Search - The Da Vinci Hoax on DVD

A Thorough Debunking Of The Phony Myths Claimed in "The Da V

Chris Luallen | Nashville, Tennessee | 11/24/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a documentary devoted to disproving the many falsehoods in the best selling novel - "The Da Vinci Code." Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel, authors of "The Da Vinci Hoax" book, are joined here by Jesuit biblical scholar Mitch Pacwa. Together they discuss the historical and religious scholarship which clearly shows that the grand conspiracy theory laid out in the "Da Vinci Code" is based on a bunch of mumbo jumbo, distorted information and flat out lies with no basis in factual evidence.



For the most part the three participants manage to maintain their objectivity and rely on factual evidence rather than religious faith to back up their arguments. However, towards the end of the film, Pacwa goes off on a bit of a rant, saying that believing in the false claims of "The Da Vinci Code" may put your soul in danger of eternal damnation. As an atheist, I would have preferred that the film stick to the ample historical evidence which disproves "The Da Vinci Code" rather than resort to threats of hellfire and brimstone. But still enough interesting and factually based scholarship is discussed to make this one worth viewing.



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A more honest look at Gnosticism

A. Garcia | San Diego, CA United States | 08/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don't let James from Washington fool you - there is definitely a need to correct falsehood when it is such a national obsession, and there truly are people who believe it (I have met many).



The people who created this DVD and the book did so to ensure that people aren't duped into believing the fictitious concepts presented as "fact" by Dan Brown. You need only look up how many specials on the Da Vinci Code there have been on the History Channel, etc. to realize that people do take this seriously, much to their folly. Note that none of them mention how the Gnostic religion is completely different from the beliefs of Judaism and Christianity.



It teaches that God is beyond definition and emanated the pleroma/fullness out of God's self. Sophia/Wisdom ultimately made this world and the Demiurge through a type of mistake. The Demiurge and the archons are the principalities and powers who use the worlds systems to control humanity and to keep them ignorant of their divine nature.



Obviously this is not at all what Judaism or Christianity teach, and since it goes so far away from traditional Jewish beliefs, obviously "Gospels" written by Gnostics would not be included in Christianity.



Bible Scholar Darrell L. Bock states "The gospels that ended up in the Bible are all from the first century. No gospel of that [Gnostic] list...is actually dated in the first century...the normal date for Thomas is early second century, and there's no other [Gnostic] gospel that comes that early."



This indicates that the Gnostics later took teachings from Christianity, and molded them to fit their own beliefs, writing their own version of Jesus' life and teachings.



Just do a little research on Gnosticism, and it's clear why the Gnostic gospels are not in the Christian canon. Namely, because they were not Judeo-Christian."