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“No Religion” Is Now Officially Australia’s Top Religion

Australian citizens chose “no religion” more than any listed specific denomination on the nation's 2016 Census, making this the first time the “Nones” have overtaken Catholics in the country.

In 1966, only 0.8% of Australians chose "no religion".  In 50 years "no religion" has climbed from 0.8% to 29.6%! (plus another 9.6% who did not answer the religion question?)

http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/files/2017/06/AustCensus2.png

The census data comes at an interesting time, when people all over Australia (and Europe and the U.S.) are worried about being overtaken by Muslims. In fact, some right-wing groups actually warned all citizens not to select the “no religion” option as it may lead to Australia becoming a “Muslim country” (somehow).

But not even a conservative fear campaign could stop non-believers in Australia from being heard. About 29.6 percent of Australians chose the “no religion” box — up from 22.6 percent in 2011 — and 9.6 percent chose not to answer the religion question at all.

Actually according to youch chart Christianity is still the main religion, because Catholics and Anglicans belong to the same big Christian family ;)

Some right-wing groups actually warned all citizens not to select the “no religion” option as it may lead to Australia becoming a “Muslim country” (somehow).
Yes, because it's that simple. If you come to an atheist and tell him to praise Allah, because it's better than believing in nothing, he'll convert just like that. Some people seem to think that there's a place reserved for a religion in our minds and it must be filled by one or another eventually.

^^^^^ That's because Aussies come predominantly from English stock. A Spaniard might be offended if he thought that Catholic was being clumped with Christian.

8)

Where the issue of liberalism is getting to we might have to lose the moral values religion instill in is at some point because this 21st century has grown with so much knowledge that almost every thing that seem unanswered to and solace is taken in religion, has mostly been answered by virtue of advancement in science and technology and also the emergence of Artificial Intelligence has equally give credence to it. I hope we can find out path

I'm fine with them being irreligious but I hope they take precautions to be not hijacked by the religious with raging hormones. Let's face it, better live in a secular "Christian country" then in some Muslim sharia land. Christians are more accommodating to infidels.

Let's hope Australia don't go the way of Europe. They do take some "immigrants" in but the only close Muslim country to them is Indonesia.

The specific technique used in CBT is called exposure and response prevention (ERP) which involves teaching the person to deliberately come into contact with the situations that trigger the obsessive thoughts and fears ("exposure"), without carrying out the usual compulsive acts associated with the obsession ("response prevention"), thus gradually learning to tolerate the discomfort and anxiety associated with not performing the ritualistic behavior. At first, for example, someone might touch something only very mildly "contaminated" (such as a tissue that has been touched by another tissue that has been touched by the end of a toothpick that has touched a book that came from a "contaminated" location, such as a school.) That is the "exposure". The "ritual prevention" is not washing. Another example might be leaving the house and checking the lock only once (exposure) without going back and checking again (ritual prevention). The person fairly quickly habituates to the anxiety-producing situation and discovers that their anxiety level drops considerably; they can then progress to touching something more "contaminated" or not checking the lock at all—again, without performing the ritual behavior of washing or checking.

ERP has a strong evidence base, and it is considered the most effective treatment for OCD. However, this claim was doubted by some researchers in 2000 who criticized the quality of many studies.

It has generally been accepted that psychotherapy, in combination with psychiatric medication, is more effective than either option alone. However, more recent studies have shown no difference in outcomes for those treated with the combination of medicine and CBT versus CBT alone.


You might be onto something. Chesterton famously said, that refusal to choose God, doesnt mean the person in question is not believer. Rather it means he might start to belive anything (Moloch here being prime example). Religion is not so much about rituals as it is about complex value system.


You are completely correct. Australia wil be swarmed by muslims. You know why, right? As its people lose their value system, there wont be enough force behind door to keep it closed. When millions of muslims ask the locals to let them in, the universalist rhetorical question will go: "Why not?"

Christian are still the majority, since all those 3 groups are considered Christian. You just wait when the Muslims become majority. You're gonna love it. Good times. Tremendously. Believe me.


Aw, don't you just love "cultural enrichment"? It really does do wonders for the host country. "Diversity" is always good, no?

You're so dumb

Do you really think atheists have never heard of religion and will convert to the first one the hear about?

Australia didn't go from <1% atheist to 30%+ because nobody heard of Jesus or Allah... come the fuck on dude... use the brain that nature/evolution gave you

The problem is that the various sects of christianity don't agree with each other on pretty much anything...

