A sociological research on the relationship of secularity-religious orientation

Secularization, which is expressed as the loss of dominance of institutional religion or religious authorities over other sub-systems, does not mean that religion is completely removed from the social plane. Assumptions are mostly about the institutional aspect of religion losing its value. Even though many scriptures are being questioned with the secularization process, certain religious habits, such as popular religious orientations, have the potential to preserve their continuity. In this study, the relationship between secularism and religious orientation is discussed. The research, which aims to reveal the relationship of secularization with normative and popular religious orientations, has a descriptive and quantitative design and was prepared with a relational screening model. Secularity Scale and Religious Orientation Scale were used as measurement tools. Pearson Moment correlation analysis, Independent Samples t-Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to test the hypotheses. As a result of the analyzes, a high level of negative correlation was found between secularism and normative religious orientation. A very low level of negative correlation was found between secularism and popular religious orientation. While these results are compatible with the view that secularism will reduce normative religiosity, they also show that it will not contradict popular religious orientations at the same rate. Keywords: Secularism, Modernization, Popular Religiosity, Normative Religiosity.