Dan Brown, Sex and Religion, Part 2 (of 4)

This post continues a four day series showing how Dan Brown's assertions about the relationship between sex and religion and specifically Christianity. Each day's post is a small chunk of a complete article at my website at www.NewMediaMinistries.org Endnote references will appear at the end of the series.

Assertion 2: A woman becomes sacred through childbearing.

(After talking about the male orgasm and Nirvana, Langdon goes on: )

"Sophie," Langdon said quietly, "it's important to remember that the ancient's view of sex was entirely opposite from ours today. Sex begot new life-the ultimate miracle-and miracles could be performed only by a god. The ability of the woman to produce life from her womb made her sacred. A god.

Brief Answer

This is just New Age wishful thinking. Ancient religions, including Gnosticism, did not view human life as sacred. Bearing a child did not make a woman sacred, and it certainly did not make her a goddess! Only a Pharoah or king or Roman emperor could become a god, and after death at that. Some ancient near eastern religions even taught that mankind was simply created by the lazy gods to do their work for them. There was nothing sacred, nothing inherantly valuable about human life as human life. Judaism and Christianity stood in stark contrast to the other surrounding religions in that they were the only religions that affirmed that God valued human beings. Christianity teaches that we are so valuable to God that Jesus died for us, to save us from destruction. This is why Christians take a stand against abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Human life is valuable, more valuable than any other life in the universe. It is not sacred as in divine but sacred as in set apart for God's glorious purposes. No other religion besides Orthodox Judaism or Christianity affirms this. Hinduism, Buddhism and their New Age perversions certainly do not. These statements by Robert Langdon only show Dan Brown's ignorance when it comes to religion.

Tomorrow I will address:

Assertion 3: Religions demonize sex.

"For the early Church, mankind's use of sex to commune directly with God posed a serious threat to the Catholic power base. It left the Church out of the loop, undermining their self-proclaimed status as the sole conduit to God. For obvious reasons, they worked hard to demonize sex and recast it as a disgusting and sinful act. Other major religions did the same. .... Is it surprising we feel conflicted about sex? Our ancient heritage and our very physiologies tell us sex is natural-a cherished route to spiritual fulfillment-and yet modern religion decries it as shameful, teaching us to fear our sexual desire as the hand of the devil."

What do you think?