Religion And Belief Systems In Australia Post 1945: Case Study
Year 12 Studies of Religion and Belief Systems in Australia post 1945
Question 1:
a) How has Anglican adherence changed from 1947 to 2011?
Anglican adherence has changed from 1947 to 2011 as there has been a constant drop in people claiming that they belong to the Anglican Church. Between 1947 to 2011 it dropped from 39% down to 17%. This has made a huge impact on the Anglican Church as they don’t have as many people as they used to back in 1947.
b) Which Christian denomination had the highest percentage of adherents in 2011?
The Christian denomination that had the highest percentage of adherents in 2011 was Catholic which was 25.3%.
c) The 1971 census included the option of describing yourself as having ‘no religion’ if this applied you. Why and how has this category changed since 1947?
The ‘no religion’ category …show more content…
was introduced in 1971 because they wanted to find out in the census how many people don’t attend church as they have other things to do or not feeling obligated to go to church. By creating the option of ‘no religion’ it has made it easier for people to put on the census form as no religion than any other religion because people would just put the religion that they belong to as you had to put down a religion that you belong to.
Even if you do belong to a church like Catholic or Anglican , you might not actually attend church as you don’t feel compelled to go or you have other things on which makes people put on their census form that they belong to ‘no religion’ as they don’t have any involvement with the church they belong to.
d) Account for the rise of the Uniting Church
The Uniting Church didn’t have any of Australia’s population up until 1981 where it received 4.9% of the population. In the 2001 census it shows that the Uniting Church was the biggest increase out of all which was 5.7%.
e) Which non-Christian religion had the highest percentage of adherents in 2011?
The Non-Christian religion that had the highest percentage of adherents in 2011 was Buddhism which was 2.5%.
f) Outline the changing patterns of religious adherence from 1947 to 2011. In your response examine changes in Christian and non-Christian adherence, and ‘no religion’.
In 1947, the total amount for Christians in Australia was 87.3%, the total amount for Non-Christians in Australia was 0.5% and the total amount for no religion in Australia was 11.2%. In 2011, the total amount for Christians in Australia was 61.7%, the total amount for Non-Christians in Australia was 7.3% and the total amount for no religion in Australia was 30.8%.
As seen above with the results between 1947 to 2011 with Christian, Non-Christian and No Religion you can see dramatic changes between them all within this time. Christians was high up in 1947 and took practically all of Australia which meant mainly everyone was a Christian except a few, but now it has dropped and only takes just over a half of Australians. Non-Christians were very low in 1947, but have gained more within time to 2011, but still don’t have a large population with it. No religion was low in 1947, but still higher than Non-Christians, but they have gained a lot up to 2011 which takes up over one quarter of Australia’s population.
These changes have made an impact on all, especially Christians. These days you can pick more or less of what you want to be when it comes to Christianity. You can have beliefs about God and be a part of a church, or you can have no beliefs and still be part of a church or you can have no beliefs and not belong to any church what so ever. Its more freedom these days where you go by your own choices and decisions and not anyone else’s, but a lot of people go with the crowd so if your family or friends don’t attend church or don’t believe in God then you are most likely to follow along with them instead of making your individual decision and beliefs about God and Church. More and more people these days are doing that instead of doing what they want because they feel they have to go with the crowd and that is why Christianity is going lower in percentages.
Question 2:
With reference to the signs above and your own knowledge, account for changes in Australia’s religious landscape since the 1960’s.
The comparison between Middleton Methodist Church 1965 and Middleton Uniting Church 2009:
MIDDLETON METHODIST CHURCH 1965
MIDDLETON UNITING CHURCH 2009
They had two Sunday Services every week. One in the morning at 9:30am and one at night at 6:30pm.
They only have one Sunday Service every week which is held in the morning at 9:30am.
They had two Sunday schools every week. Both held in the morning, but one is held earlier at 8:30am and the other 10:30am.
