Thu, 21. June 2012
Census 2012
The 2011 Australian Census figures were released today. The results of the single question about religious affiliation are:
Group 2011 (2006); Swing
Catholic 25.3% (25.8%); down 0.5%
No Religion 22.3% (18.7%); up 3.6%
Anglican 17.1% (18.7%); down 1.6%
Uniting 5.0% (5.7%); down 0.7%
Presbyterian 2.8% (3.0%); down 0.2%
A swing of 3.6% is a great trend, a step forward for reality, which, if continued in the 2016 census would mean that one person in every four will be an atheist or agnostic and 'non-religious' people will outnumber the members of any single church group. It is certainly a repeat of the last census when all major religious groups also dropped and 'non-religious' rose from 15.5% to 18.7% (up 3.2%).
We are now witnessing a free-thinking renaissance and I wonder at what stage the mainstream will begin to regard non-religious people as a legitimate group of people, whose views, ideas and aspirations are just as important and need to be sought and taken into consideration before making big decisions? They certainly are not at this stage and probably won't be for a while yet.
By way of comparison, Anglicans have the ear of State & Federal Ministers, despite being lower in numbers than non-religious people. In fact there are many minority groups with numbers far less than the 'no religion' group who are taken very seriously by governments and agencies. Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders make up just 2.5% of the population and their minority views are sought on many issues and a disproportionate amount of money is spent on aboriginal affairs. I am not saying this is wrong, just using it to make the point that the voices of extreme minorities are very often considered when making decisions.
Aged people (over 70) number 9.4% of the population and are very well heard. Migrants, for example of Italian descent (3.3%) of the population are wooed by politicians. Despite 'no religion' being such a "huge minority," (nearly a quarter of the population) it is still frowned upon to openly oppose religion in public. I seriously begin to wonder when governments will start realising that religion is waning and when they will begin to take realistic world-views into account.
Only one more improvement like this at the next census would give Australia more non-religious people than Catholics - but will our views ever be considered with the same weight as those of Mr. Pell or of the non-representative ACL?
Religion always has a free ride and Christianity has always sought and succeeded to dominate over all other religions. Australia is a multicultural society, with a broad range of ethnic backgrounds and those ethnic views are always rightly sought after and considered. A byproduct of a multicultural society is the multiplicity of religions. The only way every person's views can be fairly considered is by treating them all equally. Multi-culturalism is a success but Secularism is opposed by the conquering Christian soldiers.
Australia's Constitution is secular but it's implementation is not. Many Christian folks are frightened by Secularism, equating it to an anti-religious agenda - but all it implies is the equal treatment for all religious and non-religious views.
That's right folks, the bottom line is that you are frightened of being treated equally. You don't want to lose the unfair free ride which you currently enjoy.
Religion's downward slide is the good news. The bad news is twofold:
1. The number of people who nominated a religion is still an astonishing 77.7% (81.3% in 2006) (84.5% in 2001). It is just incredible that so many people in this country are still off with the fairies.
2. The most astonishing fact is that the Catholic position has only dropped very slightly, by 0.5%, compared with the Anglican drop of 1.6%. When you consider that the Catholic Paedophile Scandal has been given considerable publicity (still not enough in my opinion) over the last five years, it is amazing that Catholics have not left the Church in very large numbers. Perhaps many have lapsed but are not yet brave enough to consider themselves 'non-religious.' Either that or they support the church's disgusting multi-paedophile cover up.
Acknowledgements to atheistcartoons.com