next time!