They only have one Sunday school every week which is held in the morning at 10:30am.
They had a Ladies Church aid held every Tuesday at 10:00am.
They have a Chinese Service every Sunday which is held at 12:00pm.
They had a Youth Group held every Wednesday at 7:00pm.
They have a Tongan Service every Sunday which is held at 5:00pm.
They had a Men’s Brotherhood held every Thursday at 7:00pm.
The Uniting Church in Middleton caters for other cultures.
They had the one Minister who did all the services every Sunday.
They have 3 separate Ministers for the 3 services held every Sunday.
You had to ring the Minister if you needed to find out information about the Church and times the services start.
They have a Church office where you can ring or go in to find out information about the Church and times the services start.
The Methodist Church separated women from men in their groups held on different nights.
The Uniting Church was multicultural and had female leadership.
There were more services available in the Methodist church.
The Uniting Church had shared responsibilities.
Question 3:
a) What is secularism?
Secularism is an opinion that involves two intentions. The first one involves separation of the state from the religious institutions and the second one involves that people of different religions and beliefs are equal before the law. It protects both believers and non-believers by defending the freedom of religious belief and practices of all people.
Secularism defends freedom of religious identity, but not the freedom to impose that identity on others. Having a religious identity does not justify any special tax exemption (especially to the rich), preaching religion in state schools, inserting religious values into common law and unelected religious leaders as legislators.
b) How has it influenced religious practice in Australia in the last twenty years? (from 1986)
Secularism has influenced religious practices in Australia in the last twenty years by helping people still have their beliefs in God even though they can’t go to church as often as they would wish because of reasons like feeling uncomfortable with others in the church, lack of previous church involvement, family/friends don’t like church, having other things on or not feeling compelled to go to church.
People believe now that you don’t need to go to church to praise him and pray to him as you can just do it at home or wherever you like. People would rather be socializing with friends or family then going to church for an hour as they believe they have more fun and get more out of going places then just sitting down and listening to the priest speak.
Question 4:
a) With reference to the cartoon above explain what is meant by denominational switching
Denominational switching is all about movement of people from one Christian denomination to another. All individuals look around for the kind of church that reflects them and suits them best. This cartoon is explaining denominational switching by showing a young boy lifting the roof off the church and having a look inside to see what is happening, which is just like every individual who is trying to find the right church for them and their needs. They look around until they find the best suit for themselves which is just like looking in on all the churches to see how they run and who attends to them to get an idea of which one suits you the best.
b) Which denominations are most affected, either by gaining or losing adherents? Why?
The Anglican, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches are the most protestant denominations that are losing adherents while the Pentecostalism churches are gaining adherents. In the 1960’s, Pentecostals are one of the few Protestant groups that expressed a hasty growth. Today they are now the fastest growing religious groups in Australia. Pentecostal churches are attracting more and more people than any other church as they have a different style of worshipping God.
They don’t sit down and read off pieces of paper of what the priest is saying, they stand up and sing and raise their arms in the air. They have loud music and are open to anybody which attracts a lot more younger people and people from other churches. Everyone is speaking about these kinds of churches (hillsong) because it’s not like the other churches where you go and sit down for an hour listening to the priest speak, it’s about getting up and having a good time while praising God.
c) Which are least affected? Why?
The least affected churches are the Catholic and Anglican churches. The Catholic Church is the largest denominational church which has half of all the church attenders then comes the Anglican Church. The Catholic Churches have a low amount of switching denominations as the Catholics hold denominational loyalty.
Mainly older people go to Church on a Saturday night or Sunday morning and younger people don’t in this generation as they don’t have time to go because of family commitments, don’t feel compelled to go anymore or just don’t have time as they are spending more time working or socializing.
The older generation likes going to the Catholic or Anglican churches as they are just an everyday normal church service and aren’t like the Pentecostal churches where there is loud music, singing, praising out loud and dancing going on throughout the whole service. They like to sit down and listen to the priest and take in everything he is saying instead of doing all that other stuff because they just don’t have the energy to do things like that anymore.
Question 5:
“Many are still looking for some sense of spiritual direction… they just may be shuffling through a deck of tarot cards instead of rifling through the pages of the bible” (Sunday life 15th July 2001).
a) With reference to the above quote, describe ‘New Age’ religions and analyse the reasons for this movement
The quote above is describing new age religions by telling us that these days people are looking for a church that makes them feel comfortable and they enjoy going to each service they attend. They will keep looking around for a church that describes them the best and one where they have interest in because going to a church where you don’t feel comfortable or enjoy it makes you not wanting to go to any of the churches services. People are looking through churches to find what’s best for them just like shuffling a pack of cards because they are just going through them all instead of just choosing one straight away. These days going to church is about an individual’s fulfillment for their happiness, health, meaning of life and reaching perfection or a higher state of consciousness. People go to church to develop themselves as a person and they seek wisdom for the ancient religions, but only accept the teachings of the ancient religion that suits them rather than do everything in that religion.
b) How wide spread they are in the Australian religious landscape?
The new age religions started becoming popular between the 1960’s and 1970’s. The movement rose into accounted cultures like hippies which started the rejection of the traditional authority organizations which includes the Churches. Then Christianity began to be seen by others as having failed to provide spiritual, acceptable and ethical guidance. It had worsened in the recent years, partly because of the disputes of the surrounding sexual abuse. Individuality started to grow which made it possible for everyone to satisfy themselves. People could practice their beliefs anywhere they wanted to because it suited most people.
c) Choose two New Age Religions. Provide a brief description of each, including their beliefs and practices.
Paganism: Paganism represents a wide variety of traditions that emphasize reverence for nature, a revival of ancient polytheistic and animistic religious practices. Paganism is not a traditional religion because it doesn’t have any official policies, but it does have some common features joining the variety of traditions. One of the common beliefs is the divine presence in nature and the reverence of the natural order in life. Monotheism is almost universally rejected within Paganism and most Pagan traditions are particularly interested in the revival of ancient polytheist religious traditions. Many Pagan traditions aim to revive many of the lost rituals of the ancient traditions, including holy days and seasonal celebrations. Many Pagans also worship a variety of gods and goddesses, including deceased family members. Pagans try to honor their ancestry and ancestors. Pagan traditions can include ritual magic, but this is not a universal practice.
Divination: Divination is pursuing after knowledge of the future.
The prophecy is lawful knowledge of the future divination, its irrational counterpart, is the unlawful. Magic aims to do and divination aims to know. Divination is found in every country and is practically as old as the human race. Cicero said that there is no nation, civilized or barbarian that does not believe that there are signs of the future and people who interpret them. Cicero had divided divination into natural and artificial. The natural included dreams and oracles which the diviner was a passive subject of inspiration and the power was supposed to be then and there within him. The artificial embraced all the foretelling signs that were found in nature or produced by a man. The diviner was active and the divination apparently came from his own skills and observations. Divination expressed invocation of spirits, embraced the dreams, signs or wonders, necromancy and divination with implied invocation through signs and movements in the objects of nature. Dreams mean those who expressly prepared and prayed for with hope of intercourse with God or the
dead.
Bibliography:
National Secular Society 2014, Cuttlefish, viewed 8 January 2014, http://www.secularism.org.uk/what-is-secularism.html
Religion and Belief Systems in Australia Post 1945 2005, NSW Board of Studies, viewed 8 January 2014, http://studiesofreligion.org.au/members/resource/07_australia_post1945/expression_summary.html
Church size and growth 2013, NCLS, viewed 9 January 2014, http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?sitemapid=28
Patheos Library 2008-2014, Avalon Consulting LLC, viewed 9 January 2014, http://www.patheos.com/Library/Pagan.html
New Advent 2009, Kevin Knight, viewed 9 January 2014, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05048b.html
Question 1:
a) How has Anglican adherence changed from 1947 to 2011?
Anglican adherence has changed from 1947 to 2011 as there has been a constant drop in people claiming that they belong to the Anglican Church. Between 1947 to 2011 it dropped from 39% down to 17%. This has made a huge impact on the Anglican Church as they don’t have as many people as they used to back in 1947.
b) Which Christian denomination had the highest percentage of adherents in 2011?
The Christian denomination that had the highest percentage of adherents in 2011 was Catholic which was 25.3%.
c) The 1971 census included the option of describing yourself as having ‘no religion’ if this applied you. Why and how has this category changed since 1947?
The ‘no religion’ category …show more content…
was introduced in 1971 because they wanted to find out in the census how many people don’t attend church as they have other things to do or not feeling obligated to go to church. By creating the option of ‘no religion’ it has made it easier for people to put on the census form as no religion than any other religion because people would just put the religion that they belong to as you had to put down a religion that you belong to.
Even if you do belong to a church like Catholic or Anglican , you might not actually attend church as you don’t feel compelled to go or you have other things on which makes people put on their census form that they belong to ‘no religion’ as they don’t have any involvement with the church they belong to.
d) Account for the rise of the Uniting Church
The Uniting Church didn’t have any of Australia’s population up until 1981 where it received 4.9% of the population. In the 2001 census it shows that the Uniting Church was the biggest increase out of all which was 5.7%.
e) Which non-Christian religion had the highest percentage of adherents in 2011?
The Non-Christian religion that had the highest percentage of adherents in 2011 was Buddhism which was 2.5%.
f) Outline the changing patterns of religious adherence from 1947 to 2011. In your response examine changes in Christian and non-Christian adherence, and ‘no religion’.
In 1947, the total amount for Christians in Australia was 87.3%, the total amount for Non-Christians in Australia was 0.5% and the total amount for no religion in Australia was 11.2%. In 2011, the total amount for Christians in Australia was 61.7%, the total amount for Non-Christians in Australia was 7.3% and the total amount for no religion in Australia was 30.8%.
As seen above with the results between 1947 to 2011 with Christian, Non-Christian and No Religion you can see dramatic changes between them all within this time. Christians was high up in 1947 and took practically all of Australia which meant mainly everyone was a Christian except a few, but now it has dropped and only takes just over a half of Australians. Non-Christians were very low in 1947, but have gained more within time to 2011, but still don’t have a large population with it. No religion was low in 1947, but still higher than Non-Christians, but they have gained a lot up to 2011 which takes up over one quarter of Australia’s population.
These changes have made an impact on all, especially Christians. These days you can pick more or less of what you want to be when it comes to Christianity. You can have beliefs about God and be a part of a church, or you can have no beliefs and still be part of a church or you can have no beliefs and not belong to any church what so ever. Its more freedom these days where you go by your own choices and decisions and not anyone else’s, but a lot of people go with the crowd so if your family or friends don’t attend church or don’t believe in God then you are most likely to follow along with them instead of making your individual decision and beliefs about God and Church. More and more people these days are doing that instead of doing what they want because they feel they have to go with the crowd and that is why Christianity is going lower in percentages.
Question 2:
With reference to the signs above and your own knowledge, account for changes in Australia’s religious landscape since the 1960’s.
The comparison between Middleton Methodist Church 1965 and Middleton Uniting Church 2009:
MIDDLETON METHODIST CHURCH 1965
MIDDLETON UNITING CHURCH 2009
They had two Sunday Services every week. One in the morning at 9:30am and one at night at 6:30pm.
They only have one Sunday Service every week which is held in the morning at 9:30am.
They had two Sunday schools every week. Both held in the morning, but one is held earlier at 8:30am and the other 10:30am.
They only have one Sunday school every week which is held in the morning at 10:30am.
