Peace in the Middle East???

A topic like this one always catches my attention, because biblical prophecy has been a huge part of my life. The Middle East and, more importantly, the goal of peace in that region is a key cornerstone in the prophecies that are to come. The presenter/lecturer man was very teacher-like in the way that he spoke.

One of the most important thing in a lecture is to get people's attention. Because of the title and the topic that he was discussing, most of the audience was already interested and ready to learn. However, continuing from that point requires a little more. He then proceeded to inform us about the background of the current situation in the Middle East. To me, this was more of a review, because I have studied this on my own in more detail. I bought a few books, especially Six Days of War. This book was very informative and detailed, not only about the Six Day War, but as a quick summary of the whole Israel-Palestinian Conflict. The speaker set many preconceptions straight and informed us of the actuality of the situation.

Over all this was a great lecture to go out and learn about the world around me. Also, get a tighter grasp on the knowledge I already have on the situation. I know that in the future, I will be able to inform many of this situation, and what the Bible says about it.

Inter-Religious Dialogue

This discussion was very very verry interesting. I went in with a high amount of skepticism. I have personal reasons for disliking interfaithism type activities. Organizations like the United Religions Initiative and the Parliament of the World's Religions ring very true of a prophesied World Religion prophesied in the Bible. I realize that many people do not believe it possible for there to be one, single, worldwide religion, but what they don't see is a worldwide religion as a common set of beliefs that everybody adheres to. No one condemns anyone else, and all roads lead to heaven or paradise or whatever you want to call it. I see a religion of intolerance disguised as tolerance. Needless to say, I was very skeptical going into this lecture.

As the speaker began and continued speaking about inter-religious dialogue. Instead of the topic being about all religions, it was specifically about Christian-Buddhist dialogue. The whole lecture was very sketchy and hard to follow, but most of it led to key similarities and key differences between the two religions. He spoke about these two religions, because he had experienced these two firsthand. I found the most interesting comparison to be his comparisons between the death of Jesus and the death of Buddha. While Buddha died lying on his side (horizontal), Jesus laying upward (vertical). This fundamental difference is a cornerstone to the misunderstandings between the two religions. The horizontal is a representation of oneness with the earth and peace and tranquility, while the vertical is a sign of struggle and pain. That idea of struggle and pain to achieve "perfection" is very difficult for Buddhists to comprehend. The speaker's main point, as he was closing was to suggest that we lay down our walls that we have built in order to understand each other's religions.