nontheistic religion
Enable an agent to recognise and describe a religious tradition or movement in which belief in a deity is not constitutive, assess the evidence for that classification, and support context-sensitive interpretation and participation.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
5 bundles · 9 layers · 14 findings · 22 questions
Religious and nontheistic boundaries Establishes what makes the subject religious and in what sense it is nontheistic.
Religious status
Examines the grounds for recognising a religious tradition rather than a standalone philosophical position.
Grounds for religious identification
Record self-descriptions and attributed classifications alongside the commitments and practices used to justify them.
- How do participants describe the religious or nonreligious character of their tradition? definition
- What evidence distinguishes this subject from an ethical philosophy or an association of nonbelievers? boundary
Meaning of nontheism
Separates claims about deity existence from requirements for belief and reliance on divine agency.
Deity status and necessity
Record which conception of deity is relevant and whether belief or divine assistance is necessary to the religious path.
- Does nontheistic here mean rejecting deities, suspending judgment, permitting belief or making deity belief nonessential? definition
- Would the tradition's stated religious objective remain attainable without belief in or assistance from deities? boundary
Religious ends and world understanding Captures the positive commitments that orient religious life beyond its relationship to theism.
Ultimate concerns
Records the tradition's own account of the human predicament and desired transformation.
Predicament and religious objective
Identify the problems religious life addresses and the ends it recognises without presuming salvation or worship.
- What condition, problem or ultimate concern does the tradition say its religious path addresses? definition
- Which sources explain the desired transformation, and whose interpretation do they represent? provenance
Metaphysical and ethical commitments
Examines explanations of reality and ethical obligation without assuming either supernaturalism or naturalism.
Commitments beyond deity belief
Record teachings about persons, causation, death, sacredness and ethical conduct, distinguishing required commitments from optional interpretations.
- Which teachings about reality and ethical obligation are required, optional or disputed within the specified community? definition
- Where does the tradition distinguish literal beings or processes from symbolic, pedagogical or ritual language? boundary
Practice and religious transmission Describes how religious commitments are enacted, learned and maintained.
Ritual and cultivation
Connects actual practices to their attributed purpose and any apparent divine referents.
Practice purpose and address
Record what practitioners do and how they interpret acts resembling prayer, devotion or worship.
- Which recurring practices are understood to advance the religious objective, and how is that connection explained? definition
- When practices address or depict extraordinary beings, what role do participants assign those beings? boundary
Learning and access
Identifies how practices are transmitted and what conditions govern participation.
Instruction and participation boundaries
Record teachers, learning pathways and locally applicable restrictions on observing, performing or teaching practices.
- Who or what is recognised as a legitimate source of instruction in this community? provenance
- What may a visitor observe or perform, and which practices require instruction, membership or initiation? action
Belonging, authority and classification Locates nontheistic commitments within actual communities, interpretive authorities and historical variation.
Community and interpretive authority
Examines belonging and authority over religious interpretation without assuming a central institution.
Belief diversity and belonging
Record how community participation relates to deity belief and who can speak authoritatively about those expectations.
- Can participants hold theistic, atheistic or agnostic views while retaining recognised membership or religious standing? boundary
- Whose statements establish belonging requirements, and are those statements binding locally or across the tradition? provenance
Classification scope and revision
Maintains traceable, bounded classification claims and criteria for reconsidering them.
Situated nontheistic classification
Attach each classification to its source, definition, community and period while retaining disagreements.
- Which branch and period does each source classify as nontheistic, and does that classification reflect self-identification or external analysis? provenance
- What evidence would require narrowing, revising or withdrawing the classification? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of nontheistic religion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of nontheistic religion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of nontheistic religion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of nontheistic religion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of nontheistic religion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of nontheistic religion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Society, people and institutions
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- SOC
- Domain
- SOC.ORG
What it is Filled
A nontheistic religion is a religious tradition or form of religious life in which belief in a god or gods is absent or is not essential to its teachings and practices.
