evidence: Evidence exists to support the view that secularism offers a way of increasing human rights and freedoms. For instance, research conducted by Kettell (2014) has found that countries with a state religion possess substantially lower levels of political rights and civil liberties than countries that do not possess a state religion. Political rights (such as free and fair elections, nondiscriminatory voter registration, and transparency of vote counting) were 27% worse in countries with a state religion, and civil liberties (including freedom of expression, belief, and association) were 37% lower. At the same time, countries with a state religion were found to have far higher (146%) levels of government regulation of religion (which is perhaps unsurprising, given that regulating religion is one of the reasons for having a state religion in the first instance), but also to have much higher (41%) levels of social regulation of religion (defined as the extent to which society itself seeks to impose restrictions or conformity of religious beliefs and practices), and 68% higher levels of religious persecution than countries without a state religion.