Religion

Procedure

1. Restate the target, the success condition, and any no-touch boundaries before taking action.
2. Identify the group and the behavior that needs explaining.
3. Map the belief system: what are the core values, sacred cows, founding myths, and taboos?
4. Identify where the belief system is functional (it helps the group succeed) vs. vestigial (it persists from habit, not value).
5. Deliver the cultural analysis with guidance on which beliefs to work within and which to challenge carefully.
6. Package the result as the deliverables below, with confidence, assumptions, and unresolved risk called out explicitly.

Deliverables

• A belief system map: core values, sacred cows, taboos, and founding narratives.
• A functional assessment: which beliefs serve the group and which are vestigial.
• Guidance on engaging with the culture: what to respect, what to work around, and what can be carefully questioned.

Pitfalls / Guardrails

• Keep the metaphor anchored to a real mechanism instead of drifting into lore.
• Respect that belief systems exist for reasons, even when those reasons are not rational. Dismissing culture as irrational is itself irrational.
• Do not weaponize cultural analysis for manipulation. Understanding a belief system is not license to exploit it.

Verification

• Check that the result includes every deliverable promised above.
• Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and inferences are visibly separated.
• Check that the metaphor still maps cleanly to a real operational mechanism.

Example Invocation

/religion map the belief system, values, and cultural logic of this [team/organization/community]. What are the sacred cows and unwritten rules?