{ "model": { "rank": 17412, "code": "thing-q575898", "model_id": "vr.tr.religion-in-the-united-states", "name": "religion in the United States", "purpose": "Let an agent describe religion in the United States neutrally with attribution, relay survey data on affiliation and practice, explain the legal framework, and present debates about religion in public life with positions attributed.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q575898/", "tier": 2, "score": 31, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Christianity in the United States", "Hinduism in the United States", "religion in the Thirteen Colonies", "Bahá'í Faith in the United States", "Islam in the United States", "Buddhism in the United States", "religion of White Americans", "religion in Minnesota", "religion in American Samoa", "religion in Alabama", "religion in California", "religion in New York", "religion in Pennsylvania", "religion in Illinois", "religion in Ohio", "religion in Louisville, Kentucky", "religion in Metro Detroit", "religion in Virginia", "religion in Philadelphia", "religion in Georgia", "religion in Texas", "religion in Florida", "religion in Guam", "religion in Puerto Rico", "Confucianism in the United States", "religion in Oregon", "religion in the United States Virgin Islands", "scientology in the United States", "Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States", "Protestantism in the United States", "Eastern Orthodoxy in the United States", "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States", "Christianity in the United States Virgin Islands", "Christianity in Puerto Rico", "Christianity in the Northern Mariana Islands", "Christianity in American Samoa", "Christianity in Alabama", "Christianity in Alaska", "Christianity in Arizona", "Christianity in Arkansas" ], "aliasCount": 120, "merged": 120, "knownIn": 31, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q575898", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q575898", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T00:49:34Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q575898", "registryId": "vr.tr.religion-in-the-united-states", "name": "religion in the United States", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q575898/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.religion-in-the-united-states", "name": "religion in the United States", "purpose": "Let an agent describe religion in the United States neutrally with attribution, relay survey data on affiliation and practice, explain the legal framework, and present debates about religion in public life with positions attributed.", "definition": "The religious landscape of the United States, characterised by constitutional separation of church and state, free exercise of religion and high religious diversity, with Christianity in many denominations as the largest tradition alongside Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, the Bahai Faith, Indigenous religions, other traditions and a growing share of people with no religious affiliation, and with a history reaching back to the religions of Indigenous peoples and the Thirteen Colonies; the topic is described here with attribution to surveys, scholars and the communities themselves.", "what_it_is_for": "Religion in the United States.", "affordances": [ "describe the landscape with attribution", "relay survey data", "explain the legal framework", "present debates neutrally" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Constitutional separation", "High diversity", "Denominational variety", "Changing affiliation" ], "appearance": "Not physical; a social and legal landscape.", "visual_identification": [ "Religious diversity under constitutional freedom", "Christianity largest, many traditions, growing unaffiliated", "Religion in other countries has different frameworks" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "Christianity in the United States", "Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and the Bahai Faith in the United States", "Indigenous religions", "new religious movements", "religiously unaffiliated Americans" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "religion on the Earth", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "Christian Church", "why": "churches in the United States" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "African Americans", "why": "religious communities among African Americans" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "religious order", "why": "orders active in the United States" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "First Amendment religion clauses and case law", "Tax law on religious organisations", "Survey standards for religious affiliation data" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Favouring or disparaging traditions", "Outdated survey data", "Partisan presentation of church-state debates" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "describe", "name": "Describe", "description": "The religious landscape.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "landscape", "name": "Landscape", "description": "Traditions and affiliation.", "findings": [ { "id": "landscape-finding", "name": "Landscape", "description": "Landscape.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which religious traditions are present in the United States, and what do surveys report about affiliation and practice?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "traditions", "name": "Traditions", "description": "A specific tradition.", "findings": [ { "id": "traditions-finding", "name": "Traditions", "description": "Traditions.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is this tradition, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or the Bahai Faith, present in the United States, as described by its communities and scholars?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the tradition?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law and public life.", "rationale": "Law.", "layers": [ { "id": "framework", "name": "Framework", "description": "Constitutional framework.", "findings": [ { "id": "framework-finding", "name": "Framework", "description": "Framework.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do the First Amendment religion clauses and case law shape religion in public life?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits religious freedom law?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "debates", "name": "Debates", "description": "Debates.", "findings": [ { "id": "debates-finding", "name": "Debates", "description": "Debates.", "questions": [ { "text": "What debates exist about religion in schools, politics and public institutions, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History of religion in America.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did religion develop from Indigenous religions and the Thirteen Colonies through revivals, immigration and recent change, according to historians?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "trends", "name": "Trends", "description": "Recent trends.", "findings": [ { "id": "trends-finding", "name": "Trends", "description": "Trends.", "questions": [ { "text": "What trends in affiliation, the unaffiliated and new movements do surveys document?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which findings are contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "Society and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "society", "name": "Society", "description": "Religion and society.", "findings": [ { "id": "society-finding", "name": "Society", "description": "Society.", "questions": [ { "text": "What roles do religious organisations play in charity, education and community life?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific organisation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can religion in the United States be taught respectfully?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each tradition be a separate entry?", "How should survey sources be linked?", "How should legal cases be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a religion in the United States, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent describe religion in the United States neutrally with attribution, relay survey data on affiliation and practice, explain the legal framework, and present debates about religion in public life with positions attributed.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Christianity in the United States, Hinduism in the United States, religion in the Thirteen Colonies, Bahá'í Faith in the United States, Islam in the United States, Buddhism in the United States, religion of White Americans, religion in Minnesota, religion in American Samoa, religion in Alabama, religion in California, religion in New York.", "120 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 31 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a religion in the United States, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Christianity in the United States", "Hinduism in the United States", "religion in the Thirteen Colonies", "Bahá'í Faith in the United States", "Islam in the United States", "Buddhism in the United States", "religion of White Americans", "religion in Minnesota", "religion in American Samoa", "religion in Alabama", "religion in California", "religion in New York" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 31 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 120 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one religion in the United States from another, and a religion in the United States from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a religion in the United States sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a religion in the United States from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a religion in the United States passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a religion in the United States between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a religion in the United States, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a religion in the United States is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a religion in the United States.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a religion in the United States and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a religion in the United States, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a religion in the United States and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a religion in the United States sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What religion in the United States is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does religion in the United States take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of religion in the United States, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in religion in the United States and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of religion in the United States may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does religion in the United States have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a religion in the United States came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a religion in the United States and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a religion in the United States is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a religion in the United States, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a religion in the United States, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a religion in the United States is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }