SACRED: Discover what we share

Not being raised under any organized religion, I walked into SACRED without any preconceived thoughts. After seeing the exhibition, the effort made by the British LIbrary in organizing the collection of texts from Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths was acknowledged and appreciated. Since religion has not had any profound impact on my life thus far, I was surprised by the emotional reaction I had. It is hard to imagine all the violence, wars, and deaths that have come from religions that, in the end, have only slight differences. More blood has been spilled over these differences when, in actuality, religion is supposed to be a vehicle for peace, for love. When walking through the exhibit there were times when I had to take a second look at whether the text was from Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, or the Qur'an which shows the degree that the three texts and beliefs molded together. The motto the British Library chose to promote the exhibit summarizes it best, “Discover what we share,” because, after all, like the holy texts, we are not much different.