Australian Politics Forum - Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?

GoddyofOz

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Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Aug 27^th, 2011 at 1:09am

Obviously, this question can't properly be gauged until the results of the Census are detailed, but even then, I wouldn't take much from that, because of dumb Xenophobic viral emails telling people to state their religion as Christianity because of some fear of an influx of Muslims to Australia.

However, everywhere I look (T.V Shows like Can of Worms and Q&A, various forums, comments, tweets etc) and through people I know personally, a resounding mocking of Religion has become more and more apparent. This coupled with outrage at the actions of Rev. Nile in NSW sends a clear message.

The biggest tell of all, we have an Atheist Prime Minister, although she has proven she is all too willing to suck up to the Fundamentalist Conservative vote when it comes to the gay marriage issue.

So, when it comes down to it, is Religion on a decline into Irrelevence in Australia? I say Irrelevence because it is extremely naive to suggest it will disappear entirely.

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azulene

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #1 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 1:21am

GoddyofOz wrote on Aug 27^th, 2011 at 1:09am:

Obviously, this question can't properly be gauged until the results of the Census are detailed, but even then, I wouldn't take much from that, because of dumb Xenophobic viral emails telling people to state their religion as Christianity because of some fear of an influx of Muslims to Australia.

However, everywhere I look (T.V Shows like Can of Worms and Q&A, various forums, comments, tweets etc) and through people I know personally, a resounding mocking of Religion has become more and more apparent. This coupled with outrage at the actions of Rev. Nile in NSW sends a clear message.

The biggest tell of all, we have an Atheist Prime Minister, although she has proven she is all too willing to suck up to the Fundamentalist Conservative vote when it comes to the gay marriage issue.

So, when it comes down to it, is Religion on a decline into Irrelevence in Australia? I say Irrelevence because it is extremely naive to suggest it will disappear entirely.

We can only pray...

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Yadda

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #2 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 1:56am

GoddyofOz wrote on Aug 27^th, 2011 at 1:09am:

Obviously, this question can't properly be gauged until the results of the Census are detailed, but even then, I wouldn't take much from that, because of dumb Xenophobic viral emails telling people to state their religion as Christianity because of some fear of an influx of Muslims to Australia.

However, everywhere I look (T.V Shows like Can of Worms and Q&A, various forums, comments, tweets etc) and through people I know personally, a resounding mocking of Religion has become more and more apparent. This coupled with outrage at the actions of Rev. Nile in NSW sends a clear message.

The biggest tell of all, we have an Atheist Prime Minister, although she has proven she is all too willing to suck up to the Fundamentalist Conservative vote when it comes to the gay marriage issue.

So, when it comes down to it, is Religion on a decline into Irrelevence in Australia? I say Irrelevence because it is extremely naive to suggest it will disappear entirely.

Religion doomed to irrelevance ???

Sure is!

Goddy,

Here is an interesting Christian article for you....

It suggests that when a culture chooses to reject God, it will always happily embrace homosexuality [i.e. self gratification].

Pornography
"....a man can go from being thankful, and from failing to acknowledge the nature of his Creator as revealed in the creation, into homosexuality!

It is pretty startling isn't it?, that you can go from being unthankful to being "gay"?

....Therefore God gives them up to their impure hearts. This is where we come to the issue of turning homosexual. How can that actually happen? How could it happen that we as a nation, as a people, could go from being unthankful to our Creator to being homosexual? And is it happening around us today? It must be! "Gay Liberation" is in the newspaper every day. More and more people are "coming out front" and saying that they have been what are called "closet queens" all their lives. They have been secretly homosexual and now they finally realize, in their delusion, that it was really O.K. and so they want to practice it everywhere and with everybody. How does it come about? This is the really startling thing that God says, in effect: "Being unthankful will turn you 'queer'." "

http://ldolphin.org/wise/0491.html

i.e.
When a culture becomes obsessed with self gratification, it will always choose to EMBRACE homosexuality, even coming to accept homosexuality as a 'norm'.

