Australia - We are not that Christian as a nation?

Do you guys ever feel that our country is not that Christian?

Of we have a lot of church goers and people who badge themselves Christian.....

But day to day I'm swamped mainly by secular people.

There are more people who have 'footy' as their daily devotion than Christ.

I went to Catholic School and met very few who lived the life of a Christianity 24/7.

Is it our Country? or just the Western world?

nah definately not christian.

the govt. cited polls are very innacurate because they include everyone from nominal to fundy christians and in 1 tickbox. That also includes catholics who tend to have alot of non-practicing but still identify as catholics types of people.

Irreligion in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In a 2008 global Gallup poll, nearly 70% of Australians stated religion as having no importance

I think the indepedant polls give a more accurate picture.

I think church attendance was about 10% of the population in another poll so I wouldn't even say we had people attending church.

Thank you so much Timbo!

So I'm not going mad!

That's just how Australia is. I don't think we're less spiritual than other countries like Indoneisa (majority Muslim), I just think we show it in different ways. A lot of Australians practice meditation for example but wouldn't subscribe to one religion as such. Now granted, religiosity is quite different from spirituality...

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Credit for avatar art goes to Kate Beaton.

Very good point!

I've only ever been overseas once (to Vanuatu), so I can't really say what the rest of the wesern world or otherwise is like...

But in a country that prides itself in it's multiculturalism, and needing to be polically correct, and not seen as racist, most people are exposed to a multitude of religions but choose none, opting instead to say everyone's free to believe what they want, but i'm going to do things my way.

Most teachers I know at work (yes I'm a teacher) - unless they themselves are Christians - think scripture is an absolute waste of time and would rather scrap it. At my last school I'd say 3/4 of students went to non scripture. And that doesnt mean that all those kids who did go to some form of scripture came from religious families. At my current school the statistic for non scripture is alot lower, since about 80% of the kids go to muslim scripture...

I wouldn't be surprised if our current freedom to teach scripture in schools is taken away within the next 10 years.

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Do you guys ever feel that our country is not that Christian?

Of we have a lot of church goers and people who badge themselves Christian.....

But day to day I'm swamped mainly by secular people.

There are more people who have 'footy' as their daily devotion than Christ.

I went to Catholic School and met very few who lived the life of a Christianity 24/7.

Is it our Country? or just the Western world?

Too true Good post!
I have until recently been attending a christian college all it has done for me it knock the faith out of me rather than encourage it when the head of the school told me i should compromise my faith for relativist ideals "in nutshell that means nothing is right or wrong and everythings acceptable under the banner of christian. Best cop out ever!!.

So if I seem lacking in faith i can squarely point my finger to the reason it belongs deeply embedded in Aus Christian culture if there is such a thing.

I dont think Australia is a Christian nation, I was having this conversation with a friend in America the other day. I've been travelling alot over the last 2 years and I just dont think you could call it Christian, but in the same breath I could very easily call Jakarta a Muslim city and Bali a Hindu island, if that makes sense. Because you see it everywhere and you hear and see alot of people practise it everyday.

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Well if you want proper stats. Australia is one of the top 15 most developed countries in the world. Out of the top 15 most developed countries (being ranked on highest educated, lowest child mortality, lowest crime rate, best health care system, etc, etc). - 14 out of the 15 countries are the most secular countries in the world. The only anomaly is the United States (which is not surprising). Every single developing country which shows sign of improvement, also shows sign of secularism.

This may help answer your question as to why Australia (being an intellectual country) is mostly secular...

Thanks,
Clint

zzzzzzzzzING

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