As discussed the other day, on my Christianity – a declining population blog, the last census showed 18% to 30% of the Australian population were non-religious. I discussed how there were problems with the wording of the current census question which could result in a higher percentage of religious people than there actually are.
Today I submitted my suggestions to the ABS for changes to the Religious Affiliation question in the upcoming Census 2011, including some reasons why. A copy of my submission is available here, feel free to copy any of it if you also want to send a submission to the ABS (try not to use my exact wording). You have until 31 March 2008 to send submissions. I encourage you all to get involved, your answers don’t have to be as wordy as mine. 
Tags: atheism, athiest, census, census 2011, religion
It’s such a tricky issue, this, because it would help matters if the census could provide a definition of “religion” or “religious”–but is there a definition that would satisfy everybody?
Full marks for giving it a go, though!
is there a definition that would satisfy everybody?
No.
I’ve had people say they would rather answer “I’m spiritual” rather than “I’m religious” because they believe in a god but none of the religious paraphernalia.
What’s that old saying ‘… can’t please all the people…’
[...] Submission – follow up Got an interesting email today regarding my submission to the ABS for changes to the religion question in Census 2011. This is the full text of the message: Dear [...]