They had a Ladies Church aid held every Tuesday at 10:00am.
They have a Chinese Service every Sunday which is held at 12:00pm.
They had a Youth Group held every Wednesday at 7:00pm.
They have a Tongan Service every Sunday which is held at 5:00pm.
They had a Men’s Brotherhood held every Thursday at 7:00pm.
The Uniting Church in Middleton caters for other cultures.
They had the one Minister who did all the services every Sunday.
They have 3 separate Ministers for the 3 services held every Sunday.
You had to ring the Minister if you needed to find out information about the Church and times the services start.
They have a Church office where you can ring or go in to find out information about the Church and times the services start.
The Methodist Church separated women from men in their groups held on different nights.
The Uniting Church was multicultural and had female leadership.
There were more services available in the Methodist church.
The Uniting Church had shared responsibilities.
Question 3:
a) What is secularism?
Secularism is an opinion that involves two intentions. The first one involves separation of the state from the religious institutions and the second one involves that people of different religions and beliefs are equal before the law. It protects both believers and non-believers by defending the freedom of religious belief and practices of all people.
Secularism defends freedom of religious identity, but not the freedom to impose that identity on others. Having a religious identity does not justify any special tax exemption (especially to the rich), preaching religion in state schools, inserting religious values into common law and unelected religious leaders as legislators.
b) How has it influenced religious practice in Australia in the last twenty years? (from 1986)
Secularism has influenced religious practices in Australia in the last twenty years by helping people still have their beliefs in God even though they can’t go to church as often as they would wish because of reasons like feeling uncomfortable with others in the church, lack of previous church involvement, family/friends don’t like church, having other things on or not feeling compelled to go to church.
People believe now that you don’t need to go to church to praise him and pray to him as you can just do it at home or wherever you like. People would rather be socializing with friends or family then going to church for an hour as they believe they have more fun and get more out of going places then just sitting down and listening to the priest speak.
Question 4:
a) With reference to the cartoon above explain what is meant by denominational switching
Denominational switching is all about movement of people from one Christian denomination to another. All individuals look around for the kind of church that reflects them and suits them best. This cartoon is explaining denominational switching by showing a young boy lifting the roof off the church and having a look inside to see what is happening, which is just like every individual who is trying to find the right church for them and their needs. They look around until they find the best suit for themselves which is just like looking in on all the churches to see how they run and who attends to them to get an idea of which one suits you the best.
b) Which denominations are most affected, either by gaining or losing adherents? Why?
The Anglican, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches are the most protestant denominations that are losing adherents while the Pentecostalism churches are gaining adherents. In the 1960’s, Pentecostals are one of the few Protestant groups that expressed a hasty growth. Today they are now the fastest growing religious groups in Australia. Pentecostal churches are attracting more and more people than any other church as they have a different style of worshipping God.
They don’t sit down and read off pieces of paper of what the priest is saying, they stand up and sing and raise their arms in the air. They have loud music and are open to anybody which attracts a lot more younger people and people from other churches. Everyone is speaking about these kinds of churches (hillsong) because it’s not like the other churches where you go and sit down for an hour listening to the priest speak, it’s about getting up and having a good time while praising God.
c) Which are least affected? Why?
The least affected churches are the Catholic and Anglican churches. The Catholic Church is the largest denominational church which has half of all the church attenders then comes the Anglican Church. The Catholic Churches have a low amount of switching denominations as the Catholics hold denominational loyalty.
Mainly older people go to Church on a Saturday night or Sunday morning and younger people don’t in this generation as they don’t have time to go because of family commitments, don’t feel compelled to go anymore or just don’t have time as they are spending more time working or socializing.
The older generation likes going to the Catholic or Anglican churches as they are just an everyday normal church service and aren’t like the Pentecostal churches where there is loud music, singing, praising out loud and dancing going on throughout the whole service. They like to sit down and listen to the priest and take in everything he is saying instead of doing all that other stuff because they just don’t have the energy to do things like that anymore.
