origins//research
iteration 2/10 Experience build 2/10 · implementing descent-tree-explorer (cognate glow) + first-voices (two torch-lit rooms) 95/95 criteria · 100%
⏱ today
a second brain on the origins of religion

Where do the gods come from?

Every religion of human history, traced to its earliest dated evidence. Every shared story — floods, dying gods, sky fathers — given a falsifiable verdict: descent, contact, or convergence.

Read the answer →

9domains
70research notes
27open questions
3tiers · sources → notes → synthesis
Why religions share stories: descent, contact, or convergence — every motif gets one falsifiable verdict.
Why religions share stories: descent, contact, or convergence — every motif gets one falsifiable verdict.
The three-tier engine: material moves up through templates; open questions flow back down and re-task gathering.
The three-tier engine: material moves up through templates; open questions flow back down and re-task gathering.
Earliest dated evidence per tradition — archaeology (amber) vs earliest text (blue).
Earliest dated evidence per tradition — archaeology (amber) vs earliest text (blue).

Entry point to everything. Research question: Where does each religion of human history come from, what stories do they share, what are they used for in culture — and do the shared stories trace to common sources?

Method in one line: every shared story gets a falsifiable descent / contact / convergence verdict, dated to its earliest evidence. Full framing: Methodology. Rules of conduct: AGENTS.md.

Visual explorer: https://god.olibuijr.com (public) · http://192.168.8.228:4870 (LAN) · systemd --user religion · Live status: 00_meta/STATUS.md · Deep-time timeline — every dated attestation, 100,000 BP → today (plus the ⏱ time-machine scrubber in the header)

The three tiers

Every domain directory has the same shape. Material only moves up, and only through templates:

TierDirectoryWhat lives thereTemplate gate
1 — Data gathering1_sources/Raw evidence: dated sources, citations, extractionssource
2 — Notes2_notes/Atomic claims, tradition profiles, shared motifsclaim · tradition · motif
3 — Synthesis3_synthesis/Integrated essays with Feynman check + open questionssynthesis · question

The loop that makes this compound: synthesis exposes gaps → gaps land in the Open Questions register → gaps re-task gathering. Gather to answer questions.

Domains

DomainScope
00_metaMethodology, open questions, bias audits
01_prehistoricPaleolithic burials, cave art, shamanism, animism, Göbekli Tepe — religion before writing
02_mesopotamianSumer, Akkad, Babylon — earliest written religion, Eridu/Uruk temple record
03_egyptianPredynastic→dynastic religion, Pyramid Texts, Osiris cycle
04_indo_europeanReconstructed PIE religion and its daughters: Vedic, Iranian/Zoroastrian, Greek, Norse
05_abrahamicCanaanite/Ugaritic substrate → Israelite religion → Judaism → Christianity → Islam
06_dharmicIndus Valley + Vedic → Hinduism; śramaṇa movements → Buddhism, Jainism; Sikhism
07_east_asianShang oracle bones, Chinese folk religion, Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto
08_indigenousAfrican traditional, Americas, Oceania/Australia — oral traditions, ethnographic + archaeological evidence
09_comparativeShared motifs (flood, dying god, sky father, underworld journey…), transmission verdicts, function theories

Frontmatter contract (short version)

Every note: title, type, domain, tier, status, created, tags. Claims/motifs/syntheses additionally require confidence and counter_evidence. Origin claims require attestation_earliest + evidence class (or speculative). Motifs require a transmission verdict: descent | contact | convergence | unresolved. Full contract with field meanings: templates/ — copy a template, never write frontmatter from memory.

Agent roster

#AgentModelMandate
1Prehistoric researcherFable 501_prehistoric tiers 1–2
2Mesopotamia researcherFable 502_mesopotamian tiers 1–2
3Egypt researcherFable 503_egyptian tiers 1–2
4Indo-European researcherFable 504_indo_european tiers 1–2
5Abrahamic researcherFable 505_abrahamic tiers 1–2
6Dharmic researcherFable 506_dharmic tiers 1–2
7East Asia researcherFable 507_east_asian tiers 1–2
8Indigenous researcherFable 508_indigenous tiers 1–2
9Adversarial bias reviewerFable 5Audit all tiers → 00_meta bias report
10Synthesis writer & discussantFable 5 (high thinking)09_comparative + tier-3 essays + open questions

Workflow rules, ethics, and source standards binding all ten: AGENTS.md.

Experiences backlog (immersive, interactive — takes you back in time)

Ten designed proposals live in 00_meta/ideas/ — each grounded in vault data, zero-dependency, served by the existing explorer. Build order (effort-ranked):

1. time-machine-mode — site-wide era scrubber (S core, biggest ambient win)

2. deep-time-zoom-timeline — zoomable 100,000-year timeline (S first slice)

3. descent-tree-explorer — cognate-glow lineage trees (S static first)

4. first-voices — humanity's oldest religious words as torch-lit rooms (S, 2 rooms)

5. motif-diffusion-map — scrubbable flood/sky-father spread map (S slice)

6. stand-there-scenes — "you are there" pages with honesty toggle

7. evidence-observatory — epistemic mission control (M)

8. pantheon-correspondence-grid — Zeus = Jupiter = Dyaus ≠ Thor, visceral

9. whisper-chain — the oral-transmission chasm, walked

10. ritual-walkthroughs — scroll-driven emic/etic ritual documentaries

Infrastructure