O R I G I N

The Meeting Place of Religions




INTRODUCTION


CONTENTS

All projects and materials originate at this site.


The Challenge for the Global Interfaith Community

"In this new ecological age of developing global community and interfaith dialogue, the world's religions face what is perhaps the greatest challenge that they have ever encountered. Each is inspired by a unique vision of the divine and has a distinct cultural identity. At the same time, each perceives the divine as the source of unity and peace. The challenge is to preserve their religious and cultural uniqueness without letting it operate as a cause of narrow and divisive sectarianism that contradicts the vision of divine unity and peace. It is a question of whether the healing light of religious vision will overcome the social and ideological issues that underlie much of the conflict between religions."

Steven C. Rockefeller, Spirit and Nature, p.169


Spiritual Community and the Unity of Religions

In our present context of global diversity and pluralism, where hundreds or thousands of religious traditions compete and interact with one another, and religion can be understood as entirely unique to the individual, there is no one way to understand the relationships between traditions.

We can describe these possibilities in terms of an ascending array of levels:

The ORIGIN project considers all of the above possibilities, and sees them all as valid and defensible positions within the larger global context. But at the same time, we conceive the possibility of a transcendent universal theology, potentially grounded through scientific methods, and linked to every major tradition as an interpretation of its central teachings.

Cyberspace and the Web provide an ideal medium for the unfolding of this potential. We can create a multi-level integrated network, that relates to all traditions, that embraces their truth, on their terms, as they present it, linking these traditions together into one global network system.


The Meeting Place of Religions

In the context of this array of possibilities, the ORIGIN project works to build the relationship between traditions. We conceive what we are doing as a precursor to a sophisticated 21st century network, which will coordinate the relationship between religions, precisely defining what they hold in common and empowering their common objectives, while preserving their authenticity and unique individuality.

Religions can be understood to "meet" in various ways. Representatives of the various traditions can simply come together, discuss similarities and differences, and work to empower whatever they may have in common. And, in a transcendental sense, we can imagine a scheme through which all traditions might be said to "meet" at some common highest point, a common center, a common ontological ground.

The development of such a scheme, if it is possible at all, is a sophisticated undertaking, involving not only advanced theology and cultural anthropology and the psychology of religion, but very likely scientific theories of mind and cognition and language as well.

The development of this site, and the network projects to which it is linked, are driven by the sense that the world's religious communities must learn to work together, in order to achieve their own highest objectives. We work to define these objectives, clarify them, and empower their realization.


A Linked Spectrum of Solutions

The ORIGIN network combines science, humanistic philosophy, and the spiritual insights of every culture, in a multi-faceted dialogue that is intended to conduct the "search for truth" in the context of the entire Internet. The objective of the network is to build relationships -- between people, ideas, cultural groups, philosophical and religious traditions -- and, indeed, between "levels of consciousness".

The project works to create informed consensus on critical issues, and anchors its positions through seminal documents that combine the insights of many cultures.

The long-range objective is the gradual transformation of global society, as the composite wisdom of global culture is cooperatively organized by network participants, and radiated across the world.

Our spectrum of projects includes

To accomplish these objectives, we are putting together a loosely organized team of independent computer networkers, concerned citizens, scholars, writers, scientists and engineers, and spiritual contemplatives and mystics, who see problems in the world they hope to address, and who want to work with others in a large-scale cooperative project.

Online electronic networks are a "blank white page", upon which the human community can write what it will. Through ORIGIN, we choose to identify and gather together the most enlightened insights of our age, and work to build a transformative network of substance, fire, and impact.

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Developed by Bruce Schuman
Santa Barbara, California, USA