Question 5:
“Many are still looking for some sense of spiritual direction… they just may be shuffling through a deck of tarot cards instead of rifling through the pages of the bible” (Sunday life 15th July 2001).
a) With reference to the above quote, describe ‘New Age’ religions and analyse the reasons for this movement
The quote above is describing new age religions by telling us that these days people are looking for a church that makes them feel comfortable and they enjoy going to each service they attend. They will keep looking around for a church that describes them the best and one where they have interest in because going to a church where you don’t feel comfortable or enjoy it makes you not wanting to go to any of the churches services. People are looking through churches to find what’s best for them just like shuffling a pack of cards because they are just going through them all instead of just choosing one straight away. These days going to church is about an individual’s fulfillment for their happiness, health, meaning of life and reaching perfection or a higher state of consciousness. People go to church to develop themselves as a person and they seek wisdom for the ancient religions, but only accept the teachings of the ancient religion that suits them rather than do everything in that religion.
b) How wide spread they are in the Australian religious landscape?
The new age religions started becoming popular between the 1960’s and 1970’s. The movement rose into accounted cultures like hippies which started the rejection of the traditional authority organizations which includes the Churches. Then Christianity began to be seen by others as having failed to provide spiritual, acceptable and ethical guidance. It had worsened in the recent years, partly because of the disputes of the surrounding sexual abuse. Individuality started to grow which made it possible for everyone to satisfy themselves. People could practice their beliefs anywhere they wanted to because it suited most people.
c) Choose two New Age Religions. Provide a brief description of each, including their beliefs and practices.
Paganism: Paganism represents a wide variety of traditions that emphasize reverence for nature, a revival of ancient polytheistic and animistic religious practices. Paganism is not a traditional religion because it doesn’t have any official policies, but it does have some common features joining the variety of traditions. One of the common beliefs is the divine presence in nature and the reverence of the natural order in life. Monotheism is almost universally rejected within Paganism and most Pagan traditions are particularly interested in the revival of ancient polytheist religious traditions. Many Pagan traditions aim to revive many of the lost rituals of the ancient traditions, including holy days and seasonal celebrations. Many Pagans also worship a variety of gods and goddesses, including deceased family members. Pagans try to honor their ancestry and ancestors. Pagan traditions can include ritual magic, but this is not a universal practice.
Divination: Divination is pursuing after knowledge of the future.
The prophecy is lawful knowledge of the future divination, its irrational counterpart, is the unlawful. Magic aims to do and divination aims to know. Divination is found in every country and is practically as old as the human race. Cicero said that there is no nation, civilized or barbarian that does not believe that there are signs of the future and people who interpret them. Cicero had divided divination into natural and artificial. The natural included dreams and oracles which the diviner was a passive subject of inspiration and the power was supposed to be then and there within him. The artificial embraced all the foretelling signs that were found in nature or produced by a man. The diviner was active and the divination apparently came from his own skills and observations. Divination expressed invocation of spirits, embraced the dreams, signs or wonders, necromancy and divination with implied invocation through signs and movements in the objects of nature. Dreams mean those who expressly prepared and prayed for with hope of intercourse with God or the
dead.
Bibliography:
National Secular Society 2014, Cuttlefish, viewed 8 January 2014, http://www.secularism.org.uk/what-is-secularism.html
Religion and Belief Systems in Australia Post 1945 2005, NSW Board of Studies, viewed 8 January 2014, http://studiesofreligion.org.au/members/resource/07_australia_post1945/expression_summary.html
Church size and growth 2013, NCLS, viewed 9 January 2014, http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?sitemapid=28
Patheos Library 2008-2014, Avalon Consulting LLC, viewed 9 January 2014, http://www.patheos.com/Library/Pagan.html
New Advent 2009, Kevin Knight, viewed 9 January 2014, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05048b.html