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The Leftist 'No Religion' agenda on the census

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
Australia has a census date approaching, and Sky News (brought to you by your mate and mine, Rupert Murdoch) has called out a Leftist agenda to have people put 'No Religion' on their census.

Unfortunately I can't link to the video in YouTube, but it's embedded in the page below, with Peta Credlin delivering an amazingly unconvincing set of hypocritical arguments on why Australians shouldn't put 'No Religion' on the census.

'A lot of misinformation' in campaign to tick 'no religion' on census form (msn.com)

Basically, she suggests it will be used to defund religious schools, and (quite bizarrely) reduce palliative care expenditure.
What a tool.

Here is the actual campaign website : Census 21 Home Page — Census21 (censusnoreligion.org.au)
And here is their assessment of why people should mark 'No Religion' on their census...if (and this is kinda important) they are NOT RELIGIOUS. Sheesh.

Five good reasons to mark ’No Religion’
  1. Let’s get it right – The Australian Census is only held every five years and it collects important data on our nation. It’s critical that we get it right.
  2. Fairness in public funding – when religious organisations are attributed more support than they actually have, they receive an unfair amount of public funding.
  3. Fairness in voice and influence – incorrect data also gives religious organisations a stronger voice and more influence than they actually deserve.
  4. Let’s be honest – Australians deserve honest answers about the views we hold towards religion.
  5. Do it for you – Marking ‘No Religion’ in this year’s census can be a moment of personal clarity and liberation for you.

Sky News is a stain. Can America please take it?
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
There were arguments in the UK about the wording of the 'religion' question.
A lot of people who were brought up as Christians but never go to church apart for births, weddings and deaths, were fooled into voting (say) Christian - rather than No Religion.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
There were arguments in the UK about the wording of the 'religion' question.
A lot of people who were brought up as Christians but never go to church apart for births, weddings and deaths, were fooled into voting (say) Christian - rather than No Religion.
It seemed perfectly understandable to me.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
It seemed perfectly understandable to me.
When people are asked by YouGov about their religion, about 50% say No Religion
In the Census (2011 - as the results for the 2021 Census haven't yet been published) it was about 25%
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
When people are asked by YouGov about their religion, about 50% say No Religion
In the Census (2011 - as the results for the 2021 Census haven't yet been published) it was about 25%
That doesn't seem down to understandability, just culture. My nana and dad put CofE and they know exactly what the question means, but neither are Christians. It's a cultural marker for them and that's it. But they know the question is asking about one's actual religion, they just don't take the census seriously enough to bother putting anything else and seems to me like deliberate sabotage of the results.
 

RestlessSoul

Well-Known Member
There were arguments in the UK about the wording of the 'religion' question.
A lot of people who were brought up as Christians but never go to church apart for births, weddings and deaths, were fooled into voting (say) Christian - rather than No Religion.


Don’t think it was a vote.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
That doesn't seem down to understandability, just culture. My nana and dad put CofE and they know exactly what the question means, but neither are Christians. It's a cultural marker for them and that's it. But they know the question is asking about one's actual religion, they just don't take the census seriously enough to bother putting anything else and seems to me like deliberate sabotage of the results.
But that tick in the CofE box funds religious schools, keeps bishops in the HofL, etc.
 
There were arguments in the UK about the wording of the 'religion' question.
A lot of people who were brought up as Christians but never go to church apart for births, weddings and deaths, were fooled into voting (say) Christian - rather than No Religion.

Were 'fooled' by the deviously-worded question ‘What is your religion?’ followed by boxes containing the names of religions and another for 'no religion'?
 

danieldemol

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Australia has a census date approaching, and Sky News (brought to you by your mate and mine, Rupert Murdoch) has called out a Leftist agenda to have people put 'No Religion' on their census.

Unfortunately I can't link to the video in YouTube, but it's embedded in the page below, with Peta Credlin delivering an amazingly unconvincing set of hypocritical arguments on why Australians shouldn't put 'No Religion' on the census.

'A lot of misinformation' in campaign to tick 'no religion' on census form (msn.com)

Basically, she suggests it will be used to defund religious schools, and (quite bizarrely) reduce palliative care expenditure.
What a tool.

Here is the actual campaign website : Census 21 Home Page — Census21 (censusnoreligion.org.au)
And here is their assessment of why people should mark 'No Religion' on their census...if (and this is kinda important) they are NOT RELIGIOUS. Sheesh.



Sky News is a stain. Can America please take it?
I'll be proudly marking "no religion" and if memory serves me correctly this will be the first census I'll be marking no religion at.
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
That doesn't seem down to understandability, just culture. My nana and dad put CofE and they know exactly what the question means, but neither are Christians. It's a cultural marker for them and that's it. But they know the question is asking about one's actual religion, they just don't take the census seriously enough to bother putting anything else and seems to me like deliberate sabotage of the results.

Deliberate sabotage?
*Blinks*
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
Deliberate sabotage?
*Blinks*
I can't really think of another reason to lie on a census unless one wants to for some reason deliberately sabotage the results. It takes just as much effort to put 'Anglican' as it does 'None'. Even if they're not tying to deliberately sabotage, perhaps my wording is off, they know in any case that their lie is going to result in skewed statistics. What would be the good of this? What's the point?
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
There were arguments in the UK about the wording of the 'religion' question.
A lot of people who were brought up as Christians but never go to church apart for births, weddings and deaths, were fooled into voting (say) Christian - rather than No Religion.

Similar here. There were issues previously where 'Other' had to be used. So some would put Other - 'Atheist'. Some would say Other - 'Jedi'. Some would say Other - 'Humanist'.

Hence No Religion as an option, and a campaign for people who aren't religious to simply put that.

Which some seem to suggest is skewing results. A view I find completely hypocritical, but whatever.
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
I can't really think of another reason to lie on a census unless one wants to for some reason deliberately sabotage the results. It takes just as much effort to put 'Anglican' as it does 'None'. Even if they're not tying to deliberately sabotage, perhaps my wording is off, they know in any case that their lie is going to result in skewed statistics. What would be the good of this? What's the point?

Sorry, I might have misunderstood your post. I think you're saying people should just answer based on their personal belief?

If so, completely agree.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
Sorry, I might have misunderstood your post. I think you're saying people should just answer based on their personal belief?

If so, completely agree.
Yes.

But my nana and dad put 'Anglican' even though they're not.

I can't think of why they'd do this at all. It's just going to skew the results and make the whole religious aspect of the census worthless, because so many Brits do this. I can't think why they would, so I can only assume they want to sabotage the results or something.
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
I will be Other!

I feel slightly sorry for the Others only because I think their answers are commonly under-represented.

Different people will use slightly different terms for similar beliefs. Meanwhile, you can be a Muslim, and have no distinction between substantially different groups.

Meh...an imperfect science.
 
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