I think one of the beefs is that so many people aren't reading it as fiction. Technically it's fiction but right at the start doesn't he say "everything in this book is true" or something along those lines? A lot of people believe it. I've seen on the television that there are tours to the historical sites in the book and people are looking for actual things like the pew-leg and the candle stick.
If I was a religious person, a Catholic in particular, I'd probably be offended as well. The book pretty much says everything they believe in is completely wrong. If someone wrote a book, fiction or not, that said all my beliefs are wrong and based on a bunch of lies and millions of people bought it, I wouldn't be too happy.
Luckily though that will never happen because everything I believe is unassailably correct.
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