From The Age / National Times
Faith tested in the Commonwealth
By Dick Gross
August 8, 2011
Opinion
This week the role of our beliefs or lack thereof takes centre stage nationally by way of the Census and the High Court.
CENSUS NIGHT
It was a census that led Jesus to be born in a stable and our own is upon us tomorrow. The Atheist Foundation of Australia has been working hard to make sure that we get good data on the number of believers and atheists.
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In one sense it is an impossible question to answer for many atheists hark back to some relic of their upbringing when we think about this question and so we might be half-pregnant atheists. What do you call yourself if you don't believe in God but observe some vestigial religious rites and really don't care either way? You could quite truthfully tick any box. Faith is not the open-and-shut question it once was. The Foundation is keen for those who are nominally religious but actually godless to mark ''No Religion'' at the bottom of question 19. It has been a clever campaign.
This is the first time I will be marking ''No Religion'' because in the past I ticked other and described myself as a ''Jewish atheist'' or ''secular Jew'' for that is what seemed to describe me best. I have been persuaded by the Foundation's campaign so I will be a ''No'' person. I will list my cultural background in the question before, question 18.
Putting aside these subtle questions of the nature of belief, the Foundation has been concerned to make sure that people at least do not play funny buggers. There was a stage where it was considered hilarious to insert something like ''Jedi Knight'' as your object of worship. I don't see the humour in that at all but maybe I am just a killjoy.
Full article: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/blogs/godless-gross/faith-tested-in-the-commonwealth-20110805-1iept.html