In scope
- Criteria under which deity belief is absent, optional, rejected or noncentral to religious life
- Religious meaning, ethical orientation and accounts of liberation, transformation or ultimate concern
- Ritual, contemplative and communal practices that sustain the religion
- Self-identification, membership expectations and internal diversity
- Sources, authority and changes affecting classification as nontheistic
Out of scope
- Atheism, agnosticism or secular philosophy considered independently of religious life
- The full model of religion, including features shared with theistic religions
- Legal registration, assets and corporate governance of particular religious organisations
- Individual adherents' complete beliefs, biographies or psychological states
- Buildings, sacred objects and texts as independently catalogued things
Why it exists Filled
Enable an agent to recognise and describe a religious tradition or movement in which belief in a deity is not constitutive, assess the evidence for that classification, and support context-sensitive interpretation and participation.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Establish whether deity belief is required for belonging or the religious objective; an individual's disbelief alone does not establish that the religion is nontheistic.
- Distinguish rejection of deities from leaving their existence undecided or making them nonessential to religious practice.
- Look for an evidenced religious identity or religious pattern of meaning and practice; absence of deity belief alone also describes many nonreligious outlooks.
- Examine the role assigned to supernatural beings rather than treating their mere mention as proof of theism.
- Identify the particular branch, community and period being classified before extending a nontheistic label to an entire tradition.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Label a tradition or a person as nontheistic where they do not see themselves that way.
- Present one religion as superior or false in describing it.
- Infer a person's beliefs from their background.
Only with a human decision
- Publishing comparisons that a religious community has objected to.
May
- Describe nontheistic religions and their teachings from scholarly and adherents' own sources.
- Explain how the term is used and contested.
Moral aspects Filled
- Freedom of belief includes belief without gods; misrepresentation feeds prejudice.
- Classifications imposed from outside can distort living traditions.
Who is affected
- Adherents
- Religious minorities
- Students of religion
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody: a category; each tradition is held by its own communities.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q9174 - registry parent class
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.nontheistic-religion
- Wikidata: Q6508891 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6508891)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Religious identification: self-identified as religious | externally classified as religious | both | contested | undocumented
- Position on deity existence: rejected | undecided | not addressed | accepted by some | plural or contested; record the relevant conception of deity
- Requirement for deity belief: required | optional | discouraged | incompatible | varies by branch | unresolved
- Role of divine agency: necessary for the religious objective | supportive but unnecessary | no assigned role | disputed | undocumented
- Religious objective: Source-attributed terms for liberation, awakening, ethical transformation, communal meaning or other stated ends; multiple values allowed
- Classification scope: Links to the tradition, branch, community and historical period to which a classification applies
- Practice participation conditions: open | instruction expected | membership required | initiation required | restricted by role | locally variable | unknown
- Classification evidence state: provisional | supported for a specified scope | contested | historically superseded | insufficient evidence
Plane SOC: no invented physical properties.
Recognition not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Nontheistic religion is a category of belief and practice that cannot be established from visual appearance.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Assess whether a specified tradition or branch fits an explicit definition of nontheistic religion.
- Compare rejection, optional acceptance and noncentrality of deity belief without collapsing them into one position.
- Explain how stated religious objectives connect to practices and ethical commitments.
- Identify local participation requirements and refer unresolved permissions to the relevant community.
- Trace classification claims to sources and revise them when their scope or evidence changes.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Western categories can misdescribe Asian or Indigenous traditions.
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18, United Nations General Assembly, 1948.
Context of use required Filled
- Nontheistic religion is encountered in religious communities, comparative religion, philosophy and discussions of personal belief.
- The category helps describe traditions in which ethical practice, ritual or liberation does not depend on belief in deities.
- Its use requires attention to differences between a tradition's teachings and the beliefs of individual participants.
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q6508891: nontheistic religion - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Nontheistic religion - general description of the item
Open questions
- Which meaning of nontheistic does the registry intend: rejection of deities, absence of required deity belief, or nondependence on divine agency?
- Which candidate traditions or branches accept this classification themselves, and which are classified this way only by outside observers?
- How should the model represent communities where theistic and nontheistic interpretations coexist without a binding doctrinal authority?
- Which neighbouring registry or world-model entries already cover religion, religious movements and secular ethical communities?
- What source evidence is needed to distinguish longstanding teachings from modern reinterpretations for each proposed example?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q6508891/spec.json