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Angels and Demons, written by Dan Brown, is a bestselling mysterythriller, which uses the idea of a historical conflict between science and religion, in this case it is revealed in conflict between Roman Catholic Church and Illuminati. The plot follows Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who tries to stop the Illuminati from destroying Vatican City with the brand new power of antimatter.
Robert Langdon, is called to the scene of a murder to help investigators. From the very beginning we are interested why a religious symbolist is of any use in this murder case? Langdon studies ancient and historic religions by investigating symbols they use. He is not excited about murder investigation, until he hears a couple details about Illuminati. He gets on his way and the novel explodes into breathtaking adventure. The murder itself has taken place at a super secret research facility, where the victim and his daughter have been working on a very secret project of making antimatter, which can be transformed into a bomb of a sort never before imagined. Leonardo Vetra was not only murdered, he had symbol of Illuminati burnt on his chest. As the story continues we are involved in the world of intrigue, murder, secrets, betrayals and somewhat mystical atmosphere. The main plot takes us to the Rome, where the new Pope is about to be elected, since the old one has recently died. At this point Illuminati are going to stop the elections and destroy Vatican City, the base of Catholicism. The whole story is really fascinating, you are never bored while reading and I have to say that I do like this novel better than The Da Vinci Code. The movie is brilliant as well, starring Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor.
Brown uses in his novel historical story of the Illuminati. As the story tells it was a secret organization founded by Galileo, Copernicus, Bernini and other scientists. Here actually we see more clearly how Brown involves conflict of religion and science.
The Illuminati form this secret society so that on the surface they can do what Galileo did, denounce his scientific theory in order to save his life, but at this secret level they can continue their scientific world and at the same time quietly and secretly battle the power of religion to interfere with science. It appears that this group has never really faded away, and now when they have antimatter, they are going to act. Interested in the origins of Illuminati I did look for the explanations on the web and what I found does not really differ from what Brown tells us. Wikipedia gives us almost the same story about the secret group which was founded in 1776 and it is believed that Illuminati still exist and they are the masterminds behind events who will lead to the establishment of new world order. However, all this assumptions are not documented and its optional whether to believe all this or not.
The major theme is religion versus science and main question is the existence of God and the origins of the cosmos. In the novel there is a conflict between religious folks, who follow the scripture and believe that God created cosmos, and the scientists who tend not to believe in the creating spirit, and who look for the explanation of the universe origins. In the novel it is mentioned that invention of Vittoria Vetra and her father might be close to the solution to this old question, and satisfy both the religious and the scientific community. It might explain the Illuminati’s involvement, as they
opposed to religion and would not want this compromise to be fulfilled. Angels serve God's good purposes. Demons are fallen angels who serve satan's evil purposes. The illuminati is real and came out of the Vatican originally. It continues as a secret society that seeks to influence the world through the manipulation of our money system. They are the masters who are influencing the masses to become Godless and ready for a new age of socalled enlightenment.
At the beginning of the novel Robert Langdon was arrogantly confident with his knowledge pertaining to religion. When he met Vittoria and Maxamillion he was less prominent in comparison to their deep scientific knowledge and discoveries. Vittoria and Robert’s friendship is very important as it changes Robert’s view on religion. Even though coming from contradictory backgrounds, they managed to unite. Vittoria Vetra was raised by Leonardo Vetra who was a priest and a scientist. She grew up studying physics, and was very successful within the scientific world. She and her father created things that have never been seen in the world before. The main discovery was antimatter.
I can’t but mention that this whole story about antimatter is similar to the Large Hadron Collider which was invented in Switzerland and was supposed to be a breakthrough in science and explain the origins of cosmos. The operation was held in 2008, but unfortunately 10 billion hunt for “God particle” failed. Nevertheless, as we see Brown’s story has basically real background, mankind is on the verge of investigations, which may break religious theory as to the creation.
Throughout the novel there is a running theme of the possible compatibility of scientific and theological understandings of the origins of everything. Both the film and the book version of Angels and Demons tell us that religion has always persecuted science and tried to slow down the relentless march of science, sometimes with misguided means including torture and murder. Brown’s books are not antireligion or antifaith, but antidogma and antiinstitutional. “Science has now provided answers to almost every question man can ask . There are only a few questions left, and they are the esoteric ones. Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life and the universe? And these are the questions CERN is trying to answer? Correction. These are the questions we are answering.” (Dan Brown, 2000).
However, Brown does display certain appreciation and respect for faith, at least the pure feeling or experience of God, not faith as prescribed by organized religion. We can clearly see this in Vittoria’s conversation with Langdon : “ I did not ask you if you believe what man says about God. I asked you if you believe in God. There is a difference. Holy scripture is stories… When you lie out under the stars do you feel the divine? Do you feel in your gut that you are staring up at the work of God’s hand?” (Dan Brown, 2000).