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"....And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
Luke 16:31

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GoddyofOz

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #3 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 2:16am

Yadda wrote on Aug 27^th, 2011 at 1:56am:

GoddyofOz wrote on Aug 27^th, 2011 at 1:09am:

Obviously, this question can't properly be gauged until the results of the Census are detailed, but even then, I wouldn't take much from that, because of dumb Xenophobic viral emails telling people to state their religion as Christianity because of some fear of an influx of Muslims to Australia.

However, everywhere I look (T.V Shows like Can of Worms and Q&A, various forums, comments, tweets etc) and through people I know personally, a resounding mocking of Religion has become more and more apparent. This coupled with outrage at the actions of Rev. Nile in NSW sends a clear message.

The biggest tell of all, we have an Atheist Prime Minister, although she has proven she is all too willing to suck up to the Fundamentalist Conservative vote when it comes to the gay marriage issue.

So, when it comes down to it, is Religion on a decline into Irrelevence in Australia? I say Irrelevence because it is extremely naive to suggest it will disappear entirely.

Religion doomed to irrelevance ???

Sure is!

Goddy,

Here is an interesting Christian article for you....

It suggests that when a culture chooses to reject God, it will always happily embrace homosexuality [i.e. self gratification].

Pornography
"....a man can go from being thankful, and from failing to acknowledge the nature of his Creator as revealed in the creation, into homosexuality!

It is pretty startling isn't it?, that you can go from being unthankful to being "gay"?

....Therefore God gives them up to their impure hearts. This is where we come to the issue of turning homosexual. How can that actually happen? How could it happen that we as a nation, as a people, could go from being unthankful to our Creator to being homosexual? And is it happening around us today? It must be! "Gay Liberation" is in the newspaper every day. More and more people are "coming out front" and saying that they have been what are called "closet queens" all their lives. They have been secretly homosexual and now they finally realize, in their delusion, that it was really O.K. and so they want to practice it everywhere and with everybody. How does it come about? This is the really startling thing that God says, in effect: "Being unthankful will turn you 'queer'." "

http://ldolphin.org/wise/0491.html

i.e.
When a culture becomes obsessed with self gratification, it will always choose to EMBRACE homosexuality, even coming to accept homosexuality as a 'norm'.

Self Gratification?

Why do you think God or Allah wants people to worship and love him so badly? Self Gratification.

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"A Conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly just sits." - Woodrow Wilson.

True Patriotism is serving your country all the time, and serving your Politicians when they deserve it.

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Grey Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 5341 Gender:	Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia? Reply #4 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 6:40am Not while Yadda lives!
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Ex Dame Pansi

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #5 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 7:04am

There will always be religion , but the theistic religion of the bible will have to evolve or die. We, as humans have come too far in the world of science to believe the bible story. We are so better educated than we were 2000 years ago, so it stands to reason that the bible is totally irrelevant to today's people. Take away the bible scriptures and what are you left with?

Maybe theist religions will follow a more grounded position like Buddhism or Hinduism where people are accountable to themselves instead of some self serving god that needs continuous praise and glory.

People should live by their conscience, if you don't have one it can be troublesome though.

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andrei said: Great isn't it? Seeing boatloads of what is nothing more than human garbage turn up.....

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nairbe Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 2587 Rural NSW Gender:	Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia? Reply #6 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 7:10am Not a chance Goddy, Australians love easy answers too much. If we were atheist we might have to do the right thing because we want to not because we will get punished for eternity when we die.
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longweekend58

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #7 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 8:10am

If any of you actually went to church you'd see the silliness in the OP. The church is dogin very well thank you and not just oldies... the pentecostal churches particulary have a very strong and growing membership with mostly young people. Thats why the census had no classification for 'pentecostal' while uniting and anglican which are dying retain theirs. LOL

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freediver

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #8 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 8:36am

GoddyofOz wrote on Aug 27^th, 2011 at 1:09am:

Obviously, this question can't properly be gauged until the results of the Census are detailed, but even then, I wouldn't take much from that, because of dumb Xenophobic viral emails telling people to state their religion as Christianity because of some fear of an influx of Muslims to Australia.

However, everywhere I look (T.V Shows like Can of Worms and Q&A, various forums, comments, tweets etc) and through people I know personally, a resounding mocking of Religion has become more and more apparent. This coupled with outrage at the actions of Rev. Nile in NSW sends a clear message.

