Yes, so Christians worlwide are protesting the release of The Da Vinci Code. Yes, they're pouting and whining about how it portrays specific sects of Christianity and takes liberties with its not-even-remotely-unique interpretation of the history of the religion and its iconic hero, Christman (or, as he is known in the UK, Captain Christ). And yes, you've already read more blog entries than you care to count which either gently or derisively reproach the irate religiosos with the obvious: "It's just fiction!"

After all, it is just fiction. Poorly written fiction, but fiction nonetheless.

But many rational folks are missing the even more obvious: these religionists are people who have been brainwashed into thinking that when something has been written, it is being offered as absolute truth. They treat their Babble accordingly. They treat the Harry Potter series accordingly. They treat any written work that explodes into mainstream culture accordingly, and therefore it's no surprise that they are treating The Da Vinci Code the same way.

These are the same people who can't understand how part of a piece of work can be wrong, yet the rest still present valid and useful information. That's what leads them to believe that mutable scientific theories are flat-out wrong when new information is found that contradicts just some of the previous data. They believe this because they must — because, according to their beliefs, if any one part of their Babble is shown to be incorrect, then it is suddenly not the infallible Word o' God™ they hold it to be, and their entire worldview is blown. This is also why they steadfastly and unswervingly support every self-contradictory or nonsensical passage in the Babble, because a mistake in one passage simply must, according to their beliefs, result in the entire thing being thrown out.

So it's really no surprise that they can't understand the difference between fact and fiction; they've been instructed to swallow so much fiction as fact in their cultural upbringing (or born-again brainwashing) that, to them, there really is no difference. Hence: their laughable outcry regarding the Da Vinci Code movie. They simply can't wrap their minds around the whole "fact/fiction" disparity. In most cases, it's not even their fault — it's how they've been trained from birth. Of course, that doesn't mean that we can't point and laugh.

But if you really want somebody to laugh at — and we're talking about a hearty belly laugh here — how about the albinos protesting The Da Vinci Code's portrayal of a crazy albino assassin? Hell, we figure any day now, someone's going to be boycotting Lucasfilm for never presenting a Hutt in a favorable light. Sure, laugh now — but just wait 'til the Jabba fans start their marches. Who'll be laughing then?

The folks at the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (!) try to address the "It's Only Fiction" point by asking for "examples"(read: rumors) of harm that this novel has caused. My favorite so far is "Moslem Does Not Convert." Catholics do love their apocryphal tales. . .

I think that the most vocal people protesting the release of this movie are the critics.

I blogged about this myself here and how they could be wrong.

Mind you, the critics might also be right.

He was an albino? I just thought that was Billy Idol. Who is, in fact, a murderous Christian assassin.

If you want to see delusional, you have to check out your good friend Mr Cardell from Cap Alert fame.

The list is massive, even to the point that Satan is personally responsible for crashing his hosting server. Satan has marked Mr Cardell personally because of all the "good" work he does. Of course he admits himself he doesnt watch movies for fun.

Ahh but that all important CapAlert Score fails him once again. Even he says he wants to give it a 0, but is not subjective....uh yeah right, everyone else including the 2% have busted him on that point.

check it out at www.capalert.com