The Da Vinci Dilemma

I picked up the paperback edition of “The Da-Vinci Code” in sometime around the middle of 2004 before all the maelstroms surrounding the book were unleashed. When I first picked up the red-colored book with an interesting subject at Landmark book shop at Bangalore, little did I realize that this book would become such a popular book it is right now. There have been other books and initiatives that have equal if not more temerity with which they hit back at the Catholic Church at a place where it hurts the most. Perhaps what separates “The Da-Vinci Code” from the others is how the author has put together a work which seems like a fictional thriller and at the same time has enough ratiocination to shake the basics of a person’s Christian faith.
When I first read it, I must say (so did several millions of book readers who made it a best seller) that it was a novel par excellence. The work did not shake my faith whatsoever as there was nothing much of faith left in me anyways to be shaken. Perhaps it was my college. Or perhaps it was my daredevil friends who had the guts to question everything. Or perhaps it was also myself. Whatever the reason, during my engineering studies, I have clearly grown out of faith. Looking back, I don’t know how it happened. But I remember one day at church as I was waiting for the sermon to get over, I remember a strange logic which was trying its best to get itself heard within me. I think I just watched the movie “Matrix” and it had set me thinking. Suddenly I had this notion that what if all this stuff which is being preached was factually wrong. Why should I unquestioningly believe that this/that scripture was true? When I clearly lived in an era/place where I cannot know/experience a truth/fiction that was written, how can I be expected to accept it as a belief? It sounded simple at that moment so I was just wondering why I should be the only person to have these doubts. Whether the belief was factually true or not is a different matter. My dilemma was simple: How can I accept or believe something which cannot be verified. All I am ready to do is a little experimentation in the hope of experiencing some truth. In other words, all I was ready to do was set aside my preconceived and comfortable notions for some time so that I can be opened up to some truth. Now talk like this to any Christian authority and you are asking for serious trouble. As I did. Strangely very few of my family/school friends could relate to these questions as my college friends did. I must say I scared a couple of my close Christian friends during this time. Some of them ended their conversations with me by saying “Anto, I will pray for your faith…” Looking at them, it was clear that they were looking into someone walking off the charted path for the righteous. Perhaps the intensity of my questions springs from the very way Christianity has been defined to me. You can be a Christian only as long as you believe. What you do is not irrelevant but not as important as what you believe. If you believe in the Christ, what you do is not very important. Though Christianity has some of the most formal Do’s and Don’ts, some of which comes all the way from the papal office, in the name of divine mercy, most of the crap which you do can be easily discounted. And if you lived several hundred years ago, you could buy yourself out of Hell with the help of the papal office. At the same time, if you don’t believe in Christ, you are doomed to Hell no matter how good you are.
Thus Christianity is a classic example of belief system. Morality and rituals take a humble backseat. I have asked the following question to several people who claim that their Christian faith is tenable no matter what Dan brown writes. The question is simple: “Let’s say there was a man who as an infant was stranded on a highly remote island. He was living there all alone. He somehow learnt the knack of keeping himself alive. And devoid of any human contact, he thought he was the only human in the world and lived his life as the situation demanded and one fine day he died. Will this person go to Hell because he never knew Christ let alone believe in Him?” Some of the people whom I asked will sound confused. Some of them will out rightly say Yes to this question. Some of them will spin fantastic tales on how Christ will reach out to every human being no matter where he is. Almost all of the Christians say “Yes”. Some of them who were very close to me won’t dare say “Yes” to this question to me. So they will hesitantly say “No, God will forgive…blah blah..”. Ultimately none of their answers satisfied me. Like this my questioning went on... Finally I came to a calm but firm conclusion: “I do not know”. Mind you I did not reject Christ or whatever. All I said to myself was “I really do not know whether this is true or not. It could be true or It could be false. Jesus could have been God himself. Jesus could have been just another prophet. Maybe he married Mary Magdalene. Maybe he was just a normal human being who wanted to change the society for the better. I am equally open to any of this. But I will accept any one of them only when I experience it as a truth in my life. I do not want to settle for a belief system.”
This indeed is the dilemma of every person who believes. Seems like this iconic novel is made into a full-length movie and the other day I was watching an interview in which some Christian figures were discussing the potential ramifications of such a movie in a new channel. A lot of them were sensible enough to understand that banning the movie even among Christians will be simply fruitless. People will watch this blockbuster. Some were looking really belligerent that this thing is made into such a hit. Some of them simply could not accept it. They are not ready to look into any of it. For them, their belief exists for its own sake. It exists outside the ordinary realm of reality, science, facts and the logic. While I could frankly say that I cannot be like them, I must say that I respect their way of life and let them be their way. Reminiscing on this, I want to quote the following article by Vivekananda. http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/spiritual/swami_vivekananda_talks/bhakti_yoga Even though I have said that I respect the people who believe, I can’t but make the following observation here: there is one reason why Osama Bin Laden is killing around people in the same evangelistic zeal as did the Papal office when it squashed the scientific community in the Dark Ages (And who can forget the White man’s burden) .

I believe it is because of these belief systems. Belief by definition is not bound by reality. Hence one Belief naturally tend to be contradictory with respect to another. Hence the strife.
In the end all I am asking is: “Let you be the way you are. Let me be the way I am. A Believer needs company. A Seeker doesn’t.”