Myths & Facts

Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). “In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service isunder orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.

“It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’” In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics, remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees, providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making distinctions between science and religionwhen speaking to park visitors about geologic issues. In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the sale at park bookstores of Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail, a book claiming the Canyon developed on a biblical rather than an evolutionary time scale. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and overruled Alston. To quiet the resulting furor, NPS Chief of Communications David Barna told reporters and members of Congress that there would be a high-level policy review of the issue.According to a recent NPS response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by PEER, no such review was ever requested, let alone conducted or completed. To view the rest of this article, please visit thesource

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My mother has this friend whose daughter got sick from rat pee on her soda can. Sound familiar? You've might have heard the same story. Except that it was someone's boyfriend's brother—or friend's cousin, or doctor's travel agent—who became ill. Either our food inspection system has gone downhill fast, or the story is an urban legend.Urban legends are an important part of popular culture, experts say, offering insight into our fears and the state of society. They're also good fun. "Life is so much more interesting with monsters in it," says Mikel J. Koven, a folklorist at the University of Wales. "It's the same with theselegends.

They're just good stories."Like the variations in the stories themselves, folklorists all have their own definitions of what makes an urban legend. Academics have always disagreed on whether urban legends are, by definition, too fantastic to be true or at least partly based on fact, said Koven, who tends to believe the latter. Urban legends aren't easily verifiable, by nature. Usually passed on by word of mouth or—more commonly today—in e-mail form, they often invoke the famous "it happened to friend of a friend" (or FOAF) clause that makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible. Discovering the truth behind urban legends, however, isn't as important as the lessons they impart, experts say. "The lack ofverification in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us," writes Jan Harold Brunvand in "The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings" (W.W. Norton & Company, 1981). "We enjoy them merely as stories, and tend to at least half-believe them as possibly accurate reports." A renowned folklorist, Brunvand is considered the pre-eminent scholar on urban legends and "The Vanishing Hitchhiker," named for a classic legend, the subject's seminal work. The definition of an urban legend, he writes, is "a strong basic story-appeal, a foundation in actual belief, and a meaningful message or 'moral.'" Most urban legends tend to offer a moral lesson, Koven agreed, that is always interpreted differently depending on the individual. The lessons don't necessarily have tobe of the deep......

By Phil Karayan

The Book the Da Vinci Code is a publishing phenomenon, selling more then 40 million copies, a New York Times bestseller for more then 50 weeks. The Da Vinci Code has caused many to rethink their whole concept of Christianity.   Just why is this book so popular?  Why is there such a fuss being made about a novel? What is the Da Vinci Code? The book is a murder mystery suspense novel, taking place in Paris and London. The story is built around “Facts” that reveal the hidden identity of Jesus. These “Facts” reveal:  • That Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene who had a child who escaped to France. • Mary Magdalene was to head the church, but Peter and the other disciples took over. • Jesus was turned into “God” in order to protect the patriarchal system, the Catholic Church along with the rest of Christianity has worked together to maintain this 2000-year cover up.  • The secret of Jesus’ “True Identity” is maintained by a group known as the “Priory of Sion” that has existed since 1099.  • Documents found in Paris in 1975 confirm its existence. • Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci were Grand Masters in this organization.

What's the Big Deal?  While most murder, mystery novels would not cause much of a stir, the difference here is about the claims in the very first pages of this book.  Prior to the prologue, the book makes a claim of fact.  Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code claims these facts.The Priory of Sion was a secret organization founded in 1099 whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and Leonardo da Vinci. This is based on discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets found in 1975 at Paris’s Bibliotheque National. The Opus Dei is a devout Catholic sect who recently completed construction of their $47 million dollar headquarters on 243 Lexington Avenue. New York City. All descriptions of secret rituals, artwork, architecture and documents are real.Does Dan Brown believe the facts?  Dan Brown was interviewed by Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show, who asked, “How much of this is based on reality in terms of things that actually occurred?”Brown responded, “Absolutely all of it. Obviously Robert Langdon is fictional, but all of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies—all of that is historical fact....

( Continued from Part one )

4. Who was Mary Magdalene?: 'One particularly troubling theme kept recurring in the [Gnostic] gospels. Mary Magdalene….More specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ” (Davinci Code..Pg. 244) 'The Gospel of Philip says that “‘the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, “Why do you love her more than all of us?” ’…As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion in those days, literally meant spouse.' (Da Vinici Code page 246). The basis Brown uses for this claim is the Gnostic Gospels, specifically The Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Phillip, neither contain any mention of Jesus’ marriage to Mary, nor do any of the Gnostic Gospels. Brown’s argument for Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene tries to infer that Jesus married marry from a line in the Gospel of Philip.

• Using the Gnostic “Gospel of Philip” and “Mary Magdalene as the Da Vinci Code argues that Mary was Jesus’ wife (Page 244,246) • Both were Gnostic works which tried to subvert Christianity back to Greek paganism. • The main sacrament in the “Gospel of Philip” was the bridal chamber, which was the way to redemption. • The “Bridal Chamber” was sexual mystery rite, in which the new member would have the right to watch only after he became a “Bridegroom” or “Bride” or “Heiros Gamos” • “Let the others yearn just to listen to her voice and enjoy her ointment…..Bridegrooms and brides belong to the bridal chamber. No one shall be able to see the bridegroom with the bride unless one becomes one.” Gospel of Philip

The Da Vinci Code would have us believe, Jesus and Mary Magdalene were participants in these sex-rites of the Gnostics. The Jesus of the Da Vinci Code is the Gnostic Jesus. Mary Magdalene was part of a group of women who were followers of Christ along with the disciples. She was a witness to his resurrection and healing but nowhere in the Gospels is any marriage even hinted at in the slightest. Jesus healed Mary Magdalene of demonic possession, the idea that Mary was the harlot of Luke 7:36-50 is only made because Mary Magdalene is mentioned in Luke chapter 8, following the story of the adulterous women in Luke 7:36-50....