Belief in God: Is the ‘New Atheism’ Influencing Australians?

The ‘New Atheists’ was a term coined in 2006 to describe three atheists who were writing popular books promoting atheism: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett (Blackford 2012). Certainly, Dawkins’ book, The God Delusion, sold many copies in Australia as well as overseas. Atheists have started mass advertising campaigns to promote their views. But are they having much impact?

The idea of God has certainly become contentious in contemporary Australia. In 1949, there was little disagreement: a Gallup Poll reported that 95 per cent of Australians believed in God. Today, Australians hold a variety of views. The 2009 Survey of Australian Attitudes conducted by the Australian National University among 1718 adult Australians found that just under half the population (47%) believed in God. Among that 47 per cent, there was considerable variation in the levels of confidence. Just 25 per cent of the Australian population said they had no doubts that God exists. The remaining 22 per cent were somewhat tentative in their belief. Some said they had doubts, but generally believed. Others said they believed some of the time but not at others.

There is also a variety of attitudes among those who do not believe in God. Not all are atheists. Indeed, just 16 per cent of Australians said they believed there was no God or higher power. Another 15 per cent say they do not know whether there was a God. An additional 20 per cent said they did not believe there was a personal God, but they did believe there was a higher power.

While 60 per cent of Australians said they had not changed their belief in or rejection of God, another 20 per cent had changed what they believed and another 20 per cent were not sure if they had changed or not:

*  21% said they don’t believe in God now and never have;

* 16% say they don’t believe in God, but used to;

* 4% say they believe in God now, but didn’t used to;

* 39% say they believe in God and always have; and

* 20% said they could not choose or did not answer the question.

In other words, for every person who had moved from not believing to believing in God, four Australians had moved in the opposite direction.

It would be interesting to know if those who could not choose were vacillating, or whether the issue was simply not important to them.

Variations in Belief in the Australian Population

There are some significant patterns in belief across the population. As shown in Figure 1, many more older people than younger people believed in God. Among those aged over 80, nearly half believes in God and have no doubts. Among those people in their 60s and 70s, it was close to one-third of the population. Among those aged 31 to 60, it was approximately one-quarter of the population. Among those aged under 30, only 14 per cent said they believed in God without doubts.

The picture of belief in God by age group is probably more descriptive of historical change in Australian society than life-cycle differences. Thus, the patterns suggest the decline of belief may continue.

We do not have recent accurate information about the beliefs of teenagers in Australia as a whole. However, in CRA surveys of 4000 students in 29 Catholic schools, we have found levels of belief in God more similar to adults in their 30s rather than young people in 20s. Thus, 44 per cent of students in secondary Catholic schools have indicated that they believe in God, 24 per cent say there is some sort of spirit or life force, 22 per cent do not really know what to think, and 10 per cent say they do not think there is any sort of spirit, God or life force.

More… http://www.ea.org.au/Ethos/Engage-Mail/Belief-in-God-Is-the-New-Atheism-Influencing-Australians.aspx