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Thursday, December 2, 2010

A Perspective On Religious-Based Conflicts




Author Michael Baigent's name might sound familiar; in 1982 along with co-authors Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, they wrote the highly controversial, albeit speculative book The Holy Blood and Holy Grail. The writing in it drew varied reactions all-over, with obvious disapproval especially from Christians. Having read it myself, I found it interesting yet not really "shaking the foundations" of my beliefs since like I said, it was rooted much in speculation. They basically started the book with a proposition and ran away with it. It however was enough of an influence to inspire a later, more famous novel following a similar theme: author Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (which became a Hollywood film later).

Baigent recently wrote another book and this video was an interview to promote it. It's a three-parter but I only focused on the third part which to me is the core of what his message seems to be.

In today's world, the nexus point of  conflict between the three major world religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam (the Abrahamic beliefs) is the city of the city of Jerusalem in Israel. The danger here is that one could look at it from a devout or even extremist believer's point of view as the culmination of eschatology or fulfillment of divine revelation from all three religions. Hence, its uneasy status as the source of potential conflict. Baigent offers insight into the possible way to solve this; a reverting to the  "inner" or mystical dimensions found in all three religions. By observing our beliefs this way, we break free from the rigid conventions or institutions that divide and isolate us from one another.




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