Hi Art, Yes, Von Daniken is light years ahead of Brown as a writer (excuse the unintended pun!) You have hit on one of my pet peeves, the Western education system. Our governments are ALL creating brainwashed robots via our school systems who are taught what to believe, but never taught to think for themselves. Oh no! If they learned to think for themselves, they might actually get ideas that would make future ultra liberal governments uncomfortable! I am SO thankful my dear wife convinced me to home-school our children. They not only know how to read, write and cipher well, but they also know how to think for themselves and are always a pleasure to converse with. They have their OWN opinions about things, and will never accuse their parents or anyone else of cramming something down their throats, because they have been taught to question everything, one of the KEY principles of free thought. Our children also dance (ballet, tap, jazz, highland), sing (our oldest boy is an award winning singer), and act. They have been on stage their whole lives, love it, and are comfortable in front of large audiences. Imagine what this kind of education will do for them! The modern Western school system, combined with the mindless drivel on TV (yes, Gary, we have "reality TV" here too) serves to put countless young (and older) minds to sleep permanently, while leaving people convinced that they know all the secrets of life and that anyone who disagrees with them is simply uneducated! Competition is another disappearing idea in the Western world, even though it's one of the key things that has made us so successful. In our modern schools, competition has given way to "self-esteem." Self esteem is one of the most ridiculous concepts I can even begin to imagine! Self confidence is good. It means that you have a good reason to believe in your abilities and are comfortable with yourself. It comes from learning, striving, competing, and successfully achieving various levels of success and completion as you go through life. Self confidence comes when people other than yourself approve of your performance in life. Self esteem, on the other hand, as taught in modern schools, means that you personally esteem yourself highly whether others approve of your performance or not. What this is now doing is creating a whole generation of young people who think they're great, can barely read or write, can't think for themselves, and have no work ethics. Basically, it means our schools are producing a very large group of unemployable youth, because when many of them finally reach the age where they actually have to perform well, like it or not, in order to get paid, no smart business person will be willing to pay them. In the mean time, our society as a whole is sticking its head in the sand, believing whatever it wants to, including drivel like the Da Vinci Code, and sits around talking about the boneheads they watched on TV last night, rather than something truly useful and interesting. It's no wonder we're in trouble. God bless, Dave

Hi Gary, Thanks for the link - it is a great article, and very close to my heart. Personally, I absolutely detest ANY "reality" show. They are absolutely mind-numbing, kind of like watching grass grow. We had another really stupid show on TV here, a burnt out, pathetic rock star has-been and his family at home. Once a week, people all over North America tuned in to the stupidity of a man who has fried his brain on drugs and can't say more than two words without the "f" word in between. What is absolutely stunning is that it was the top-rated show on TV while it ran (I think his mind is now so far gone, the show had to end.) I'm very pleased to know that there are still people here in this community who have better things to do with their time than vegetate on TV, and who still think, have opinions, and aren't afraid to share them! God bless, Dave

Hi Kate, It is interesting that on the very first page of the story, right before his prologue, Brown claims to make some statements of fact that are, in fact, false. For example, he states that the Priory of Sion actually existed, when in reality, it was the work of a convicted 20th century con artist. Much of Brown's research is similarly flawed, making the whole novel a waste of time for most true students of history to read. Not even his settings are accurately portrayed in the story. Perhaps he thought that today's society is too stupid or ignorant to know the difference. I hope he's not completely right. People in this modern world will believe what they want to. Many subscribe today to the idea of creating their own reality, which is one of the most ignorant, self-deceiving, and ultimately dangerous directions I can imagine anyone taking. The Bible says, in 2Timothy 4:3 - 4, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." This is exactly what is going on with The Da Vinci Code. People do not want to consider anything that does not fit their idea of what the truth is, so they look for others to make statements that fit their outlook on life, never checking the so-called facts to see if they will stand up to scrutiny. My personal belief is that a person should question everything. Absolute truth must exist, as the opposite is a paradox (Truth does not exist). Something that is absolute cannot be destroyed by questioning, challenging, or attacking in any way. Therefore it is a worthwhile endeavour to question everything, as it is the only sure test of the truth. Note that while there are some things that cannot be ultimately proven by questioning and studying them, all the known alternatives can be reasonably dismissed by using what is called in law the "weight of evidence." The only way to discover where the majority of the weight lies IS to queery the evidence. God bless, Dave

Hi Dave, You would have to be talking about that drug-crazed moron Ozzie Osbourne and his equally dopey family. They are all nuts. I watched a few minutes - again just to see what people were raving about. I must be a misfit or something coz I just don't get these shows at all! They are all pure rubbish in my opinion and I seriously question the sanity of everybody who watches them. By the way Dave, that article I wrote bagging the crap out of Big (Yawn) Brother has been picked up by a number of newspapers around the world. I am very pleased to be able to voice a strong stance against the lowering of public television standards. Gary

Hi Gary, You got it! I would have to venture that yours is a very pleasant and kind description of the Osbournes! It gives me hope to know that newspapers are printing your article! Perhaps there are a few of them still left who would rather print the truth than what they think might help sell papers. Personally, I've found so many typos, spelling mistakes, grammatical and copy errors in modern newspapers, that many have landed in a crumpled heap on the floor. It's good to know that some of them will have at least one good, well-written article in them! God bless, Dave