Fact or Fiction?

Yes, TDVC is only a book. Why then is there so much uproar about it and why has the book stayed on the top of the sales charts for over a year?

The answer in short is the marketing effort put into a book that is based on a religion that millions of people use to guide their day to day lives. Dan Brown made clear in interviews that this is the HIDDEN TRUTH and that he and his wife are art historians and have painstakingly researched every detail.

You can say that people should read this book and KNOW it is fiction, completely made up. But when you read a story written by an "expert" about something important - like the Titanic or the Native Americans or the Alamo - don't you want it based in truth? And don't you want to learn something about that world while you read? You know the "people in the stories" are false but you want to learn something about what it was really like to live during those times. So you want a "truthful environment". Say you read an Alamo story by the world expert on the Alamo, and he gets to the critical battle. Suddenly "a plane flies by overhead", distracting the Alamo troops, and this is why they died. Wouldn't it bother you? In The Da Vinci Code, we're not just talking about a ship or a fort. We're talking about a church that millions of people trust with their eternal soul. Therefore, most readers of the Da Vinci Code - especially because Dan Brown is going around claiming it's all true - are intensely interested in where the line between truth and lies is.

Think of it in this way. What if you were a Jewish person and this book said "No Jews were actually harmed in Nazi concentration camps. The images seen in the papers were made up on Hollywood sets in order to help Jews take over Israel". Wouldn't it upset you to learn Dan Brown just tossed this myth in to his book that he is claiming is "thoroughly researched and authentic" in its background? Not only is the information incorrect, but it spreads false assumptions against an entire group of REAL people. Now book readers might be angry at Jewish WW2 survivors they meet. This book says it's about revealing truths - but it actually perpetuates many stereotypes.

On the opening page, Dan Brown states:

“FACT: All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

Many of the things TDVC says are not new, e.g. Holy Blood Holy Grail claims similar things to TDVC. What is new, however, is that the errors of TDVC seem to be reaching a previously untapped audience, those who enjoy fictional content rather than theological or academic material.

I like how Lisa puts it:

Don’t believe the web. Don’t believe this website. Look through the questions people ask, and then find the answers from a REAL SOURCE – the actual source materials of the Bible, Leonardo’s writings and works. This site should merely provide you starting points to investigate.