Religion & Belief Systems in Australia Post 1945

When Christianity arrived in Australia by the colonisation of the Irish and British, it then became the most dominant religion of Australia. The arrival of the first fleet in 1788 and the era of ‘Modern Australia’ beginning in the same year saw matters of little religious education throughout some of the population, sectarianism between the Irish and the Catholics and little support for the outback of Australia. Saint Mary Mackillop and Bishop William Broughton were two individuals who helped shape Australia’s image of religion through Christianity pre-1945, impacting sectarianism, sectarianism and Outback Australia. Their life stories and efforts made to assist Australia’s growth and knowledge of Christianity connected the country to God in

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

There was many religious bias in pre 1945 Australia, the church of England’s values, rules and morals were integrated into Australia’s law, and those who did not follow the church of England faced endless sectarianism at the time.

In Australia, the Muslim culture is seen as a marginalised group in our society, but for what reasons? Its becoming increasingly difficult and complex with the rise in Islamaphobia and anti-Islamic sentiments that filter through the Australian society and media for Muslims in Australia.

The Islamic faith first arrived in Australia around 1650 after trade was established between the Muslims and Aboriginal people. Muslims were able to contribute to the exploration of the Australia outback, appearing in some Indigenous paintings. Resulting in many migrations, with over 280 000 Muslims in Australia by the 19th century (ABC 2016). Although the religion was not popular it slowly began to influence other cultures. Catholicism entered the Australian landscape at the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, where 316 Catholic convicts arrived. For many years, there were no priests or formal religion in the settlements so the convict’s laity assumed responsibility for “keeping the faith alive” (Class Booklet n.d.). Both faiths have been accepted into the Australian society despite the historical differences, with Christianity being a widely popular religion with 2.2 billion followers and growing, and Islam having 1.6 billion followers (NPR.org

Under the ‘terra nullius’ law, the Aboriginals lost their land, which is now known as dispossession. To justify this dispossession, the English followed the set of beliefs that are now identified as social Darwinism. “Social Darwinism, with its powerful racially based doctrines, ranked Indigenous Australians as inferior to Europeans and provided a rationale for dispossession by drawing on the ‘laws’ of natural selection to justify the ‘inevitable’ extinction of Indigenous Australians in the face of the arrival of the ‘superior’ white race” (Psychology and Indigenous Australians, Foundations of Cultural Competence, 2009, pp. 75). By having their land taken away from them, the Aboriginals lost part of their spiritual connection and their sense of belonging and identity because Aboriginal culture is based heavily on the spirits of the land. These connections that bonded the Aboriginals to the land were never understood by the English settlers, who only saw the land as possible income (Psychology and Indigenous Australians, Foundations of Cultural Competence, 2009.). They also lost a lot of their sacred areas, spiritual areas and meeting places because they were on the land that the white people had divided and fenced of the land that these areas were on and if an Aboriginal was trying to

Catholic remains steady due to immigration, however Eastern orthodox members are rising due to immigration and it is these churches that have a young profile. Immigration has changed Australia into a multi-faith society; it is the most significant reason for the increase in diversity of the religious character in

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.

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.

The changenig patterns of religious adherence have been changing since the 1947 Australian census. The biggest change has been the consistent drop in the number of people identifying themselves as belonging to the Anglican church since the 1947 census up to the 2011 census, from 39 percent to 17.1 percent of the population as shown in figure 1.3, which shows the comparison between the 2006 and 2011 census data. Overall, the number of respondents being categorised as belonging to any Christian denomation has decreased since 1947. However, the number of respondants identifying themselves as Catholic has increased, from 20.9 in 1947, to 25.3 in 2011. Overall, Christianty is still the most popular religion in Australia as shown in the 2011 census data in figure 1.5. Within the different branches of Christianty there has been some trends recorded in the 2006 and 2011 census. The traditional churches, for example, such as the Uniting Church has experienced a decline. On the other hand, the newer Pentecostal movement gained increase. The Baptism, Catholic and Orthodox churches also experienced an increase. The respondants to be “other Christian” also experienced an increase in size. In 1947 census, the percentage of respondants claiming to belong to other religions other than Christianty were about 0.5 percent of the population. However, between 2001 and 2011,

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.

PART 1 Christianity is currently the largest Australian religion according to the national survey. In 2011, the tally proved that 61.1% of Australians were listed as Christian. The occurrence of Christianity began with the arrival of the First Fleet of British convicts in 1788. This led to a great society and a religious community. If Christianity did not exist, the world would differ from life nowadays.

What are some ways in which God is experienced and understood in Australia? Choose a minimum of two religions to illustrate findings.

These two countries have good education and jobs provided for them. They are taught just about everything they need to know about religions and life. While, people are not saying that they are religious, they still are interested in it and the history that comes with it (McAllister, 1988). That is why different types of religions are taught throughout schools and other places in these secularized countries. Nonetheless, both Australia and the U.S do not go down one certain path. The nations are not becoming more secularized nor are they becoming more de-secularized but they do however intertwine. As some sectors of society may be more religious then other, some people may choose to keep their religions private while others have brought it more to the sight of society (Levey, 2009). Therefore the more people know, and the less they have to worry about and thus are more likely to reject the delusion of religion. It is the poor countries that are less likely to reject religions from the decisions as it offers the members a false hope of a better life after death because of how underprivileged their lives are now (Possamai, 2009). Consequently, there is a convincing correlation between education and welfare levels of a country and whether it is more likely to be secularized or

Muslim migrants brought their religious faith and cultural identity to the shores of Australia in the 1700's with the arrival of the first fleet. Over the centuries, Muslims from a variety of nations have migrated to Australia searching to merge their religious identity with the Australian culture. From the first Muslims to arrive in this country to the current day Muslims living in modern Australia, beliefs of Islam have diverged, allowing for the development of conservative Muslims and progressive Muslims. For the 10,000 Australian Muslims currently living in Brisbane, the difficulty in combining the conflicting lifestyles of the Australian culture and the Islamic faith can be challenging. As proposed by Doogue and Kirk, expressing loyalty to Islam whilst integrating into Brisbane's society can be difficult, regardless of the divergence of beliefs in Islam.