Open Questions

Open Sacred Tooth Relic of Kandy

Why It Is Open No independent scientific examination of the relic has ever been permitted. Its identification rests entirely on transmitted religious tradition, not on physical testing.

What Would Settle It Non-destructive material analysis, such as micro-CT or isotopic testing, of the relic, if Sri Dalada Maligawa ever permitted an outside examination.

Expertise Needed Archaeometry, Buddhist studies

Question posed in Sri Dalada Maligawa, The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (official site), Sri Dalada Maligawa.

Open Tooth Relic of Lingguang Temple

Why It Is Open Attribution rests on transmitted tradition. The relic has not been independently examined.

What Would Settle It Non-destructive material analysis of the relic, if the custodial temple ever permitted an outside examination.

Expertise Needed Archaeometry, Buddhist studies

Question posed in Buddha Tooth Relic Stupa, Lingguang Temple (Visit Beijing official), Visit Beijing.

Open Sri Dalada Maligawa

Why It Is Open The temple permits only devotional access. No independent scientific examination of the relic has ever been permitted, so authenticity rests on transmitted tradition alone.

What Would Settle It Non-destructive material analysis of the relic, such as micro-CT or isotopic testing, if the temple ever permitted an outside examination.

Expertise Needed Archaeometry, Buddhist studies

Question posed in Sri Dalada Maligawa (institutional record).

Open Santo Daime

Why It Is Open The tradition's own English language materials cover belief, ritual and history but say nothing about a member's financial obligation, and the scholarship on Brazilian ayahuasca religions checked in this search addresses supply and commercialization between communities rather than an individual member's own giving.

What Would Settle It A direct reading of the tradition's own Portuguese language materials, or ethnographic scholarship that specifically addresses whether a member owes a financial contribution to their own church or line.

Expertise Needed Brazilian religious studies and the anthropology of new religious movements

Question posed in Divinity Atlas Open Questions Register, First Edition.

Open União do Vegetal

Why It Is Open The tradition's own United States affiliate FAQ was read in full and covers history, legal status and ritual practice in detail, but says nothing about a membership fee or any other financial obligation, positive or negative.

What Would Settle It A direct reading of Uniao do Vegetal's own Portuguese language internal materials, or published scholarship that specifically addresses member financial obligation.

Expertise Needed Brazilian religious studies and the anthropology of new religious movements

Question posed in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418, Supreme Court of the United States.

Open Barquinha

Why It Is Open Barquinha is the least documented of the three Brazilian ayahuasca religions in the material checked for this axis, and no source found in this search, in English or Portuguese, addresses whether a member owes a financial contribution to their own house.

What Would Settle It A direct reading of a Barquinha house's own materials, in Portuguese, or ethnographic fieldwork among Barquinha communities that addresses member financial obligation specifically.

Expertise Needed Brazilian religious studies and the anthropology of new religious movements

Question posed in Divinity Atlas Open Questions Register, First Edition.

Open The 1391 Massacres of Spain's Jewish Communities

Why It Is Open Modern scholarship documents that survivors of the 1391 massacres either converted, often under direct threat, or fled to Islamic-ruled territory, Navarre, Portugal or France, but no source checked gives a reliable numeric total for those who fled distinct from those who converted or were killed. The one round figure found in circulation (a "100,000 fled" alongside equally round conversion and death figures) is inconsistent with the death-toll range already carefully sourced here and was judged unreliable rather than written.

What Would Settle It A demographic study of Iberian Jewish community registers or tax rolls before and after 1391, cross-referenced against the destinations named in contemporary accounts (North African, Navarrese and Portuguese Jewish community records), of the kind that has been done for the 1492 expulsion but not, so far as could be found, for 1391 specifically.

Expertise Needed Historical demography

Question posed in Nirenberg, Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today (2014), David Nirenberg.

Open The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain

Why It Is Open Contemporary chronicles (Bernaldez among them) and modern accounts alike describe severe hardship during the 1492 expulsion journey, disease, starvation, robbery, shipwreck and, in some accounts, refugees thrown overboard by ship captains, but no source checked, including Jonathan Ray's standard modern academic treatment "After Expulsion," gives a numeric mortality estimate for the journey distinct from the total number expelled, which is already recorded here as a displaced range.

