For someone with a website called ‘The David Code’, it might not surprise you to learn that I just read ‘The DaVinci Code’ by Dan Brown. Actually I read the book after I made the website, actually. It is an excellent book, with a good plot and intriguing history upon which it is based. Of course, many of us already knew that the Bible as written in todays form is the product of the early Catholic church’s influence. Such things stand to reason. In addition, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls a number of years back was further proof that ‘what life is like’ actually did happen. What I mean by that is, we live life every day and it’s dull, boring and relatively predictable. That’s how life is and how it has always been. Stories change it.
And predictably the Catholic Church has come out and declared the book a work of fiction which speads outright lies. A top cardinal advised people everywhere ‘not to believe these fairy tales’. I think he was talking about the Da Vinci Code and not the Bible, but I guess if I had to choose between stories about a mortal man with some great ideas and a son-of-God walking on water and coming back from the dead, I’d have to stick with the one which makes the most sense.
People have put faith in the church for centuries, thinking that they were right in their interpretations of the gospel. But history is written by the winners as they say. The Catholic Church via the Emperor Constantine had taken ownership over Jesus’ message and used it as a tool to control people. That’s why I don’t believe in topics which are taboo. We really have to analyze what we are told from childhood, because the same lies that tricked our parents could be tricking us. We have access to so much history now and so much information which conflicts with official doctrines. The only way that these doctrines can maintain their positions is to encourage a closed atmosphere and a forced taboo over some subjects. Presicely like the church’s reaction to this new bestseller.
I guess we are all somewhat at fault. Human history often has a short memory. We follow the doctrines we are given, assuming that past changes are correct. The people of Afghanistan, during the 70′s were relatively free. The women could wear the latest fashions and travel freely and safely. After the Taliban took over, that behavior was a great way to get yourself shot. Even the Taliban’s beliefs were formed after the Islamic faith underwent a stage of fundamentalism starting in the 1400s. This was around 700 years after Mohammed had died and was mainly a number of cleric’s narrow interpretations of the Q’uran. Societies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran still live under these interpretations.
In the west, during the early days of the British Kingdom, kings were installed by sheer force and manipulation. The principle of the matter was simply just to conquer the land and have it as your own. Nowadays, we keep our kings and queens simply out of a respect for tradition and a disease of people’s minds that somehow makes believe that those of royal blood are inherently better people genetically.
Throughout the world there are failures in the thinking of men and women. Ideas are false, beliefs are false, people choose the wrong things. And most importantly and I hope more people realize this, there are throughout the world people manipulating those false thinking people, encouraging the lies, untruths and half-truths FOR THEIR OWN GAIN. Don’t believe me? Observe.
Governments are example number one. You will rarely hear a government tell you that they want to reduce their size. They will tell you that they need to increase their size and add another department because you are in danger. Without them, you wouldn’t be able to survive. So, you pay more of your money in taxes to keep more of those people in a job. Giant juggernauts like the FDA and AMA, not to mention all the completely ridiculous departments and so-called ‘watchdogs’ which eat up valuable money and wind up costing more all round. Dave’s prediction: coming soon to a government near you, ‘Public software’. Governments will claim that letting private companies supply them with software is not in the interests of the people. Government software departments will rise to create software which is safer, more secure and freely available. (read: buggy, has more holes than swiss cheese, costs a fortune and solves problems you had two years ago).
Student Unions are a similar but current example. When the threat popped up to make unionism voluntary, the first ones in line to complain were the ones whose livelihoods depended on sucking money out of them. We were reminded of all the services that it provides and all the things we will miss out of when no-one pays their fees. To try and reason with this idea is like telling the mosquito to stop sucking and get a job. Services that people don’t need shouldn’t be given money. Services that are essential should be provided by the University. And services that are neither but make life fun, should be financed by smart business. It is in a University’s interest to have a blossoming Union. But the leechers know that the Organic Vegie Food Department and the magazine which is solely the voice of the socialist left probably won’t get any money. In any case, many people will fall victim to the warnings and think “maybe we do need to force people to pay money for a Union that they don’t really use much”. Essentially what has made the government back down from the VSU legislation was pressure and also the knowledge that unions do provide a good training ground for new recruits.
Having said that, there are many people within Student Unions who work their asses off to provide services for others, services which enrich the lives of all students. These people provide real services and I really believe that real services will be provided for, even under VSU.
What kind of news puts the opinion section before the breaking top stories? Oops.. let me fill you in..
I’m pretty much fully recovered from my operation now. My throat’s all better and I’m not in pain anymore. Other benefits include breathing and lack of snoring. Plus, now I feel like updating my page again, so posts like these can see the light of day.
Anyway, I started all this talk about the Da Vinci Code. If you haven’t read it, I’d recommend it. Apart from a few unlikely plot twists it’s a totally engaging read. I finished it in 2 days. It would’ve been one, but people kept telling me things like ‘David, you smell” and “David, eat your dinner” so I got interrupted. In addition, I’m studying php these days to make my site interactive and database enabled. Actually, I realized that I knew it all along. The benefits of a Computer Science degree I guess….
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