One of the claims made in the DaVinci Code is that Leonardo DaVinci frequently utilised the number 1.618 in his art and drawings. This number allegedly represents the most common ratio within biology. It is the ratio that DaVinci celebrated in his famous "Vetruvian Man" drawing.

(The number 1.618 is referred to in the DaVinci Code novel as the "Divine Proportion". It occurs so frequently in nature that mathematicians regard it as beyond the possibilities of mere chance. This number is the Divine Proportion or Divine number. Hence, 1.618 Reasons to Refute DB's DaVinci Code is a coded title itself!)

The Story...

	1. The story of the DaVinci Code starts off in the Paris Louvre where an Assassin (Silas) from Opus Dei murders its Curator who is also the Grand Master of a secret society, The Priory of Sion, who are greatest enemy of the Roman Catholic Church due to a secret they have guarded since 1099 AD when the Knights of Templar stumbled across first century documents hidden under the site of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem (which they captured during a Crusade).
2. The French version of the FBI arrive at the Louvre and discover the dead curator lying naked in the form of the Vetruvian Man in a circle drawn in his own blood, and a bloody cryptic message written beside him. They call in a visiting American Harvard Professor of Religious Symbology, Robert Langdon, who coincidently happens to be lecturing in Paris at this time, to help them decipher the strange message.
	3. As the French investigators seek answers from Langdon, a female member of their Cryptology Department (Sophie) arrives with an urgent message for Langden supposedly from the American Embassy. But her message is actually a warning to Langden that his life is in imminent danger. He excuses himself to go to the Men's Room where Sophie meets him to help him escape the French Police's impending arrest of him for murder. But instead of fleeing they give the impression that they have fled but backtrack to re-examine the cryptic message.
4. In re-examining the cryptic message, Langdon is told by Sophie that the dead Curator was her Grandfather, who raised her (since she was an orphan). They then decipher the first layer of the cryptic message with this critical piece of information and discover that the Curator has hidden a mysterious looking key in a particular piece of art for Sophie. With that key in hand they flee the Gallery to retrieve whatever the key would unlock.
	5. With the contents in hand they are hotly pursued by the French Investigators and flee to the country mansion of an academic friend, a wealthy English professor, Sir Leigh Teabing. They show him their discovery.
6. Sir Leigh Teabing explains what the mystery is all about. Apparently the secret being guarded by the Priory Sion is the identity and location of the "Holy Grail". In French this is translated: "San Greal". But Sir Leigh Teabing tells them that is not a physical challice but something much more controversial: the bloodline of Christ. In French, this is "Sang Real" (Holy Blood) and Teabing shows an ancient manuscript where one member of the society accidently let loose with the secret.
	7. Not only are the French Investigators aware of where Langden is (due to a tracking device) but so is the Vatican's Opus Dei. They have sent their Monk-Assassin to go their and seize the "keystone" to the Holy Grail from Langdon, Sophie and Teabing. But Teabing overpowers the Assassin moments before the Police burst in. Narrowly escaping the French FBI they flee to Teabing's private plane.
8. Teabing tells them that based on his research the secret of the Holy Grail is hidden somewhere in an ancient church in the United Kingdom. But the most significant claim of Teabing and Langdon is that the Holy Grail is actually the royal bloodline of the union of Jesus Christ and Mary Megdeline. He tells her that the Priory Sion has had Grand Masters who have been charged with the secret which would bring down the Roman Catholic Church. Among these Grand Masters includes Leonardo DaVinci, who cheekily revealed clues to the nature of this secret in many of his pieces of art.
	9. There's a few dramatic twists.
10. The Bishop leading Opus Dei is frantically trying to ensure that his mission is successful.
	11. By this stage the main message of Dan Brown has now been preached and the conspiracy has been well and truly planted in the minds of his readers.
12. And there's always a hero and the secret lives another day, although there's now supposedly 40,000,000 people who now know!

Download a Powerpoint Presentation (with notes) refuting the claims of the DaVinci Code.

Listen to Dr Andrew Corbett's presentation "1.618 Reasons To Refute Dan Brown's DaVinci Code"

FALSE CLAIMS MADE IN DBs' DaVINCI CODE...

• That there is such a thing as a "Holy Grail" and its recovery was central to the Crusades

• That Jesus Christ was just a man and was made into a "god" by Constantine in 323AD

• That Jesus Christ and Mary Magdelene married and had a daughter named Sarah

• The early male-dominated church leadership resented Mary Magdelene and persecuted her by reinventing her as a whore in their Gospel accounts

• The bloodline of the union between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdelene is the essence of the "holy grail"

• This secrect of the Grail's true identity has been guarded by a secret society (the Priory of Sion) since 1099 and includes Leonardo DaVinci, Isaac Newton, and Victor Hugo as some of its Grand Masters

• The New Testament was a fairly late invention developed by Constantine to take over Christianity through a State Controlled Church (the Roman Catholic Church). It is most definitely not from God, claims DB's DaVinci Code.

HISTORICALLY INACCURATE-

The DaVinci Code is riddled with major historical inaccuracies. It makes bold claims based on a faulty account of history. For example, it is claimed that the first and second century Gnostics celebrated pleasure and sexual union. The exact opposite is true. The Gnostics actually regarded the material world as inherently evil and this especially pertained to humanity. Hence they had a real problem with the early Christians who claimed that the Son of God came in the flesh. We read of the of the early symptoms of this in John's epistles.

1John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
2John 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

ILLOGICAL PREPOSITION-

As the title of the story suggests, the entire argument almost rests entirely on the art of Leonardo DaVinci and in particular his painting of the Last Supper. This piece of art is treated virtually as a photograph of the actual event it allegedly portrays. This is incredibly illogical since it was painted some 1500 years after the event! But DaVinci's painting is treated almost as a security camera snap shot of the actual Last Supper.

NON-EXISTENT SECRET SOCIETIES-

I reckon it was a stroke of genuise to have Tom Hanks play Robert Langdon in the movie of this story. Hanks brings to the screen a wealth of acting experience needed to take a fabricated fictional fantasy story and weave the odd historical landmark into it (thus redefining that historical event or personage) since he brilliantly pulled this off in one the biggest movies of all time- Forest Gump. In that movie, Forest Gump is someone who apparently had a hand in bringing the Vietnam War to an end, the Nixon Administration down, the patented smiley face craze, the financing of the fledgling Apple Computer Company, and a host of other significant latter 20th Century American events. One can only wonder how history would be rewritten if the entire global film archive of the 20th Century was lost except for Forest Gump, how historians in 1,000 years would view the events of the 20th century differently.

One of the greatest dupings in the latter half the 20th century, however, was not Forest Gump but the forged creation of the French secret society- the Priory of Sion. So elaborate was M. Plantard's claim for the French throne in the 1960s that his hoax involved the forgery of documents to look like thye had come from the Middle Ages and then have them planted in the National Library of Paris. Much of Dan Brown's case is based on this now debunked con job.

The DaVinci Code would only be a nice, well-written thriller if it wasn't for Dan Brown's assertion that everything within it is based on fact and is historically accurate. Since he does this it deserved to be held to account through the rigour of examination based on what is known to be clearly historic fact. In this test it fails miserably. But none of this will be news to the believer whose Christianity rests not on whether or not there really is a Holy Grail (something that was invented by the way in the 11th century) but on the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit within their heart.

Andrew Corbett