Would a protestant be happy with a catholic pope running the show?  No

Would catholics be happy with a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness in charge?  No

The only reason anyone lumps them all together as "Christian" is to outnumber Muslims (only America does this AFAIK)... other countries aren't stupid and keep the denominations separate, because they are separate

AFAIK Muslims also don't agree with each other and in their case not agreeing is trying to murder other sects or ethnic groups. An example might be the relations between Sunni and Shia. I think Muslims are pretty much outnumbered anyway, there's maybe 3% of them in Australia, not enough to make a difference even if all of them decide to blow themselves up in public places, which seems to be their favourite way of making a point.

There are two main reasons for this. First, as the education levels increase, the religiosity declines in general. This has been seen in Western Europe and North America as well. And secondly, a large part of the migration to Australia comes from East Asian nations such as China and Vietnam, were most of the people are either atheist or non-religious. 

Worryingly, the number of Muslims have increased by more than 6 times, from 109,500 in 1986 (0.7%) to 604,200 in 2016 (2.6%). At first it doesn't look like too threatening, but knowing what is happening in countries such as the UK and the Netherlands, this increase bothers me.

BTW, surprising to see the Jews declining in number. The other Oriental religions also increased, with Australia now home to 440,300 Hindus, 125,900 Sikhs and 563,700 Buddhists.

Wow, at first I fully thought that this was one of those bullshit pieces that people try to go on every so often to try to belittle religion on this forum. But, no this is actually a true fact and is something that is true. While the wording may be the part that got me, I had thought as if you added all the other religions together NO RELIGION would still come out on top. This part isn't true, but insane to see people going against the norms of society and not believing in what everyone else has done SINCE THE START OF TIME.

GO AUSTRALIA!

Nice to see the number of Hindus and Buddhists increasing. Immigrants who belong to these two religions have proved themselves to be the most law abiding and hardworking group. Also, nice to see Australia getting more diverse.

Good for them, honestly every body is free to choose their own religion and whenever some body wanted to force you to convert to a specific religion then you should really kill them, if God wanted all the people have faith He could've forced them to submit or force every body to submit to whatever He desired.
People should take the hint when it comes to freedom of choice and respect others and their choices.

I don't find anything worrying about Buddhists. Better encourage more migration from countries like Vietnam and Thailand than South Asia and Middle East. East Asians in particular would make more attractive immigrants. They are almost always considered model immigrants, even having better educational and economic levels than natives.


Can't help but laugh at the comment you are replying to. Many people who go atheist were formerly religious and has heard about another religion other than the one they escaped. That none of the other existing religion convinced them enough should make it clear they're unlikely to just convert unless coerced.

When you see how many bad things have been done in the name of religion, different ones, maybe no religion option is the best.option. At least when all this crazy situation in the world doesn't come down.

Probably most of those that selected 'no religion' are not proud to be identified as Christians...Australia is still largely a Christian country

I don't see many people differentiating between Sunnis and Shias. Having these these Christian sects as the majority groups in a country is still safer. I mean, save for a few places, Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox are no longer slashing each other's throats. I've never seen Mormons or JWs go on a religious war against other Christian sects.

Bigotry is the problem not Religion. Our laws need to protect people from bigots not Religious people.
North Korea is an athiest country yet her leader could get people killed for disrespecting him. How about Cuba?


The most brutal leaders in history weren't even Religious:
Stalin
Hitler
Kim Jon Wu
etc..


My theory:   Narcissists tend to hate the belief in God. Very few(maybe 20%) are athiests for the Good reasons like religion being too rigid, not approving extreme Religious texts plus other abuses...

Thank you, yes, victims of political violence couldnt care less, if they were killed in the name of Allah or "social justice". They are dead one way or another.

The moment we start to compromise free speech, we appease to bigots. Regardless where they come from.


Vice versa is also true, you should get out of your atheist ghetto more often, buddy.

Also in society where starting a family is a choice (matter of values) and not a neccessity - religous people have massive reproduction advantage over seculars.

Moloch claims, that atheist paradigm of questioning anything forever is winning... yet, majority of world countries got less secular, not more in the past three decades. Atheists fail to have children.

Also, LOL at the fact, that catholics and evangelicals are kept separate (while various muslim and hindu sects are lumped together, just as agnostics are lumped together with atheists and nihilists). Tells you a lot.

