This is a good article from a great blogger. Choice point:
The picture of the Christian indifferent to history who simply accepts received wisdom is also the fruit of the American believer’s general disinterest in history.
If people in general were well-educated in history, then perhaps Dan Brown’s "harmless work of fiction"—would indeed be as harmless as it was fictional.
Unfortunately, people hungry for history are swallowing it whole, the way that some especially naive folks thought The Blair Witch Project was for real. (The words "Based on a true story" are very powerful, even when they are plastered on for effect only. Look what happened with Fargo, maybe—Snopes is noncommittal.)
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