One of my wonderful readers emailed me with some questions on Atheism in Australia. I don’t get much reader mail, people tend to comment more these days. In any case I felt that her questions were worth turning into a new post. Note that my opinions below reflect my personal experience and are not based upon any in depth study of the topic.
I was just wondering if you get judged for being an atheist like I do in the States?
I think that the answer to this is – it depends. There are a couple of variables that come into play.
Australians are culturally apathetic about politics and religion. Generally speaking most people don’t give a rats arse. The only thing we do seem to be passionate about is sport, our greatest military defeat, and beer. So in the wider Australian context its just not that much of a big deal.
That being said I have moved to a more Christian, monocultural part of Australia, where they include scriptural quotes on page 2 of the newspaper. I don’t feel confident (having newly moved here) in being outspokenly atheist. I fear that I would be socially ostracised.
So let’s just say I would feel judged, not sure if it would effect job prospects, but definitely social interaction.
Where I lived previously I wore a jumper with Atheist emblazoned on the front of it, no one battered an eyelid, so I think it depends on the make up of the area you live in. In most Australian cities you wouldn’t be judged, but in monocultural Christian conservative areas you probably would be.
Is there discrimination in Australia against atheists?
I would have answered not really, to this about a year ago, but then we had the whole Atheist bus campaign furore. In the most religiously apathetic country in the world a major advertiser refused to run inoffensive adds for fear that they might offend the religious.
I’d say there is more Christian privilege present in Australian society than direct discrimination though. That is, we say christian prayers before most council, and parliamentary sittings, the religious are still the gatekeepers of morality and ethics, the churches are substantially government funded through education and paying no tax etc.
Does your currency say "In God We Trust" on it like ours does?
No, on our coins we have a picture of the queen of England one side- she’s our queen too, but I am a Republican( not as in American republican) in the sense I would not swear allegiance to her and think she should be removed as our head of state. The other side of coins usually features animals – the one dollar coin has Kangaroos for example. Our notes are all different colours and feature different historic persons.
But in some ways I’d prefer to exchange this(god free money) for your bill of rights, constitutional rights to free speech(Australian’s only have limited free speech in regards to politics) and separation of church and state. In Australia the churches are heavily subsidised via education spending and received tax free status on all their activities whether they are charity related or not.
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First of all, I want to thank you! You really put a lot of thought and work into this post and I am very grateful!__I appreciate you doing this post to answer my questions.__Thanks again,__GEM
Speaking for myself (another Australian atheist) I experienced very little open "judgement" for being an atheist (other than one particular newly-converted Indian taxi driver whose evangelizing zeal almost resulted in us both dying an an accident), and so I didn't really think about it all that much … until I had children.
Suddenly, my atheism because an issue for a great many christians who otherwise would have said nothing – and some of whom I had known quite well for years.
"How will your children learn morals?"
"How can you raise children without god?"
"But of course your children will go to church?!"
etc etc etc.
Suddenly, as soon as some parents found out we were atheists, their children were not allowed to play with our kids, not to invite them over and so on (though they did get invitations to go to church). This was even from parents who had previously remarked how well-behaved and polite they were.
My kids are at a different school now, which seems to have a distinctly different culture, and we're also more cautious about telling other parents we're atheists. In any case, the problem is less noticeable.
So, while in most cases I'd say that anti-atheist prejudice is lower in Australia, there are times when it does seem to intrude.
This is the sort of prejudice I fear. You can be the best person, can volunteer in the community, whatever but the minute that they find out its like you're president of the Australian chapter of NAMBLA
The children aspect of it seemed to be the thing that really brought out the prejudice. I guess they thought I was free to send myself to hell, and wasn't really such a bad guy, but once I had kids they felt that had to "save" my innocent children… and at the same time, apparently their own children's faith was apparently so fragile that merely being in contact with my kids** raised in a home with atheist parents was too dangerous to contemplate.
If just playing with a kid who doesn't believe is that risky, you have to wonder about them. Is their faith really /so/ pathetically fragile?
**(one of whom in fact, did believe in god at the time – though adding that a lot of the biblical accounts 'obviously don't make sense' . In fact that one may still believe for all I know – presumably picking it up from contact with other kids at school. I felt no burning need to dissuade the nascent belief, but nowadays if it gets brought up I do make it clear what I think. I didn't discuss my own beliefs until well after they were old enough to disagree with me and hold up their end of any discussion. No brainwashing in my house, thanks.)
It is interesting the level of mistrust that the label grants. Surely they could have just asked you not to preach to their kid. Or perhaps that is revealing of their own character
What you say is true, you most likely live in a well to do suburb, to have this experience. In our working class area with a small Muslim population among us religion as a subject of conversation is by most avoided, religion and politics is a personal matter and nobody's business.
Whoa! They have scriptural quotes in the local paper?? Is it part of a boxed ad for a local church? Or are the quotes definitely part of the paper's editorial stance?
I can relate to Efrique's comment about how having young children suddenly exposes you as a parent to all these "christians" who have concerns about your children's morals etc. Oddly enough, the church itself (and the school owned by the church) had no problems at all with the fact that neither of the kids were baptized nor regular church attendees.
I think we are tremendously lucky in Australia for we do have a lot of freedom to think and believe what we choose. And even if we believe we are being discriminated against on religious grounds, we do have the backing of the law to protect us (and I seem to recall a few years ago a case in Victoria where an atheist took his employer to task and won).
I like the fact that by law, things like religious beliefs (amongst other topics) are not permitted to be discussed at formal workplace interviews. Doesn't stop employers and HR people enquiring, but I feel confident enough these days to pick them up on the illegality of the question.
Whoa! They have scriptural quotes in the local paper?? Is it part of a boxed ad for a local church? Or are the quotes definitely part of the paper's editorial stance?
It's provided by an interfaith council (meaning of course Christian faiths)
like the fact that by law, things like religious beliefs (amongst other topics) are not permitted to be discussed at formal workplace interviews. Doesn't stop employers and HR people enquiring, but I feel confident enough these days to pick them up on the illegality of the question
Wonder how this will work under the proposed changes to Victorian discrimination laws