In fact, here's the picture from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011 census:
I'm going out on a limb, but if people I know are any reflection, I reckon a good chunk of those Christians are just hedging.
I remember the 2001 census, when I said my religion was "Jedi". There was a viral campaign urging people to nominate Jedi to see if there were enough people to make it an official religion. I've just Googled and sadly I was one of only a mere 70,000. The government ran PR trying to dissuade the choice, but the appeal of 'May the force be with you' and being a princess was just too much for me!
New Zealand has always been ahead of us - first to give women the vote and make same sex marriage legal - and 42% of them claim to have no religion, which is pretty amazing.
I've posted about my lack of belief before.
Anyway, the point of all this is we were in the States recently and I cringe to think of how many people we offended.
Social analyst David Chalke once explained at an agency talk that America was founded by the religious extremist who were being persecuted in Europe - hence their strong culture of faith. Australia, on the other hand, was settled by thieves, larikins, drinkers and criminals - and those were just the people escorting the convicts here!
With every 'gosh' I was reminded how we all always say 'god'. No one here notices - it's just what we do.
I remember telling a six year old George to perhaps lay off yelling 'Jesus' all the time as maybe someone mightn't like it. And him then thinking Jesus was a swear word making an appearance in a school Christmas carol!
Anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to now apologise for any and all the offence our family's language may have caused.
Soz.
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