Divinity Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
You can send evidence on some of these. A pilot is open on 55 questions in one field, Palaeography. Each says what would resolve it; send something that meets that bar, with a source anybody can check, and an editor will weigh it. Sending evidence does not guarantee the question will be resolved, and it does not have to be your field to read what is being asked. See what is open.
Grouped by the expertise recorded on each question, in the words the question itself uses. Most of these are held by a single question.
Filter By Specialty 99 fields, 1 selected
Showing 3 of 608 questions, filtered to 1 specialty.
Demography 1
Syria
What is Syria's religious composition after the civil war?
Open Syria
Why It Is Open The last widely cited figures, about 74 percent Sunni Muslim, 11 percent Alawite, 10 percent Christian, describe the pre-2011 population. A decade of civil war, mass displacement and emigration has since altered the population in ways no subsequent census or survey has measured, so the current composition is not known.
What Would Settle It A new nationally representative census or demographic survey conducted once conditions allow it, accounting for returnees, refugees and the dead.
Expertise Needed Demography
Question posed in
Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, Pew Research Center.
Demography, political science 1
Lebanon
What is Lebanon's actual religious composition today?
Open Lebanon
Why It Is Open No official religious census has been taken in Lebanon since 1932, by policy, to avoid disturbing the sectarian power-sharing arrangement fixed at that count. Every percentage in circulation, including the estimate recorded here, is a modeled estimate rather than a count.
What Would Settle It An official national census that asks and records sectarian religious affiliation, which Lebanese governments have avoided for over ninety years for the same political reason the number stays unknown.
Expertise Needed Demography, political science
Question posed in
Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, Pew Research Center.
Demography, religious studies 1
Turkey
What share of Turkey's population identifies as Alevi?
Open Turkey
Why It Is Open Turkish national censuses do not ask about sectarian or Alevi religious identity, so no official count of the Alevi population exists. Published estimates commonly range from about 10 to 20 percent of the population, a spread wide enough to reflect the absence of a count rather than disagreement over one.
What Would Settle It A nationally representative census or independently conducted survey that specifically asks about Alevi self-identification, which the Turkish state census currently does not do.
Expertise Needed Demography, religious studies
Question posed in
Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, Pew Research Center.