The Da Vinci Code: An Open-minded Pursuit of Truth?

A recent issue of Parade Magazine reported that Dan Brown hoped the movie about his book, The Da Vinci Code, would be a “quiet invitation to think about faith, religion and history with a fresh, open-minded perspective.” Should we be opened-minded to the possibility that Jesus was married and produced offspring? that Jesus was simply a “mortal prophet”? that nearly everything we have been taught about Jesus is wrong? Certainly! These questions about who Jesus was/is are paramount because of the audacious claims Jesus made about himself. He asserted that he is “the way, the truth and the life” and that “no one comes to the Father except through” him. An open-minded pursuit of the truth about Jesus may be critical in determining where a person spends eternity.

But Dan Brown may not view open-mindedness in the same way that I do. I wonder if his approach isn’t more like G.K. Chesterton’s description of H.G. Wells: “I think he thought the object of opening the mind is simply opening the mind. Whereas, I am incurably convinced we open our minds to shut them on something solid.” Some people are perennial doubters. Their goal seems to be to disbelieve, deride, disparage anything and everything. As a result, they remain lifelong cynics.

In the next few weeks my posts will attempt to unravel some of the claims of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Are Brown’s theories valid? What evidence is there to support his claims? Though the truth of Christianity can never be completely proved, there is a wealth of evidence that should enable us to close our minds on something substantial.