Angels and Demons pgs 1-157

First of all, the movie Angels and Demons was one of the best movies I've ever seen. I loved the way that the director used the beautiful Vatican City to his advantage by showing many different views. I also loved how suspenseful the movie was but also how it contained some truth about the Catholic faith. After seeing the movie multiple times and putting it on my iPod for me to enjoy whenever I want, I felt I should read Angels and Demons.

The novel opens up as Robert Langdon, a professor and symbologist, travels to Vatican City to help stop an infamous and ancient secret society called the Illuminati from killing bishops during the period in which the new pope is elected. As Langdon travels around the city from church to church attempting to stop this group, the controversy between the Catholic Church and science. I think this is why I am so intrigued by this book because I am a science geek and a Catholic. The contrast is most vividly created simply through the character of Robert Langdon. He is an intellectual, a scientist, a professor. He does not believe in God simply because "[he] is not made to understand him. Faith is a gift [he] has yet to receive." However, the fact that he is helping the largest and most powerful source of Catholic faith in the world creates a connection to the faith that Langdon simply cannot ignore.

On the other hand, a bond between the two radical beliefs is formed when Kohler, the director of a scientific research lab, says, "He was both. Men of science and religion are not unprecedented in history. Leonardo was one of them. He considered physics 'God's natural law.'" This fact that a man could be both a scientist and a Catholic at the same time was thought to be radical, but it showed that their could be a bridge between the two. I think that this discussion between the two is very interesting because of how common and insignificant this debate is now but how life changing and monumental it was back in Galileo's time.