in thoughts...

finished reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
one of the best books i've read recently.
well, considering how few books i read,
one of the best books i've ever read.

and though it's fictional
(based on a lot of fact and findings though)
at numerous points, it touched on the many points i wondered about
about religion, God, and humans
and yes, though it's fictional,
it's helped me get a clearer perspective
and i can safely say for now
that i won't be going into any religion anytime soon
still too much to find out, too many doubts

"More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion..."

"... history is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books - books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?'... By it's very nature, history is always a one-sided account."

one point i've always been uncomfortable with - the Bible is written by Man.
Not only that, but that what was compiled into the Bible,
were selected by a small group of powerful men.
In fact, according to the book, chosen by Constantine the Great.

"Anyone who chose the forbidden gospels over Constantine's verson was deemed a heretic. The word heretic derives from that moment in history. The Latin word haereticus means 'choice'. Those who 'chose' the original history of Christ were the world's first heretics."

A friend asked me, what i have to lose by accepting Christ.
Admittedly, nothing.
But why pay lip service and say i've accepted Christ
when in my heart i still have doubts?

and so some say that the End of Days is coming.
maybe that's why my friend is speaking to me more often about Christianity.
hoping that a friend (me) can go to heaven if the End does come.
hey.. i appreciate the kind intentions
but i replied that i am learning more and more
and i'm not stopping yet
if the End of Days come before i proclaim myself a Christian (or otherwise)
well, i'd say that when the time comes,
i'll stand in front of the One who'll judge me
and the One alone will judge to see how far i've come, how hard i've tried

something else about the book
the search for the truth
turned some people to the wrong path
the quest to cover up important secrets
led to bloodshed - in the past it happened, in the present it happens, in the future it will happen
blind faith and desperation
resulted in people being pawns to do evil

2 people, on separate occasions, mentioned that when bad things happen to us
it's not God's way of telling us that this is the wrong way to go
but rather because we were deceived by Satan and made a bad choice

well i dunno why i'm taking so long
and why some people don't seem to have such problems
maybe Satan is throwing me a lot of red herrings (that's supposed to mean misleading clues yeah? can't remember)