Belief Measures

The variables defined here are derived from the following measures for which detailed information can be found on their respective pages:

• ISSP
• Religious Identity
• Religious Practice
• Supernatural Belief
• General Belief
• Atheist Membership

Belief Variables

Warning: package 'dplyr' was built under R version 4.3.2

Warning: package 'kableExtra' was built under R version 4.3.2

Belief in God

Variable Name	Variable Label	Description	Variable Type	Definition	Response Options
Belief in God (categorical)	belief_god_cat	Categorical	Categorical Response to belief in god options	issp_01 default	1. I don't believe in God 2. I don't know whether there is a God, and I don't believe there is any way to find out 3. I don't believe in a personal God, but I do believe in a Higher Power of some kind 4. I find myself believing in God some of the time, but not at others 5. While I have doubts, I feel that I do believe in God. 6. I know God really exists and I have no doubt about it. 7. Don't know
Non-Belief Identity	belief_ident	Categorical	Cattegorical response to non-believers identity options	issp_02 default	1. Spiritual but not religious 2. Seeker 3. Non-religious 4. Atheist 5. Agnostic 6. Humanist 7. Sceptic 8. Free thinker 9. Rationalist 10. Secular 11. Christian 12. Muslim 13. Jewish 14. Buddhist 15. Hindu 16. Daoist 17. Shinto 18. Confucian 19. Other (please specify)
Belief in God (binary)	belief_god_bin	binary (dummy)	Categorisation of "believers" and "non-believers" from issp_01	dummy variable for yes responses to either 5 & 6 in issp_01	0,1
Belief in God (ordinal)	belief_god_con	continuous/ ordinal	Likert measure of agreement with belief in god statement.	belief_01	1 to 7
Agnosticism (ordinal)	agnosticism_cont	continuous/ ordinal	Likert scale measure of agreement with agnosticism statement.	agn_01	1 to 7
Agnostic Identity (binary)	agnosticism_bin	binary	Categorisation of "agnostics" from issp_02	dummy/index variable for response 5 in issp_02	0,1

Religiosity

Variable Name	Variable Label	Description	Variable Type	Definition	Response Options
Religious Identification	relig_id_1	binary	Yes/no belong to a religion	rid_01 default	0,1
Religious Identity	relig_id_2	categorical	Which religion category	rid_02 default	1. Protestant 2. Catholic 3. Orthodox (e.g. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox) 4. Sunni 5. Shiite 6.Buddhist 7. Confucian 8. Daoist 9. Hindu 10. Jewish 11. Shinto 12. Other (please specify)
Religious Attendance	relig_attend	continuous/ ordinal	Frequency of religious attendence likert scale	rp_01 default	1. More than once a week 2. Once a week 3. Once a month 4. Only on special holy days 5. Once a year 6. Less often 7. Never, practically never
Prayer Frequency	prayer_freq	continuous/ ordinal	Frequency of prayer likert scale	rp_02 default	1. Several times a day 2. Once a day 3. Several times each week 4. Only when attending religious services 5. Only on special holy days 6. Once a year 7. Less often 8. Never, practically never
Religious Objects	relig_object	categorical	Presence of religious objects	rp_03 default	1. Yes, for religious reasons 2. Yes, for non-religious reasons 3. No
Anti-religiosity	anti_relig	continuous/ ordinal	Agreement with anti-religiosity statement	ar_01 default	1 to 7
Primary Caregiver Religiosity	caregiver_relig	binary	Yes/no belong to a religion	rid_03 default	0,1
Primary Caregiver Religios Identity	caregiver_relig_id	categorical	Which religion category	rid_04 default	1. Protestant 2. Catholic 3. Orthodox (e.g. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox) 4. Sunni 5. Shiite 6.Buddhist 7. Confucian 8. Daoist 9. Hindu 10. Jewish 11. Shinto 12. Other (please specify)
Additional Caregiver Religiousity	caregiver2_relig	binary	Yes/no belong to a religion	rid_05 default	0,1
Additional Caregiver Religiosity Identity	caregiver2_relig_id	categorical	Which religion category	rid_06 default	1. Protestant 2. Catholic 3. Orthodox (e.g. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox) 4. Sunni 5. Shiite 6.Buddhist 7. Confucian 8. Daoist 9. Hindu 10. Jewish 11. Shinto 12. Other (please specify)

Atheism

Variable Name	Variable Label	Description	Variable Type	Definition	Response Options
Atheist Membership	atheist_mem	Yes/no to membership of an atheist org.	binary	am_01 response	0,1
Atheist Identity	atheist_id	Categorisation of "athetists" from issp_02	binary	dummy variable from option 4 for issp_02	0,1

