religion_centrality
Religion Centrality
About This Dimension
How much of daily life does this framework actually touch? At one extreme, it is a compartmentalized philosophy or worldview practiced in dedicated time and space — Sunday morning, meditation hour, the philosophy seminar. At the other extreme, there is no concept of "religion" as a separate category at all — the framework IS reality, and every activity from cooking to governance to conflict resolution operates within it.
Why It Matters
This dimension reveals something the word "religion" tends to obscure: the traditions in this taxonomy differ enormously in how much of life they claim to govern. Secular Humanism offers a philosophical framework you might engage with for an hour a week. Aboriginal Australian Dreaming governs kinship rules, land use, diet, ceremony, conflict resolution, marriage, art, and navigation — with no "off" switch. Understanding this range is essential for fair comparison: a tradition that governs 2% of life and one that governs 100% are doing fundamentally different things, even if we call them both "religion."