It speaks volumes to me that Brown's book has already sold over 40 million copies and that the film is breaking worldwide sales records; it says to me that people are searching; looking and questioning. Very much like Imagesinwords stated her church is encouraging. For the Christians here, how can any inquisitive gesture be wrong? "If you seek the truth...seek and ye shall find" right? For any others a fascinating and rich "expansion" to Western history.
But make no mistake, Brown's novel IS fiction. It overdramatizes points in the same way ANY good Tom Clancy novel does...Brown himself acknowledges it and makes no apologies. A good example here is the portrayal of the Opus Dei; in the novel you might think they are a cult of secret assassins; actual reality tells a MUCH different story; Numieries make up about only 30% of the groups population and for the most part they are only conservative, devout Catholics. In fact, the founder of the lay movement was sainted. There are numerous other examples that Brown lays out that simply are not supported by history OR science, such as the Merovingian line having no DNA characteristics in common with middle eastern descent, etc. Brown's book is fiction...most importantly, the author himself can't say that enoough these days.
The response of both Brown's book and the movie illustrate to me just how hungry people are for proof of "faith"; an oxymoron, of course, but the question of the ages.