Meta-Belief

Variable Name	Variable Label	Description	Variable Type	Definition	Response Options
Possibility of Knowing (God)	god_knowing	continuous/ ordinal	Agreement with: "It is not possible to know if God exists"	belief_02 default	1 to 7
Confidence in Belief	belief_confidence	continuous/ ordinal	Agreement with: "I am confident that my beliefs about God's existence are the right ones"	conf_01 default	1 to 7
Apatheism (God)	apatheism_god	continuous/ ordinal	Agreement with: "Whether or not God exists is a question that doesn't interest me much"	apth_01 default	1 to 7
Apatheism (life purpose)	apatheism_purpose	continuous/ ordinal	Agreement with: "Whether or not there is an ultimate purpose to life is a question that doesn't interest me much."	apth_02 default	1 to 7
Apatheism (combined)	apatheism	continuous/	Mean of apatheism_god + apatheism_purpose	mean of apth_01 and apth_02	1 to 7
Possibility of Truth	truth_possibility	continuous/ ordinal	Agreement with: "For most things in the world, we will never be able to discover the real objective truth."	mean_01 default	1 to 7
Naturalism	naturalism	binary	Lack of agreement for any supernatural belief items	dummy variable = 0 for cases where any of snb items (except 16, 17) are > 4 (agreement or neither)	1 to 7

Supernatural Belief

Supernatural Belief measures use our 1-7 agreement scale:

Strongly Disagree	Moderately Disagree	Slightly Disagree	Neither Agree nor Disagree	Slightly Agree	Moderately Agree	Strongly Agree
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Supernatural Belief Variables

Variable Name	Variable Label	Description	Variable Type	Definition	Response Options
Afterlife Existence	afterlife_exist	Agreement with: "There is some sort of life after death"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_01 default	1 to 7
Afterlife Punishment	afterlife_punish	Agreement with: "Some people will be punished after they die."	continuous/ ordinal	snb_13 default	1 to 7
Afterlife Reward	afterlife_reward	Agreement with: "Some people will be rewarded after they die"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_14 default	1 to 7
Reincarnation	reincarnation	Agreement with: "Sometime after I die, I expect that I'll be born again in another body."	continuous/ ordinal	snb_02 default	1 to 7
Astrology	astrology	Agreement with: "The positions of the stars and planets affect people's lives"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_03 default	1 to 7
Mystical People	msystical_people	Agreement with: "Some people have mystical powers (e.g. to heal, harm, or bring good luck)"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_04 default	1 to 7
Mystical Objects	mystical_objects	Agreement with: "Some objects have mystical powers (e.g. to heal, harm, or bring good luck)"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_05 default	1 to 7
Good and Evil	good_evil	Agreement with: "There are underlying forces of good and evil in this world."	continuous/ ordinal	snb_06 default	1 to 7
Universal spirit or life force	lifeforce	Agreement with: "There exists a universal spirit or life force."	continuous/ ordinal	snb_07 default	1 to 7
Karma	karma	Agreement with: "There is a power in the universe that causes good things to happen to people who behave morally and bad things to happen to people who behave immorally."	continuous/ ordinal	snb_08 default	1 to 7
Fate	fate	Agreement with: "Most significant life events are meant to be and happen for a reason."	continuous/ ordinal	snb_09 default	1 to 7
Supernatural Being Existence	supernat_beings	Agreement with: "Supernatural beings of some kind exist"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_10 default	1 to 7
Good Supernatural Beings	good_beings	Agreement with: "There exist supernatural beings that are good/kind (e.g. COUNTRY SPECIFIC)"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_11 default	1 to 7
Harmful Supernatural Beings	harmful_beings	Agreement with: "There exist supernatural beings that are harmful. (e.g COUNTRY SPECIFIC)"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_12 default	1 to 7
Evil Eye	evil_eye	Agreement with: "Making other people envious of you can cause illness or misfortune."	continuous/ ordinal	snb_15 default	1 to 7
Spiritual Experience (personal)	spiritual_force	Category response to: "Have you ever felt as though you were connected to a powerful spiritual force?"	continuous/ ordinal	snb_16 default	1. Yes, I've had an experience like this. 2. I've had an experience like this, but I didn't associate it with a spiritual force. 3. No, I've never had an experience like this.
Lucky Object	lucky_objects	Yes/No to: "Do you carry any objects for luck or protection?"	binary	snb_17 default	0, 1