Yes... Even in the United States and Canada, immigrants from East Asia are having better educational standards and skills when compared to the general population. The same is true even for the Hindus from South Asia.

I don't think this is bad at all. First of all, religion will never ever save anybody and it only divides us all from uniting as one.

As long as your morals and right values are intact to you and you know what is right from wrong then you're good to go. That is their belief so I will choose to respect them since they have this some kind of thinking though I do not understand it 100% since I am need to do Q&A with a person who choose not to believe any Supreme Being.

I love the last phrase. Because I considered myself spiritual but not religious person. I can see no conflict on believing on something and having a religion. I am a free thinker and an agnostic as well. This is good that Australia is being open to different kind of beliefs.

That's not true. Education in the USA is one of the best in the world. You ever in your life been in the US or in India. I think not. You must use information from the Runet. India is in a caste society and education problems.

this is suprising,i think people in australia prefer to Chatolic or cristian,even i never go to there,this is huge matter for all religion from around the world,australia need to Religious,i can't imagine how people there life without religion rules,it must be mesh up,and goverment should not quiet to face this matter.

LOL, I'm also actually in a very religious ghetto. And I don't remember atheist's having a ghetto, at least not what we would consider one. You said it yourself, they are a larger group mostly because of them having more children. If every couple could only have a certain number of children (assuming they have no more from additional spouses/remarriage) then we might actually see whether they are retaining members.

Birth rate has always been the religious' main weapon in the demographic war. It seems that the more conservative the group, the more children, like what is happening in Israel between the various Jewish sects.


I heard some dismiss it, claiming that it's because it's mostly the most educated people from those countries that migrate to the US. That don't explain the Vietnamese refugees that moved there after the war though. They seem to be doing even better than some blacks.

I have to admit that there is some truth in that. Most of the Asians who immigrate to the United States are highly educated. But that should be the case, isn't it? The US should be attracting highly skilled immigrants rather than importing members of La Raza and Los Zetas.

No religion! I think as human beings we most believe in some power greater than we are and human beings cove that power and called it religion. Christianity is not a religion to me but a way of life, and because of this understanding many Australia may choose no religion.

greater power like the SUN. it gives energy that everyone need not just humans.

No religion is the solution for not having war. if you have been a dreamer like john lennon, its best to have no religion at all so there will be no quarrel among neighbors.

Everyone in the entire universe believes in the existence of a Supreme Being in the universe and we all have names for it . Those who dont believe in God actually believe more than anything that that Supreme Being truly exists.

Well looking at how religion makes a lot ofbdivisions and complications today among humans, i'd say they made a good choice. I mean if religion would ask you to hurt other people for whatever religious reasons, wouldn't you also think twice about your beliefs then?

The thing with the US is because of the location, the only immigrants that can go there by physically crossing the borders would come from the south, like Mexico. I bet if America is anywhere near Africa or the Near East, it would have been swamped with immigrants just like Europe is now.

I mentioned the Vietnamese since they are probably the immigrant group that we can say might not be rich enough to go there on their own, many brought there as refugees after the fall of South Vietnam.

I think culture definitely really made a difference in their case. Many Vietnamese got here to the Philippines by boat (yup, they paddled across the South China Sea!). They were relocated to a site and so far they seem to have flourished. I don't see many here in Manila but I read somewhere that many have already become well-off enough to travel back to Vietnam.

The only good reason to be atheist is if you don't believe in any god at all. Being atheists simply because you think organized religion is rigid, violent and abusive just makes you an apostate or heretic. You still believe in the religion, you just don't like the way it is being run.

No doubt about the first part. If the United States was having a land connection with Africa, then millions would be trying to immigrate there every year. And as far as the Vietnamese are concerned, most of them arrived in the US many decades back. Now they are quite prosperous. One thing which needs to be remembered here is that a large part of the Vietnamese American population is Catholic. And this group seems to have higher education qualifications when compared to the rest.

Well the Vietnamese has certainly not been there as long as the blacks. Makes one wonder how they can still get ahead. This is the first time that I heard the Vietnamese-Americans are mostly Catholics though. I do remember that it was France that colonized Vietnam. Are you meaning to say that Vietnamese Catholics had higher education compared to other Vietnamese and that it was this group that was transplanted into America?

I think the higher education is not enough to explain their seemingly better success than blacks? You think being Catholic helped, like it allowed them to cope more easily to Western culture?