Almost five million Australians says they have no religious beliefs

In the past 100 years, the number of Australians reporting on the national census that they have "no religion" has jumped from one in 250 in 1911 to more than one in five in 2011.

In addition, many of those who nominate a religious affiliation do not actively participate in religious activities.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics social trends report provides the first in-depth look at the 2011 census data on religion.

"Rates of reporting no religion have been steadily rising, and Australia is not alone in this - rates are also rising for countries like New Zealand, England and Wales, Canada, the United States and Ireland," said ABS Director of Social and Progress Reporting Fiona Dowsley.

While 4.8 million, or 22 per cent, of Australians reported "no religion" in the 2011 census, 25 per cent nominated as Catholic, and 17 per cent as Anglicans.

On present trends, "no religion" will be the most popular response by the next census.

Almost a third of 22 to 24- year-olds reported no religion, and about one in five children under 15 live in a home where one or both parents reported no religion.

The ranks of non-believers also increases with higher education, with almost a third of those older than 19 with postgraduate qualifications reporting no religion compared with one in five of those with only a school education.

Since the specific instruction of writing "none" if a person has no religion was added to the census in 1971, the number of people reporting no religion has increased an average of four percentage points a decade, with the sharpest rise - 6.8 percentage points - taking place in the past decade.

The Atheist Foundation of Australia encouraged people to report "no religion" on their 2011 census forms.

The ABS report found that the rising numbers of non-believers mirrors a steady decline in people reporting Christian beliefs, while those professing other beliefs, including Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism, were on the rise.

The fall in Christian beliefs has driven an increase in civil marriages, with seven in 10 marriages now conducted by a civil celebrant.

The report found non-believers are slightly less likely to do volunteer work (17 per cent) than people with Christian beliefs (20 per cent) but more likely than those with other beliefs (14 per cent).

The 2010 General Social Survey found that only 15 per cent of men and 22 per cent of women had actively participated in a religious or spiritual group.

"But Australia's rising rate of non-believers also reflects global trends.

Reports on Australia with 1 in 5 saying "no religion", but says trend the same worldwide.

Christianity of every flavor is in retreat.

Could this be the "great falling away" spoken of by Paul in 1 Thess. 2:3.

Thoughts?

Except this is not a global trend, but rather simply a trend in Western countries with left wing education systems.
China is experiencing a spiritual revival, and not just in rural areas, but in metropolitan universities as well. Both Christianity and Islam are booming in their respective areas of the country. This trend can also be seen in Nepal where traditional eastern beliefs which tend to be non-theistic are being crowded out by growing numbers of theistic devotees.
Christianity despite persecution is rising in numerous Indian regions as well.
Atheism has collapsed in Russia since the Soviet Union as the Orthodox Church has roared back to life.
You also can then look at Africa, where Christianity is still growing in leaps and bounds across the central and southern regions.

I am not worried through the lens of global Christianity, about these trends. Personally, of course it is terrible because with withering status comes persecution, and when the left are in charge, history tells us usually execution comes next.
However, if you look at the countries where Christianity is shrinking. England, the USA, Norway, etc. These are fading global powers with Japan-level demographic crisis right around the corner. These countries are already not only accounting for less of the world’s Christian population, but simply less of the world’s population as a whole. And I would hazard a guess that as they begin to take second-tier status to places like Russia and India, that Australia and Canada, who have always amounted to Western satellite economies, will also begin to die on the vine geopolitically.
Sad, but that is the way of the world. It constantly changes, and Rome doesn’t last forever.

That’s not to say the Great Falling Away as prophecized might not be in motion. I mean, the bread and butter of Christianity is falling away, but the toast and peanut butter are ready to step in.

Let us be honest. As much as we like to say ‘look at all these Christians!’, a lot of the people now claiming non-affiliation were never Christians anyway, and held anti-Christian liberal views. I don’t personally value such sewage corrupting the faith.
I wouldn’t get worried because Australia has seen this collapse in observance. The Anglican Church was never going to be a long-lasting player, and looking ahead, Australia will probably end up being a Chinese overseas territory at some point, and might even be brought back into the fold by Chinese missionaries! Imagine that!

As a side note: I am particularly excited with all the desperate activity inside North Korea to preserve the crumbling state. The hermit kingdom has outlived almost all other Stalinist dictatorships without modernization (i.e Vietnam and China). How long does it have left?
If North Korea collapses, global atheistic numbers will very likely decrease, as a big chunk are cooped up in this prison state, just waiting to be cracked open. Conveniently, the South is bar-none the biggest evangelizing Asian country, and from interviews I’ve seen, most North Korean escapees to the South are converted. Remember, before the revolution, Pyongyang was referred to as the ‘Jerusalem of the East’. It has the potential, if reunited with South Korea to turn Korea into the next Philippines.
I am also hedging my bets in Singapore. Just a hunch.

Godspeed, brother.

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