Method

Athena does not deliver verdicts: it presents claims together with supporting and challenging evidence, with sources. No theory in science is absolute; all knowledge may change with new evidence.

254nodes · 732sources

1. We do not deliver verdicts

Athena never labels a claim “true”, “false”, “reasonable” or “refuted”. Each node contains only claims, supporting evidence, challenging evidence, the positions of different communities, and sources for all of them. The reader decides.

Evidence is tagged by kind (experiment, observation, mathematical proof, fossil find, scripture, experience/unveiling, philosophical argument, meta-analysis…). This is not a ranking; it lets the reader see what kind of evidence is being offered.

As a general principle every page carries the note: No theory in science is absolute; all knowledge may change with new evidence.

2. Structure of the tree

Humanity sits at the centre. The branches growing upward are fields that investigate the world (mathematics, physics, energy, chemistry, biology, medicine, astronomy, psychology, parapsychology…). The roots growing downward are traditions of thought and belief (philosophy, kalām, Sufism, religions, mythology, esoteric traditions…). Being a root or a branch is not a value judgement; it describes which kind of question a topic asks. Many nodes connect to both sides. Alchemy, for example, is an esoteric tradition and is also linked to chemistry and nuclear physics.

Different accounts of a topic are not merged into one node. The various theories and views on evolution, for example, each have their own node with their own claims and sources.

3. Two reading levels

Every node has two texts: a plain-language account for everyone and a technical account for specialists that uses the field's own terminology.

4. Dates

Dates are given only for documented events (publication of a book or paper, a recorded experiment or observation). When a date is not documented with certainty, such as the origin of humanity, the emergence of language or the control of fire, no single date is given. Instead, the views of religions, current science and other sources are listed side by side.

Dates prefixed with "c." (circa) are approximate dates accepted by historians for works and people (e.g. Euclid's Elements, c. 300 BCE).

5. Source policy

• Every node must have at least one source. A node without sources is rejected automatically at build time.
• Primary sources: peer-reviewed papers, books, classical works, scriptures, institutional reports. News and encyclopedia articles are used only as further reading.
• For opposing views, serious published critiques are added (peer-reviewed replies, replication studies, academic books).
• Papers carry a DOI or arXiv number; books carry a publisher and ISBN.

6. Archiving

All content is stored as plain text (YAML) in the git repository. Every change is permanently recorded with its author and time. Source links are submitted to the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) automatically every month, and every source has an “archive” link next to it. The archived copy remains even if a link breaks. For articles with a DOI, the DOI itself is a persistent link; since most publishers do not allow automated captures, the snapshot already held by the Wayback Machine is recorded instead. The Internet Archive accepts only a limited number of requests at a time, so archiving advances a portion each month.

7. Staying current

On the 1st of every month new research for each branch is pulled automatically (New papers). Peer-reviewed articles come from OpenAlex (the open scholarly index combining Crossref, PubMed, DOAJ, arXiv, university repositories and publisher data), preprints from arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, ChemRxiv, PsyArXiv and SocArXiv; the two are listed separately. Google Scholar has no API, so every node page links to searches in Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, BASE, CORE, PubMed, PhilPapers, JSTOR and DergiPark. Notable work is added to the tree as a node after review.

8. Suggesting corrections

Every page has a Suggest a correction button at the bottom. Suggestions are recorded publicly on GitHub. You can suggest a missing source, an opposing view, a wrong date or a new node.