What's Da Vinci got to do with it?

Hands up whose read/seen the Da Vinci code? A good yarn I reckon - but not a new one - the first conspiracy theories about Jesus being married to Mary of Magdala were in the 13th Century! From a purely historical point of view it has less going for it than Elvis being alive and the moon landings being fake. As a novel - it's a page turner, but not high class literature. Why then is it such a phenomenon? Could it be simply that we like to bag the establishments (in this case the Roman Catholic church)? Maybe - it is that we still don't know what to do with Jesus - we try and make him human, just like us. Funnily enough - Christianity has always claimed he's fully human. There's no evidence at all that he had a child - but I'm sure he was biologically capable. It's that other bit about him - that he claimed divinity - that tends to be the stumbling block. After all, Christianity has shaped much of the Western world - if it is based on a man who claimed to be God, yet was a liar or deceived, then much of the foundation of our civilization is based on the words of a madman! Kinda tricky isn't it?