Religion: Secular state or Religious foundation?

Where the library sits on this axis

The 112 written profiles are each stored with one value for this axis, written by hand. These are the ones furthest toward either end, and the ones closest to the middle.

These are editorial readings of the positions, not measurements of any party, movement or voter, and every vector is open to disagreement. Every profile, all three sets →

The statements that measure this axis

The question bank holds 10 statements for religion: 5 coded so that agreement counts toward Religious foundation, and 5 coded the other way, toward Secular state. The Short version draws 3 of them, Standard 5 and Deep 10.

• “Law should reflect the moral traditions a country was built on.” agreeing counts toward Religious foundation
• “The state should remain strictly neutral between religions and non-believers.” agreeing counts toward Secular state
• “Religious institutions care for the poor more effectively than state agencies do.” agreeing counts toward Religious foundation
• “Faith belongs in private life, not in public policy.” agreeing counts toward Secular state
• “Schools should be free to teach the religious tradition of their community.” agreeing counts toward Religious foundation
• “Public money should not fund religious schools, symbols or ceremonies.” agreeing counts toward Secular state
• “A society without shared moral foundations drifts into cynicism.” agreeing counts toward Religious foundation
• “Elected officials should not invoke divine authority to justify laws.” agreeing counts toward Secular state
• “Church and state work best when they support each other.” agreeing counts toward Religious foundation
• “Religious law must never override civil rights in a modern state.” agreeing counts toward Secular state

How this axis is scored

Each statement is answered on a five-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. On this axis, 5 statements count agreement toward Religious foundation and 5 count it toward Secular state, so a run where you agree with everything does not drift to one end.

The two directions are averaged separately and then weighted equally, and the result is reported between −100 and +100: negative toward Secular state, positive toward Religious foundation. A statement you skip is not counted on this axis at all, so skipping never moves the score. Anything inside ±12 is recorded as centred rather than as a lean.

The same twelve values are what your result is matched against. How scoring works, in full →