Irreligion in Australia

Australia's national IQ is 98. The Daily Mail reported in 2014, "Evidence suggests that the IQs of people in the UK, Denmark and Australia have declined in the last decade."

After WWII, Australia has become a very secular country.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

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Australia is one of the least devout countries in the Western world, although two-thirds of its population identifies itself as Christian, an international survey comparing religious expression in 21 countries has found. Religion does not play a central part in the lives of many Australians: 48 per cent of Australians surveyed said they did not partake in personal prayer and 52 per cent said they rarely attended a place of worship for religious reasons.

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Australian atheist movement and the cancellation of 2018 Global Atheist Convention

See also: 2018 Global Atheist Convention that was cancelled and Atheist movement Decline of the atheist movement and Atheist feminism

The 2018 Global Atheist Convention that was cancelled was billed as the third Global Atheist Convention and its theme was "Reason to Hope". It was sponsored by the Atheist Foundation of Australia.

Robert Martin from Melbourne's City Bible Forum indicated about the cancellation of the 2018 Global Atheist Convention: "This is a massive blow to the Atheist Foundation as an organisation and to organised atheism in Australia. Where to next? What do they stand for?” According to Martin, fragmentation within today's atheist movement in Australia is a key reason that the convention may have been difficult to sell (see also: Atheist factions).

A very sizable portion of the alt-right movement is made up of atheists, agnostics, and the non-religious (See: Atheism and the alt-right). The alt-right is influencing Australia politics. The growth of the right-wing/alt-right atheism is creating divisions/infighting among atheists in the Western World due to political polarization (see: Western atheism, schisms and political polarization and Atheist factions).

A postsecular Australia in the 21st century

See also: Desecularization and aging populations and Desecularization and Acceleration of 21st century desecularization and Postsecularism

Jens Köhrsen, a professor for religion and economics at the Centre for Religion, Economy and Politics (ZRWP), wrote:

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[ Jürgen Habermas ] ...argues that a new age, the age of post-secularity, has begun. Previously vastly secularized societies, like the highly developed countries of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, would experience a new awareness of religion and attribute a new public role to religion. From now on, religion would constitute a relevant dialogue partner in the public debates of these societies (Habermas, 2008). Moreover, Habermas presents a normative argument about public religion: he recommends that post-secular societies should facilitate religious contributions to the public sphere. Religious reasoning could contribute to public debates about the ethical values of contemporaneous and future societies. Habermas believes that modern societies might find some answers to the moral questions of our time by listening to religion in public debates (Habermas, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008). A similar position to that of Habermas is proposed by Leclerc (2001) and French sociologist Willaime (2004a, 2004b, 2005[1995]: 76-78, 2008). Willaime observes that even the highly secularized public and political sphere of France is exhibiting a new, more open attitude towards religion. The hypersecularity of France would stimulate a restructuration process of religion. According to Willaime, religion can form an important resource for public debates and be engaged in the identity construction process of individuals and collectives.

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Eric Kaufmann on the future of irreligion in Australia

See also: Desecularization and European desecularization in the 21st century

Eric Kaufmann, a professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, using a wealth of demographic studies, argues that there will be a significant decline of global atheism in the 21st century which will impact the Western World. In addition, Kaufmann argues that religious conservatism has a long term trend of rising and that their influence in the world will significantly increase. Kaufmann is author of the book Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?. In the Western World due to immigration and the higher birth rates of religious people, Kaufman writes: "Committed religious populations are growing in the West, and will reverse the march of secularism before 2050."

Kaufmann told a secular audience in Australia: "The trends that are happening worldwide inevitably in an age of globalization are going to affect us." Furthermore, Kaufmann also argues that secularization may reverse itself significantly earlier than 2050 in the West due to religious immigration and a religious population which is increasingly resistant to secularization.

On December 23, 2012, Professor Eric Kaufmann who teaches at Birbeck College, University of London wrote:

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I argue that 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious. On the other hand, the secular West and East Asia has very low fertility and a rapidly aging population... In the coming decades, the developed world's demand for workers to pay its pensions and work in its service sector will soar alongside the booming supply of young people in the third world. Ergo, we can expect significant immigration to the secular West which will import religious revival on the back of ethnic change. In addition, those with religious beliefs tend to have higher birth rates than the secular population, with fundamentalists having far larger families. The epicentre of these trends will be in immigration gateway cities like New York (a third white), Amsterdam (half Dutch), Los Angeles (28% white), and London, 45% white British.

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Concerning the future of religion/secularism in Europe, professor Eric Kaufmann wrote:

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We have performed these unprecedented analyses on several cases. Austria offers us a window into what the future holds. Its census question on religious affiliation permits us to perform cohort component projections, which show the secular population plateauing by 2050, or as early as 2021 if secularism fails to attract lapsed Christians and new Muslim immigrants at the same rate as it has in the past. (Goujon, Skirbekk et al. 2006). This task will arguably become far more difficult as the supply of nominal Christians dries up while more secularisation-resistant Muslims and committed rump Christians comprise an increasing share of the population.

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Regarding the Western World as a whole and the growth of the religious population in the West, Kaufmann wrote:

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...this paper claims that the developing world will not only never catch up, but that, ironically, it is the West which will increasingly come to resemble the developing world. Committed religious populations are growing in the West, and will reverse the march of secularism before 2050. The logic which is driving this apparently anti-modern development is demography, a shadowy historical force whose power multiplies exponentially with the modernisation process. Demography is about raw numbers, and, in an age of low mortality, its chief components are fertility and migration.

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See also

• Irreligious Australia and loneliness
• Irreligious Australia and alcoholism
• Irreligious Australia and intelligence
• Atheism in the Anglosphere
• Irreligion in New Zealand