DownUnderPaddy

In the 2006 census the top three responses for religious affiliation were

• Catholic (25.8%)
• Anglican (18.7%)
• No Religion (18.7%)

However, (11.2%) people did not adequately answer the question, which may significantly alter the results.

This time around, to encourage individuals and families to think about the importance and impact of their answer to this leading Census question: "What is the person's religion?", the following campaign has been launched.

http://www.censusnoreligion.org/

An excellent campaign.
Check it out

bcworld

Same thing is running in the UK this time:

http://census-campaign.org.uk/

keel

I thought this was a link to a government infomation site but it wasn't. It was to some athiest nutters site.

Why did you put it up?

Keel

DadAgain

Not nutters at all.

They are simply pointing out that politics in this country (and many others) in unreasonably influenced by religious dogma. (Look at the way state schools 'teach' religion for example....)

One reason for this is that any attempt to count the population and get a picture of roughly 'who believes what' is ALWAYS inaccurate and always understates the level of atheism in the population due to the bias in the data processing.

Its likely that the majority of society are atheist in their beliefs, but misunderstandings, not taking the question seriously and inaccurate reporting suggest we are a hugely christian nation.

This site is a bona fide campaign to make sure we all record the correct data on the census so that our desire for a fully secular state can at least be recognised.

fish.01

Totally agree. Let the facts stand for themselves.

Rambi

Unfortunately there are a lot of atheists out there who don't like to make this clear. They don't believe in God or gods but they don't want the hassle they get if they say this. Look at some of the poo Julia cops because she's said she's an atheist. Sometimes it's just easier to mumble along.

Personally. I'm an atheist and will tell anyone who asks including the census people.

Swerv-o

Yup, well said. the importance of separation between religion and state is immense, and people who are identifying non-religious responses should at least be aware of how their responses are treated.

There is obviously a difference between 'Not defined' and 'No religion' and I am glad that I now know the difference!


S

fish.01

Same. I think there are also a lot who don't realise they are atheists and mistakenly think they are agnostic only and that being an agnostic is the 'balanced' opinion and being an atheist is claiming knowledge of the unknowable and just as partisan as a theist. This is not true.

If you have no current belief in god you are an atheist. You can be:

- agnostic atheist: no current belief in god but you claim no knowledge of whether there is a god or not;

or

- gnostic atheist: no current belief in god and you claim knowledge that there is no god.

But either way if you have no current belief in god you are an atheist.

micmay3_in_oz

Bit lost. what do they mean / how can they tell "people did not adequately answer the question"?

Mx

bcworld

They may not have answered at all, or written 'Jedi' or something similar.

fish.01

They mean apart from the percentages listed, an additional 11.2% of people put something unidentifiable like 'jedi warrior' or something. If these people were added to the No Religion count this would be more accurate.

Also, the fact that they phrase the question as 'What religion are you?', or something similar, leads people to put down their religion at birth rather than their current beliefs. For example, many people christened and raised as Roman Catholic's may just put it down as their religion even if the currently don't believe in god.

DownUnderPaddy

While all religions are belief systems, not all belief systems are religions.

The ABS interprets the ticking of a box for a religion on their form as "at least nominal adherence".
How do you 'nominally adhere' to a religion ? That is like describing someone as 'slightly pregnant'.
You either believe in the religion (and adhere to its tenets) or you don't.

However, accuse a non-practising, non-participating, non-contributing Catholic of not being a Catholic and almost invariably they will be quite offended !

This campaign is encouraging people to put a little more thought into how they answer this (optional) question in the upcoming August census, and most importantly, not to leave the question unanswered or spoiled by writing 'Jedi' or something equally silly.

Sources:

Religious education in government schools
http://education.theage.com.au/cmspa...intversion=344

Academics call for review of school religious teaching
http://www.theage.com.au/national/ed...406-1d4h5.html

State to increase funds for Christian classes
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/st...407-1d698.html

Rambi

The problem with fallen Catholics is that they feel guilty about losing faith

DownUnderPaddy

Ahh, the old catholic guilt. Indeed, it can be a tough one to crack, especially after a couple of decades of indoctrination !

Both my mother and my wifes mother cried (a lot) when we explained we would not be baptising our children (we have had 2 here in Aus).

We had to work hard to get them to understand it was no reflection on them or how they brought us up.
Once they realised we would not be raising our kids to be devil worshippers, they got over it though !

We did not want to continue to be hypocrites by claiming to be Catholics when we neither practised the religion nor believed in God.
To do so would be truly disrespectful and insulting to a religion that is clearly very important to a lot of people on this planet.

To that end, although born and raised as Catholics, we select 'no religion' in response to the census question.
That is as much out of respect to others religions as it is to be honest to ourselves.

Rambi

I've made it obvious to my mother that I'm not religious but I think she's in denial. She still drags me to church when she gets the opportunity.

On a side note. At the ANZAC day ceremony I had my fingers crossed when singing God Save the Queen. My wife pointed out that as I don't believe in God there's no problem asking him to send her victorious