Essay On Secular Government In Australia

Australia claims to be an egalitarian land of equal opportunity; however, the documentary Cronulla Riots suggests that it is not applicable to all of its citizens. Especially for those Muslim Australians who lived 26km away from South of Sydney CBD during 11th Dec. 2005 – 15th Dec. 2005. They were ill disposed to their fellow White Australians living down the street from them. For them, tensions grew day by day.

The NCCA has been a significant ecumenical movement in Australian Christianity since WWII, through its federation of all the major Christian churches in Australia and its faithful commitment towards the unity of the Christian church. Such an ecumenical council is needed for the unity of a once divided religion, and as the influential voice of the Church in political matters.

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.

The religious education system in Australian Catholic Schools has endured many significant changes since the Second Vatican Council.

In the period 1947-2006, the Australian population grew from about 7.6 million to about 20 million. During this time there was an overall decline in the percentage of people identifying with a religion (frost course notes, 2010).

The present religious landscape in Australia is one that has changed significantly from 1945 up until now. 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. Due to immigration Australia has seen significant increases in followers of Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Because of Australia’s consumeristic society, denominational switching has become more common, especially in the Protestant denomination. New Age religions have become increasingly popular recently due to peoples search for individual fulfilment, in the form of happiness, health and meaning in life. Secularism in Australia is now a belief that forefronts society due to scientific discovery and individualism.

Reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003a, 2003b, as cited in Ashman & Elkins, 2009, p. 7) show 25% of the Australian population is currently made up of migrants from around 200 countries. This fact demonstrates Australia, on the whole, has a tolerant and inclusive society. A society can be identified as a collection of people who live together in a relatively ordered community (Ashman & Elkins, 2009, p. 7). It could be said, Australia has one of the most inclusive societies on the planet; however, this was not always the case.

There is an ‘us and them’ mentality in terms of Australian relations with Muslims living in Australia. There seems to be several reasons for this. The Australian society doesn’t seem to cater nor care for the traditions and religion of Muslim people living in Australia, there is a high volume of discrimination and racism targeting Muslims. Western Sydney and Charles Sturt university recently conducting a survey regarding the issue of the marginalisation of Muslim

Christianity is the major religious tradition today and has been since around 1945. Many of the British who first came to Australia, either as convicts or free settlers were Christians. They formed the huge base for Christianity to rise to the top religion in Australia before they began to let more immigrants enter. In the 1947 census, 88% of the population (not including Aboriginals because they were not considered in the census) stated they were Christian. The remaining 12% was mostly people who didn’t respond to the question. Today not much has changed the percentage of Christians has slightly decreased because of a rise in new religions. In the census of 2011 it is seen that out of 21.5 million people just under half, 42% classed themselves as Christian and around 8% said they were of a different religion. The number of people who said they had no religion was hugely increased at around 25%per cent. Today, even with the growing amount of Islam Buddhism and Hinduism, Christianity still remains the major religious tradition.

Firstly, the existence of multiculturalism must lead to some differences. But to be respected and enhance the freedom of others can reduce conflict of culture. Sometimes, religion faith can decide lifestyle and ideology of others. Every religion has their faith and rites. Based on the Australia bureau of statistics’ survey (2011), there were above five hundred diverse tribe group or nation around the state,

Assess the arguments and evidence for the view that Britain is becoming a secular society

Eighteen options were offered as choices for this question, excluding the categories of atheist and agnostic. The responses to each category have not been captured in the survey results, owing to certain privacy concerns. However, the percentage of none as a choice was calculated from the annual survey results. Moreover, the sample for this question excluded the Californians after 1997.

Catholic Education Commission of Western Australia (2013). Living the Vision 2013 – 2016. Retrieved from

We are not speaking here of the secularist idea that the state should marginalize religion and discourage people from voting their consciences as Christians. We are talking about the idea that church and state are not the same thing and that they have different spheres of activity.

Morals are norms of behaviour that the society acknowledges. Religion sets rules and customs for its followers. These religious rules influence the legislative system. If religion plays a role in government policies, it would also influence laws. For example, religious beliefs and morals influence abortion laws in many parts of the world. It is still looked upon as morally wrong on the basis of religious ideas to undergo an abortion procedure. Phillip Montague points that “legal and political debate and decision making should be governed by standard criteria for assessing reasons and reasoning, and when religious considerations fail to satisfy such criteria, they should not be allowed to influence matters of law and public policy” (Montague 17). He further states that these matters consist of abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia along with numerous subjects of social justice such as welfare policies. Montague claims that in comparison with secular reasons, “religious reasons fail by a wide margin to deal adequately with the complexity of such issues” (Montague 17). For instance, a person who argues that homosexuality is morally wrong for the reason that it opposes the divine law would be referring to religious grounds to support his argument and not secular. Individuals should not be arguing for restrictive laws or policies if they do not have secular grounds to support them. They should only put across views that are