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Are You Open Religious?

December 1, 2023 Open Religion No Comments

The Open Religion Questionnaire (ORQ) is a list of 30 assertions (actually, in-depth questions) meant to make you think about whether you would qualify yourself as ‘Open Religious.’

The sum of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers is no more than an indication. It also depends on the relative importance you attach to each assertion. Moreover, your experiences while answering are crucial, more than any ‘score.’

Focus

The ORQ mainly focuses on people whom one (most notably the person himself) would characterize as ’religious’ within their cultural setting ― irrespective of one’s creed.

Moreover, Open Religion strives toward eventually being a tautology. An entirely Open Religious person is an Open person (to subconceptual mental processing) wherever this ends. Final questions remain unanswered. Meanwhile, nothing religious needs to be mentioned – nor simply discarded – even though many religions historically played a vital role toward Openness despite rampant Inner Dissociation.

Interreligious dialogue

The possible relevance of Open Religion – and thus ORQ – to interreligious dialogue is not in the endeavor to bring different religions together while retaining their inherent contradictions.

Contrary to this, the Open Religion endeavor comes from the inside: by deepening people into their faith and thus, at the same time, making them less dependent of straightforward conceptualities. This makes interreligious dialogue enduring. The ORQ may thus bring Open Religious people from different creeds together.

Two possible critiques & answers

• The ORQ only contains positive statements about Open Religion. Thus, it is obvious what to answer if one wants to be seen as Open Religious ― by just fully agreeing on all items.

>< We count on people to be honest instead of trying to trick them into honesty. In most cases, the latter doesn’t succeed anyway.

• The ORQ makes people think about their religious attitude. This way, the test itself may change people’s religiosity.

>< Indeed, the ORQ invites people to think about religiosity in general as well as their own. Thus, it’s a dynamic questionnaire. Answering, pondering, and answering again hopefully makes some more Open Religious.

So, are you Open Religious?

Please go over the following list as honestly as possible. Where God is mentioned, you may fill this in with any personal experience.

1. I feel no need to suppress any of my feelings in order to be religious.
2. Being religious is about invitingly opening my heart and mind.
3. Even if all Revelation (Holy Books, theology …) were lost, I could feel equally close to God.
4. I do not strictly need religious rituals to come closer to God.
5. I can imagine myself being born in another culture and thus a believer in another religion.
6. Rational doubt does not preclude religious feelings.
7. Something important that is deeply related to religion surpasses my conscious awareness.
8. I can feel at home at a holy place of any religion in awareness of God’s presence.
9. Whether Jesus (or Buddha or…) is a historical figure doesn’t affect my depth of religiosity.
10. There is a huge difference between a conceptual belief and a truly religious belief.
11. All religious knowledge can contain errors.
12. Society should be inviting to all religions and atheism.
13. It is more important to strive for a direct instead of an indirect experience of God.
14. God is equally present everywhere and at all times.
15. I can feel deeply touched by a religious object, but it could be any object.
16. It would be nice if all religious people would feel united in their religiosity.
17. God is present within me as a total person.
18. God cannot be known by reason only.
19. It is OK for me to relate to God either in a personal way, impersonally, or both.
20. If God wants to touch me, he does so from within me.
21. I can feel God transcending all known dimensions.
22. God does not choose sides in any human warfare.
23. I do not feel contempt or repulsion when being present at a holy place of another religion.
24. I can joyfully recognize the deeply religious dedication of people from another religion.
25. Religious ethics should not be imposed upon anyone.
26. In order to meet God, I need to look inside myself, one way or another.
27. God does not command me to harm anyone.
28. Organized religion should help people to lead their lives in a more meaningful way.
29. Organized religion should continuously show itself to be Open to new developments.
30. Deeply symbolic meaning is more important than literal meaning.

You might write something about your feelings now. After a while, you might redo the ORQ and see whether something changed.

If this is intriguing to you, then please read some Open Religion blogs.