Comment by Sidian M.S. Jones on February 12, 2013 at 4:44pm

I'm curious what you believe your mission to be, Simon, and how similar or contrasting we may be.

Comment by Simon Forman on February 12, 2013 at 6:30pm

At this point I don't really have a mission other than breathing and eating an adequate amount of food.

I actually sort of retired (from freelancing as a computer programmer) to pursue a more spiritual and ephemeral lifestyle just this weekend, quite spontaneously. :)

Comment by Simon Forman on February 12, 2013 at 7:00pm

I felt I should be more concrete. :)

Specifically with OSR I'm hoping to find people of all religions who are genuinely interested in getting together in peace and maybe even learning from each other. That's a very rare thing in history.

I am also interested in anything that helps people get a handle on their beliefs, like the Belief Genome project.

If we speak in terms of the model above, people with different beliefs may be able to bond ("re- lign" to bind again) over shared values.

Comment by Silnaika Saira on February 13, 2013 at 7:56am

This is a very noble aim, I hope you succeed. There will be many terms to deal with in the minds of the followers of this goal.

We will just have to be more patient. With many evil humans on the world, there will be delays in this. Many religious people may not agree with each other, but they should know the cause is mostly for peace.

Many people like to learn new things by themselves. If they are understanding, they will let themselves learn from others, if not, at least they can live in peace.

When there are more followers of this cause, there will be less war, or at least there should be.

Comment by Sidian M.S. Jones on February 13, 2013 at 4:13pm

I'm here for that as well Simon. OSR gives new perspective to belief without people having to sacrifice what they believe. To me it seems many people mistakingly try to solve the issues around religion by trying to stamp it out. Religion isn't going anywhere. It might change and evolve over time, but it is certainly not going to poof into the air.

What is in decline however, is proprietary religion, which is at an all time low. While spirituality in general is doing just fine. These are exactly the right kind of people to capture with an idea like OSR and Belief Genome. Not only can we give a name to this worldwide movement, but we can build legitimate tools to help people work with their beliefs.

It's a ground breaking idea and deserves someone with your kind of dedication Simon. I think your involvement will also be great for the community here at the site.

Comment by Simon Forman on February 14, 2013 at 4:24pm

Right on! This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to find. I think we're in a stage where the world's religions are the sections of an orchestra warming up and sounding dis-harmonious, and now they are about to begin to play together..

:)

Comment by Kernel John on February 15, 2013 at 8:38am

Sid, your notion of Proprietary Religion is, as Simon puts it, Right on!  As various scriptures get distilled, there elements are very similar.  Confusion does arise because different terminology is used to describe the same of similar elements.  Other differences arise do to frameworks that have developed in different cultural locations and at different times.  One could argue that we are on a  precipice of change when it comes to how spirituality expresses itself across the globe. Although this may be viewed as a beginning, change is happening at breathtaking rates everywhere.  OSR is not a religion and will not replace religion.  OSR is plugged into an electronic conduit through which spiritual discovery can be facilitated and communicated.  OSR is the process that people who are plugged into this conduit can use.  The process requires an interface between individuals and the conduit.  . . . .

Comment by Sidian M.S. Jones on February 15, 2013 at 11:10am

Much agreed, Kernel. In my view however, I feel like the OSR approach has already been well established in the last decade or so. There are just so many people now who are mixing and matching beliefs between religions. But no one has coined a name for the movement yet, and when they do try to coin names, they are very derogatory, like cherry-picking. It's true, but derogatory. And to that label I say "Why buy the tree when you get the cherries for free?" by which I mean, why buy into the whole religion when you can believe in the parts you find to be true for you?

I don't consider what I am doing in the OSR space to be necessarily new because people have been doing this for a while. I do consider what we are doing here together to be very significant and groundbreaking though because we are among the first (not THE first) and also currently drive the most traffic, media buzz, and innovation (our terminology, setting up of governance and structure, and our Belief Genome project).

Comment by Kernel John on February 16, 2013 at 8:12am

You say, no one has coined a name for the movement yet.  Perhaps this is because few understand what is really going on in this paradigm shift.  Remember, the individual cannot anticipate the effects of the shift until the shift has occurred. It would be good if people here were to share what OSR means to them - if anything. 

In the old paradigm, religion was seen as valuable and so worthy of being defended.  The New Religion Movement is characterized by the view that because spiritual knowledge is valuable, it should be made openly accessible.  In New Paradigm Spirituality, attention shifts from the religious push-based institution to peer-based pull inquiry.

OSR seekers are not unlike the forest monks who wondered the pathways in Buddha's time sharing knowledge with other monks they encountered and learning where to go to learn more. 

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