Australia 's Present Religious Tradition

To begin, the Catholic Church and Aboriginals share similarities in their lifetime milestone rituals. In Catholicism, the sacrament of Confirmation is essential in the initiation of a Christian. In particular, the rite of Confirmation “completes the grace of Baptism by confirming or ‘sealing’ the baptized person’s union with Christ” (Dailey 94). Evidently, Confirmation invokes a person’s willingness to practice their religion regularly. Furthermore, the ceremony emphasizes the transition from childhood to maturity. Through Confirmation, a Christian must choose to commit to their faith, and must be prepared to take their responsibilities. In a like manner, a vision quest has identical aspects with a Catholic Confirmation. When a boy has reached a level of maturity, they must go through

Christianity has been the primary religion post 1945 to today. The British who first came to Australia and inhabited it were mainly Christians. They formed a strong Christian base in Australia before the country decided to let more immigrants Australia. This base of Christians was split up into the 3 different types of Christianity. Each of the 3 groups coming from their own unique origins; Anglican which were the British colonist, Catholic made up of Irish/Italian settlers and Orthodox who were the Greek settlers. In the census of 1947, out of the 7.5 million people in Australia, 88 per cent of the population, not including the Aboriginals, said they were Christian. The other 12 per cent was mainly made up from people who didn’t respond to the question.

As the English population began to increase, Aboriginal people were moved into missions in 1810, so the population could be manages and they were taught the European ways so they could be used as low paid labours, border lining slaves (Creative Spirits, 2002). When the Aboriginal people failed to move to Christianity and ‘civilised’ life, the Europeans thought it was due to the lack of intellectual ability because they didn’t understand the “complexity and holding power of the traditional culture and religion” to the Aboriginals (Psychology and Indigenous Australians, Foundations of Cultural Competence, 2009, pp. 77). The separation of Aboriginals from the community into missions was known as segregation. In the early 20th century, the Indigenous Australians all throughout the nation were exposed to the ‘protection legislation’ which in turn, denied them of their basic human rights as well as the freedom that was demanded by every other Australian. Aboriginals were increasingly moved of farms where they worked like slaves and put into government or church controlled reserves where they were expected to die out (Psychology and Indigenous Australians, Foundations of Cultural Competence, 2009, pp. 79). On the Australian census at this time, Aboriginals were still considered as

According to source 2 Christianity remained the dominant religion in Australia, although non-Christian religions continued to grow at a much faster rate. Since 1996, Christianity grew from around 12.6 million to 12.7 million, but compared to the other religions and the total population this number fell from 71% to 64%. Within Christianity, Anglicans dropped from 22% of the population to 18.7%, and therefore resulted in a decrease growth of -4.7 within the time period of 10 years. “Over the same period of time non-Christian religions increased from around 0.6 million to 1.1 million people, and collectively accounted for 5.6% of the total population in 2006” (king, 2010, p.221).

Before the European invasion in the 1700’s, Indigenous Australians lived in tribes all over the country, with an estimated population of 750,000 people (Australian Museum, 2013). By 1901, less than 100,000 remained. Their deeply rooted belief and spiritual system, known as the Dreaming, was a

Christianity is still currently the most popular religious tradition in Australia, however has seen a steady decrease in numbers due peoples interests in other religions and a non religious focused society. By 1947, Christianity had long been established in Australia due to European settlers who brought their traditional Churches. In 1947 it was recorded that 88% of Australians considered themselves Christians. Moving forward to 2013 Christianity is still the most dominant religion in Australia however it’s followers have decreased significantly to 61% recorded in 2011. This is mainly due to peoples dissatisfaction with traditional religious

The first obstacle to Catholicism spreading came with the Passing of the so called, White Australia Act, 1903 which prohibited those with of non-white colour from successfully settling in Australia. After World War II, there then came a relaxing of the immigration prohibitions, the

The Aborigines have a complex belief in creation, spirits and culture that gives a definite distinctiveness from any other religion in the world. Thousands of years ago, Australian Aboriginal people were living in accordance with their dreamtime beliefs- today, a majority of the Aboriginal community profess allegiance to Christianity,

The majority of these people are of Caucasian descent, although there are many other ethnic groups. There is no dominant religion in Australia. As of July 2002, 26.1% are Anglican, 26% are Roman Catholic, 24.3% are another Christian religion, and 11% are non-Christian. The most used language of Australia is English, however, there are a variety of other native languages that are still used today.

3. Over 70% of the British population identify their religion as Christian. A. The rest include Buddhists, Jews, and more. 4.

Religion in Melbourne is very diverse, and a large number of different religious groups are supported throughout the city. The most popular religion is Western Catholic, followed by Anglican, Greek Orthodox and Buddhism.

This article focuses on Hinduism and its growth in Australia. As of 2011, Hinduism is the fastest growing religion in Australia and many think that it will continue growing. The migration of Indians has a big effect as to why Hinduism as grown so much in Australia. The Indians spreading Hinduism around Australia has cause many of the locals born there to migrate toward Hinduism as well. Festivals are held in the streets of Australia by those who participate in Hinduism to celebrate the practices of Hinduism.

In Australia, Judaism is seen as a minority religion with only 0.3% of the population identified as Jews as of the 2011 census. In addition to this, approximately 90 percent of the Australian Jewish community are located in both Sydney and Melbourne. As a result, Sydney became known for its secular Jewish population, and Melbourne for its highly Orthodox community. At the same time, Perth also became primarily Orthodox as thousands of observant South Africans arrived.

Religious intolerance is a dark looming figure in most countries around the world and, perhaps, shockingly in so called developed and religiously and culturally diverse countries such as America and Australia. New Zealand shares a relationship and similar background with its neighbour, Australia. Both are countries with a melting pot of different people from a diverse range of cultural, ethnical, and religious backgrounds. You would think that this means that there would be a high religious tolerance in Australia, a diverse country with mixing and mingling of people from different walks of life. But large scale race/religious conflicts such as the the 2005 Cronulla riots shows us that that’s not the case. On the contrary, New Zealand has exhibited very few religious conflicts, and pretty much nothing to the scale that of in Australia. So why is it that New Zealand , despite sharing similarities with Australia, exhibits little to no religious conflicts? What makes New Zealand so damn ‘special’?

Throughout history to present day, Australian culture has become the product of a distinct blend of established traditions and new influences. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the country’s original inhabitants, created the foundation for the land’s cultural traditions over 40,000 years ago. In addition, the rest of Australia’s people are migrants or descendants of migrants from various other countries who transported their own customs, beliefs, and value systems to the land. As a result, Australia’s culture has significantly broadened its social and cultural profile over the years, and still continues to evolve today.