What Would Settle It A dedicated demographic or archival study specifically isolating expulsion-journey mortality from the wider 1492 to 1497 diaspora experience, of the kind Kamen's 1988 Past and Present article did for the total population expelled but for which no equivalent study covering deaths in transit could be found.

Expertise Needed Historical demography

Question posed in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edition, Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (eds.).

Open The Kishinev Pogrom

Why It Is Open Secondary accounts of the April 1903 pogrom's property destruction disagree in a way that reads as citation drift rather than independent corroboration: the number "2,000" recurs but is applied inconsistently to "families" in some accounts and "people" in others, for what appears to be the same underlying claim, and neither version was traceable back to the established academic source already cited here, Judge's "Easter in Kishinev: Anatomy of a Pogrom" (1992).

What Would Settle It A page-level check of Judge's 1992 monograph, or the contemporary Russian official commission of inquiry it draws on, for its own stated count of families or individuals left homeless, distinct from the homes-and-businesses-destroyed figures already recorded here.

Expertise Needed Historical demography

Question posed in Judge, Easter in Kishinev: Anatomy of a Pogrom (1992), Edward H. Judge.

Open Aries 26

Why It Is Open Charubel gave a picture to every other degree of Aries. Here the entry opens straight into the reading and no image is set at all. Two independent transcriptions of the book agree, and the second of them does preserve his picture-less lines elsewhere, such as "This is a blank degree." and "Too revolting to be given.", so this is an absence in the printing rather than a loss in a scan. Whether the degree was ever set with an image, and whether Charubel withheld one deliberately, is not settled by the copies consulted.

What Would Settle It Collation of this degree against a copy of the 1898 first printing, and against the serialisation Charubel published in Alan Leo's Astrologer's Magazine from December 1890, either of which would show whether an image line was ever set and later dropped.

Expertise Needed History of astrology; analytical bibliography of Victorian occult printing

Question posed in The Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolised, Charubel (John Thomas), 1826-1908, Aries 26.

Open Scorpio 27

Why It Is Open The neighbouring degrees carry pictures, a mole at Scorpio 26 and a crouching tiger at Scorpio 28, but this entry opens straight into the reading with no image set. Two independent transcriptions agree, and the second preserves Charubel's picture-less lines elsewhere, so the gap belongs to the printing rather than to a damaged scan. Whether an image was ever set for the degree is not settled by the copies consulted.

What Would Settle It Collation of this degree against a copy of the 1898 first printing, and against the serialisation Charubel published in Alan Leo's Astrologer's Magazine from December 1890, either of which would show whether an image line was ever set and later dropped.

Expertise Needed History of astrology; analytical bibliography of Victorian occult printing

Question posed in The Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolised, Charubel (John Thomas), 1826-1908, Scorpio 27.

Open Pisces 24

Why It Is Open Where every neighbouring degree carries a picture, this one carries a row of stars in the printed source, and the reading that follows opens by saying the degree is not capable of being described in words. Whether the stars are Charubel's own mark for something he would not put into a picture, or a compositor's rule standing in for matter that never reached the page, is not decided by the printing itself, and the two transcriptions consulted here render the mark differently from each other.

What Would Settle It Collation against a copy of the 1898 first printing and against the serialisation in Alan Leo's Astrologer's Magazine from December 1890, together with any surviving correspondence or editorial note that explains the mark.

Expertise Needed History of astrology; analytical bibliography of Victorian occult printing

Question posed in The Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolised, Charubel (John Thomas), 1826-1908, Pisces 24.

Open The 1999 Ban and Crackdown on Falun Gong

Why It Is Open Detention, forced labor camp sentences and reports of torture and deaths in custody are well documented since the 1999 ban, but advocacy organizations and the Chinese government publish estimates that diverge by orders of magnitude, and neither is independently verified nor cross-checked against detention records outside state control.

What Would Settle It Independent access to Chinese detention, labor camp and mortality records, or a systematic international investigation with verified access to prison and camp registries from the relevant decades.

Expertise Needed Human rights documentation

Question posed in Falun Gong and the Future of China, David Ownby.

