Observe the similarities

Observation, experiment, measurement, prediction

• ScienceObservation, experiment, measurement, prediction.

Scripture, revelation, tradition, prophetic authority

• JudaismScripture, tradition, reason, revelation.
• ChristianityScripture, revelation, tradition, faith, experience.
• IslamQur’an, revelation, prophetic tradition.
• ZoroastrianRevelation, scripture, ethical participation.
• LDSRevelation, scripture, prophetic authority.
• EnochicRevelation, visionary literature, sacred texts.

Practice, insight, cultivation, direct realization

• HinduScripture, philosophy, teachers, practice, direct realization.
• BuddhistPractice, observation of mind, teachings, insight.
• DaoistObservation, cultivation, texts, direct practice.

Ritual, priestly knowledge, temple, divination, astronomy

• EgyptianRitual, sacred texts, priestly knowledge.
• MesopotamianTradition, temple culture, divination, texts.
• MayaSacred narrative, ritual, astronomy, divination.

Sumerian literary tablets and the King List, in later copies

• SumerianSumerian literary tablets and the King List, known from later copies. Several are fragmentary.

Oral tradition, ceremony, dreams, elders, poetry

• AnishinaabeOral tradition, ceremony, dreams, experience, elders.
• NorsePoetry, oral tradition, visionary material.

Calculated sky, inherited interpretive systems

• AstrologyObservation of celestial cycles, calculated positions, inherited interpretive systems, and claimed correspondence between celestial and terrestrial patterns.

Auditing and claimed personal realization

• ScientologyAuditing, teachings, claimed personal realization.

Experience, recovered knowledge, comparison of fragmented traditions

• Living RealmExperience + recovered knowledge + comparison of fragmented traditions.

Cult, mystery, and philosophy — separable

• GreekMyth, cult, poetry, and philosophy. These are not one method.

Jinas, scripture, conduct — two canons

• JainThe Jinas’ teaching, scripture, and conduct. Digambara and Śvetāmbara canons differ.

Gurūs and Gurū Granth Sāhib

• SikhGurū Granth Sāhib, the Gurūs, nām, and discipline.

Rite first

• ShintoRitual, shrine tradition, and myth. Kojiki and Nihon Shoki are not the same text.

Family rite, classics, divination, temple

• ChineseRitual, ancestry, classical cosmology, divination, and temple practice. Not Daoist ordination.

Gnosis and contested books

• GnosticRevealed gnosis and contested scriptures. Not one canon.

Hermes, vision, sympathy — later orders are later

• HermeticHermes as revealer, vision, and the sympathy of the cosmos. Later ceremonial practice is a further tradition.

Ifá, oral teaching, ritual

• YorubaOral tradition, Ifá, ritual, and lineage. Diaspora practices are related and not identical.

Country, elders, ceremony

• AboriginalCountry, song, kinship, ceremony, and elders. Outsider summaries are not the tradition.

Ritual exchange; chronicles are later

• IncaRitual, landscape, ancestors, and, in the Inca state, quipu and oral tradition. Spanish chronicles are later and partial.

Other people’s writing, and archaeology

The absence of a practitioner’s canon is recorded, not filled. Each record keeps only its own sentence.

• IrishMedieval Irish literature, written by Christians. The Táin is in copies from the 12th century and later.
• WelshMedieval Welsh literature, written by Christians. The Mabinogi is in 14th-century manuscripts.
• GaulishInscriptions, the Coligny calendar (a calendar, not a myth), and sanctuaries. Caesar’s Gallic War is an outside account of druids, not a druid book.

Tablets, then a named line of interpretation

The interpreters are not a second set of Manifestations.

• BaháʼíThe writings of Baháʼu’lláh. Authorized interpretation is limited to named successors. That limit is their claim.