The biggest tell of all, we have an Atheist Prime Minister, although she has proven she is all too willing to suck up to the Fundamentalist Conservative vote when it comes to the gay marriage issue.

So, when it comes down to it, is Religion on a decline into Irrelevence in Australia? I say Irrelevence because it is extremely naive to suggest it will disappear entirely.

I have noticed the trend towards openly mocking religion. I first came across it in my first office job and it seems to be getting more prevalent, but that may be just down to the internet giving these people a voice. Most of the people involved seem to be bitter about having it imposed on them in school (or worse) and feel the need to make a stand against it. It can look pretty silly making a stand against something so benign.

Being largely reactionary I don't think it will be a permanent change to our society. These people can get far more obnoxious, are not afraid to throw around deeply flawed arguments and are not afraid to try to use the law to impose their views on others, so it won't be long till there is a public reaction against them. Either that or people will just get over it and get on with their lives. I would hate for public debate here to mirror the 'culture wars' in the US.

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Bobby.

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #9 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 8:54am

Longweekend,
Quote:

The church is doing very well thank you

The Catholic Church especially - they have $billions in gold bullion
stored in Switzerland & vast property estates.

Their sales product is everlasting life & also burning forever in hellfire & damnation
if you don't believe them ( & give money to their cause ) -
both of which which can never be disproven.

Can't people see that it's scam?

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Grey Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 5341 Gender:	Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia? Reply #10 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 11:28am Quote: LongWeekend - The church is dogin very well thank you and not just oldies... An unfortunate choice of phrase there...
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Bobby.

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #11 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 2:55pm

Grey wrote on Aug 27^th, 2011 at 11:28am:

Quote:

LongWeekend - The church is dogin very well thank you and not just oldies...

An unfortunate choice of phrase there... Grin

Also - he can't even spell doing.
I have to correct his spelling when I quote him
yet he claims to have a university degree - what a loser!

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muso

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #12 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 3:57pm

I think as Christianity in its various sects becomes more and more of a minority religion, and it's no longer forced down kids' throats in school, it will start to gain more respect.

I know other non-religious people on here will disagree totally with what I say, but I really don't look on it as a bad thing. Last Sunday I saw a small congregation heading to a local Catholic
Church. Many of them seemed to be immigrants. The priests were standing outside the church in their very colorful regalia welcoming them as they arrived. It struck me as being nice to see. It's a legacy and a tradition from the past, and really it gives people a chance to reflect on their personal ethical performance over the past week, which is something that the rest of us generally don't do. It provides a kind of feedback for the individuals on things they need to improve on.

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Life_goes_on

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #13 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 4:06pm

muso wrote on Aug 27^th, 2011 at 3:57pm:

I think as Christianity in its various sects becomes more and more of a minority religion, and it's no longer forced down kids' throats in school, it will start to gain more respect.

I know other non-religious people on here will disagree totally with what I say, but I really don't look on it as a bad thing. Last Sunday I saw a small congregation heading to a local Catholic
Church. Many of them seemed to be immigrants. The priests were standing outside the church in their very colorful regalia welcoming them as they arrived. It struck me as being nice to see. It's a legacy and a tradition from the past, and really it gives people a chance to reflect on their personal ethical performance over the past week, which is something that the rest of us generally don't do. It provides a kind of feedback for the individuals on things they need to improve on.

I fully agree. While I don't believe in God (I never have) and I can't get my head around the idea of believing in such a thing, I think that religion serves a purpose for a lot of people.

I don't have a problem with the bulk of the churches. I think they do a pretty good job in relation to the work they do for the community - yes, even the Catholic church which a lot of people seem to have the most problems with.

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Lisa Jones

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Re: Is Religion doomed to irrelevence in Australia?
Reply #14 - Aug 27^th, 2011 at 4:23pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Australia

.. religion in Australia remains dominated demographically by Christianity, with 64% of the population claiming at least nominal adherence to the Christian faith as of 2007 ... 18.7% of Australians declared "no-religion" on the 2006 Census with a further 11.2% failing to answer the question. The remaining population is a diverse group that includes fast-growing Islamic and Buddhist communities.

Hmmm ..

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