Open The Persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan

Why It Is Open Individual killings and mob attacks against Pakistan's Ahmadi community are documented incident by incident since the 1974 constitutional amendment and the 1984 Ordinance XX, but no independent body has compiled a cumulative total across the full decades-long campaign of legal restriction and violence.

What Would Settle It A systematic count from an independent human rights body, cross-checked against Ahmadiyya community records and Pakistani state records, covering the full period since 1974.

Expertise Needed Human rights documentation

Question posed in Ordinance XX of 1984 (Pakistan), Government of Pakistan.

Open The Uyghur Internment in Xinjiang

Why It Is Open The OHCHR's 2022 assessment documents serious human rights violations across the Xinjiang internment system, but China has not granted independent international access to detention facility records or mortality data, and no independent body has published a verified death toll.

What Would Settle It Independent international access to detention facility records and mortality data, which has not been granted to date.

Expertise Needed Human rights documentation

Question posed in OHCHR Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Open Trappists (Cistercians of the Strict Observance)

Why It Is Open Every US Trappist abbey checked (New Melleray, Gethsemani, Mepkin, Holy Cross Berryville, New Clairvaux, Genesee, and both Assumption abbeys) is IRS-recognized as a church and files no public Form 990; only occasional unrelated-business-income Form 990-T filings exist, with no extracted figures, and the worldwide order publishes nothing consolidated.

What Would Settle It A voluntarily published audited annual statement from a named abbey, or a Form 990 from a separately incorporated commercial arm such as Trappist Caskets or Gethsemani Farms, if one is filed apart from the church-exempt abbey corporation.

Expertise Needed Nonprofit financial research and Catholic religious-institute administration.

Question posed in Corporation of New Melleray, Nonprofit Explorer (ProPublica).

Open Redemptorists (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer)

Why It Is Open US Redemptorist provinces are IRS church-exempt and file no public Form 990, the worldwide Congregation publishes no consolidated accounts, and the only Redemptorist-founded US filer located, the Redemptorist Social Services Center in Kansas City, is a single local agency, today describing itself as nonsectarian, whose figures do not represent the order.

What Would Settle It A province-level voluntarily published audited statement, or a disclosure regime covering the finances of Catholic religious congregations.

Expertise Needed Nonprofit financial research and Catholic religious-institute administration.

Question posed in Redemptorist Social Services Center, Nonprofit Explorer (ProPublica).

Open Sisters of Mercy

Why It Is Open The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas is IRS church-exempt with no institute-level Form 990, its investment arm Mercy Investment Services surfaces no public filing, and only individual sponsored ministries file their own returns, none of which represents the institute as a whole.

What Would Settle It An institute-level voluntarily published audited statement, or a consolidated disclosure covering the sponsored ministries of the Sisters of Mercy.

Expertise Needed Nonprofit financial research and Catholic religious-institute administration.

Question posed in Sisters of Mercy Urgent Care Inc, Nonprofit Explorer (ProPublica).

Open The Neronian Persecution of Christians (64 CE)

Why It Is Open Tacitus, writing roughly fifty years after the event and the near-sole near-contemporary source, describes an "immense multitude" convicted without giving any number, and no other source from within a century of the fire supplies one; the 979 figure sometimes quoted traces to Jerome's chronicle of the 390s CE, over three centuries later.

What Would Settle It No further ancient source is likely to surface at this distance; a systematic review of the archaeological and epigraphic record for first century Roman burial or execution sites tied to this specific episode could at best establish a documented floor rather than a true total.

Expertise Needed Roman imperial history; early Christian source criticism

Question posed in Tacitus, Annals, Book XV, Publius Cornelius Tacitus.

Open The Decian Persecution of Christians (250 to 251 CE)

Why It Is Open The surviving libelli document compliance, not casualties, and no ancient Christian writer or modern historian has reconstructed an aggregate death total for the roughly eighteen months of enforcement; only named individual executions are on record.

What Would Settle It A systematic collation of the named martyrologies and surviving correspondence across the persecution's eighteen months, of the kind that could establish a documented floor even without a claim to completeness.

Expertise Needed Roman imperial history; early Christian source criticism

Question posed in Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire (Wikipedia).