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The Atheist Foundation of Australia is urging Australians with no religious affiliation to tick the “no religion” box in the up-coming census.
Billboards urging Australians with no religious affiliation to tick the “no religion” option have begun to appear around parts of NSW and the foundation has launched a website urging Australians to tick the “no religion” box in the 2011 census.
The Foundation says the outcome of the Census will influence decisions by Australian governments including the transfer of taxpayer money to religious organisations, or the granting of special concessions and exemptions.
The Australian Atheist Foundation believes that across the Tasman 50% of New Zealanders will tick the no religion box in this year’s Census, the first for any western democracy, however it is something they want to claim first.
David Nicholls, president of the Atheist Foundation, said he expected a higher uptake of the no religion option this year. ”People are leaving traditional religion in droves,” he said. ”I think that will become clear in the census this time around.”
“Values such as “love thy neighbour”, “do not commit murder”, and “thou shall not steal” are shared by many religions, cultures, and societies throughout history. As such, many values labelled “Christian” are shared by people of all faiths, and those who have no faith at all,” the census no religion website states.
“Believing Jesus rose from the dead or was born of a virgin does not give the faithful a monopoly on morality. One can be perfectly moral without a supernatural spy camera watching.”
No religion has been an option on the census form since 1971. In the 2006 census, 18.7 per cent of respondents stated they had no religion, up 25.7 per cent on 1996.
Since 1966
- non-religious and Pentecostals have both increased by 25.7%
- Catholics increased by 6.8%
- Eastern Orthodox increased by 9.5%
- Baptists increased by 7.3 per cent
- Hinduism increased by 120.2%
- Buddhism increased by 109.6%
- Islam increased 69.4%
- Judaism increased by 11.3%.
Across the whole population, 63.9 per cent identified as Christian, 5.6 per cent were non-Christian, 18.7 per cent had no religion, 11.2 per cent did not state their beliefs and 0.7 per cent of answers were inadequately described.
Sources
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