Across families
Deism and Secular Humanism
Different families with 12 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.20 (0 would be identical).
A creator established by reason from the evidence of order, who does not intervene, answer prayer or reveal anything. The matrix minimum on immanence — this is the one tradition here whose God is genuinely absent from the world.
One life, no supervision, and an ethics built from reason and human solidarity rather than received from anywhere. Organised, articulate and explicit that meaning is made rather than found.
Where they agree
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at optional or absent — a gap of 0.00.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at an individual choice — a gap of 0.02.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Both sit at metaphorical, or no text at all — a gap of 0.03.
B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at individual conscience decides — a gap of 0.03.
A3 Plurality
Both sit at strictly one — a gap of 0.03.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at reason and direct experience — a gap of 0.03.
A4 Locus
Both sit at wholly beyond the world — a gap of 0.05.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound and ignorant but fundamentally sound respectively — a gap of 0.06.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at achieved by effort or insight — a gap of 0.07.
E1 Exclusivity
Both sit at leaning many valid paths and many valid paths respectively — a gap of 0.07.
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at one life, then judgment — a gap of 0.07.
E4 Standing of nature
Both sit at between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred — a gap of 0.10.
Where they part company
A1 Divine reality
Deism: a divine reality certainly exists. Secular Humanism: nothing beyond the natural. A gap of 0.93 on an axis running from “nothing beyond the natural” to “a divine reality certainly exists”.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Deism: an intentional act. Secular Humanism: beginningless or natural. A gap of 0.93 on an axis running from “an intentional act” to “beginningless or natural”.
C1 Survival of the self
Deism: between ends at death and continues in some form. Secular Humanism: ends at death. A gap of 0.53 on an axis running from “ends at death” to “continues in some form”.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Deism | Secular Humanism | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | a divine reality certainly exists | nothing beyond the natural | 0.93 |
| A2 Personhood | leaning impersonal principle or order | impersonal principle or order | 0.33 |
| A3 Plurality | strictly one | strictly one | 0.03 |
| A4 Locus | wholly beyond the world | wholly beyond the world | 0.05 |
| B1 Source of truth | reason and direct experience | reason and direct experience | 0.03 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | metaphorical, or no text at all | metaphorical, or no text at all | 0.03 |
| B3 Institutional authority | individual conscience decides | individual conscience decides | 0.03 |
| C1 Survival of the self | between ends at death and continues in some form | ends at death | 0.53 |
| C2 Shape of time | one life, then judgment | one life, then judgment | 0.07 |
| C3 The human condition | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.06 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | achieved by effort or insight | achieved by effort or insight | 0.07 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | optional or absent | optional or absent | 0.00 |
| D3 The body | between to be disciplined and to be celebrated | leaning to be celebrated | 0.16 |
| E1 Exclusivity | leaning many valid paths | many valid paths | 0.07 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | an intentional act | beginningless or natural | 0.93 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | an individual choice | an individual choice | 0.02 |
| E4 Standing of nature | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | 0.10 |
Positions for Deism rest principally on Paine, The Age of Reason (1794); Herbert of Cherbury’s common notions; for Secular Humanism, on Humanist Manifesto III (2003) and the Amsterdam Declaration (2002). Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.