Irreligion in New Zealand

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Irreligion in New Zealand refers to atheism, agnosticism, deism, religious scepticism and secular humanism in New Zealand society. Post-war New Zealand has become a highly secular country, meaning that religion does not play a major role in the lives of many of the population.

Contents

Although New Zealand has no established religion, Christianity had been the majority religious affiliation since European settlement in the 19th century.

Demographics

The increase of the proportion of the population recorded as having 'no religion' over the last six censuses. Religious affiliation in New Zealand 1991-2018 - line chart.svg
The increase of the proportion of the population recorded as having 'no religion' over the last six censuses.
2013 Census graph of people stating no religion by sex and age. Irreligion is highest among males and younger generations. 2013 NZ census people stating no religion by sex.gif
2013 Census graph of people stating no religion by sex and age. Irreligion is highest among males and younger generations.

Statistics New Zealand gathers information on religious affiliation in the five-yearly census. Completing a census form is compulsory by law for every person in New Zealand on census night [1] but respondents are able to object to answering the question of religious affiliation, [2] and around 6% do object. [3] The trend shows an increasing proportion of residents in New Zealand declaring no religious affiliation. In the 1991 census, 20.2% were in this category. [4] The proportion more than doubled in two decades, reaching 41.9% in the 2013 census, and increased again to 48.2% in the 2018 census, when for the first time a plurality of New Zealanders claimed "no religion". [5]

There is significant debate among sociologists about the interpretation of this trend in census data. [6] The increase in those indicating 'no religion' is often cited in support of the secularisation thesis. An alternative theory is that the data indicates a decline in institutional religious affiliation rather than simply a decrease in spiritual belief. [7] A 1985 survey showed that around one-quarter of those answering 'no religion' may believe in a god and that, conversely, between 7 percent and 36 percent of Christians (depending on their denomination) did not believe in the existence of deities. [8]

The International Social Survey Programme was conducted in New Zealand by Massey University in 2008. It received mail-responses from around one thousand New Zealanders above the age of 18, surveying issues of religious belief and practice. The results of this survey indicated that 72% of the population believe in God or a higher power, 15% are agnostic, and 13% are atheist (with a 3% margin of error). [9]

According to a report by the American Physical Society, religion may die out in New Zealand and eight other Western world countries. [10] [11] [12]

As of the 2018 census, those who did not affiliate with a religion outnumbered those with a religion for the first time. [5]

Irreligion in society

The Humanist Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists promote a secular view of life without reference to supernatural agencies as one of their aims.

A campaign to create advertisements similar to the Atheist Bus Campaign in the United Kingdom began a fund-raising drive on 10 December 2009, [13] and reached its initial target of $10,000 in donations within 48 hours, making it one of the most successful atheist campaigns of all time. [14]

Māori and other ethnic groups

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand notes, in 2013 "47% of people who identified themselves as Europeans or New Zealanders said they had no religion – as did 46% of Māori and 30% of Asians. Only 18% of Pacific peoples, and 17% of people in the Middle Eastern, Latin American and African ethnic groups, said they had no religion." [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Secular humanism is a philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.

Irreligion, or nonreligion, is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 global study of 230 countries and territories, 16% of the world's population is not affiliated with any religion. The population of religiously unidentifying people, sometimes referred to as "nones", grew significantly in recent years, though its future growth is uncertain.

Irreligion in Canada Overview of irreligion in Canada

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Council of Australian Humanist Societies

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Atheist Foundation of Australia

The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) was established in South Australia in 1970, when The Rationalist Association of South Australia decided upon a name change to better declare its basic philosophy, namely atheism.

The Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) promotes the interests of rationalists nationally in Australia. Originally formed as the Victorian Rationalist Association, the society originated in a meeting of freethinkers in the University of Melbourne in 1906. It is the operational arm of the rationalist movement in Australia.

Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism vary across different cultures and languages from being an active concept to being unimportant or not developed. In global studies, the number of people without a religion is usually higher than the number of people without a belief in a deity and the number of people who agree with statements on lacking a belief in a deity is usually higher than the number of people who self-identify as "atheists". According to sociologist Phil Zuckerman, broad estimates of those who have an absence of belief in a deity range from 500 to 750 million people worldwide. Other estimates state that there are 200 million to 240 million self-identified atheists worldwide, with China and Russia being major contributors to those figures. According to sociologists Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera's review of numerous global studies on atheism, there are 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide, with China having the most atheists in the world

Discrimination against atheists persecution of and discrimination against people identified as atheists

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Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics

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Atheism is in the broadest sense an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.

Irreligion in Australia Overview of irreligion in Australia

Atheism, agnosticism, scepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general irreligion are increasing in Australia. Post-war Australia has become a highly secularised country. Religion does not play a major role in the lives of much of the population.

Irreligion in the United States refers to the extent of the lack, indifference to or rejection of religious faith in the country. Based on surveys, between 8% and 15% of citizens polled demonstrate objectively nonreligious attitudes and basically naturalistic worldviews. The number of self-identified atheists and agnostics is around 4% each, while many persons formally affiliated with a religion are likewise non-believing.

According to the Pew Research Center in a 2014 survey, self-identified "atheists" make up 3.1% of the US population, even though 9% of Americans agreed with the statement "Do not believe in God" while 2% agreed with the statement "Do not know if they believe in God".

As of 2015, 18.5% of Singaporeans have no religious affiliation. Non-religious Singaporeans are found in various ethnic groups and all walks of life in Singapore. Singapore's non-religious tend to be atheists, agnostics, humanists, theists, deists or skeptics. Some locals affiliate with no religion, but still choose to practice traditional rituals like ancestor worship, which they do not necessarily regard as religious in essence. The number of non-religious people in Singapore has risen slightly. Census reports show that those who said they have no religion rose from 13% in 1980 to 18.5% in 2015. In recent years, social gatherings of non-religious people have become more popular in Singapore.

Irreligion in the United Kingdom refers to the prevalence of the absence, indifference to, or rejection of religion in the country. It includes phenomenons such as agnosticism, atheism, nontheism, humanism, casual non-affiliation or apathy. Historically, the growth of irreligion in the UK has followed a European-wide pattern of secularisation and it is now one of the most secular nations in the world.

Irreligion in Latin America refers to various types of irreligion, including atheism, agnosticism, deism, secular humanism, secularism and non-religious. According to a global survey conducted in 2011, 16% of the population has no religion.

The secular movement refers to a social and political trend in the United States, beginning in the early years of the 20th century, with the founding of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism in 1925 and the American Humanist Association in 1941, in which atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, freethinkers, and other nonreligious and nontheistic Americans have grown in both numbers and visibility. There has been a sharp increase in the number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated, from under 10 percent in the 1990s to 20 percent in 2013. The trend is especially pronounced among young people, with about one in three Americans younger than 30 identifying as religiously unaffiliated, a figure that has nearly tripled since the 1990s.

Atheism in the African diaspora

Atheism in the African Diaspora is atheism as it is experienced by black people outside of Africa. In the United States, blacks are less likely than other ethnic groups to be religiously unaffiliated, let alone identifying as atheist. The demographics are similar in the United Kingdom. Atheists are individuals who do not hold a belief in a god or in a plurality of gods. Atheism is not a disbelief in gods or a denial of gods; it is a lack of belief in gods. Some, but not all, atheists identify as secular humanists, who are individuals who believe that life has meaning and joy without the need for the supernatural or religion and that all individuals should live ethical lives which can provide for the greater good of humanity. Black atheists and secular humanists exist today and in history, though many were not always vocal in their beliefs or lack of belief.

Irreligion in Romania is rare. Romania is one of the most religious countries in Europe, with 92% of people saying that they believe in God. Levels of Irreligion are much lower than in most other European countries and are among the lowest in the world. At the 2011 census, only 0.11% of the population declared itself atheist, up from the 2002 census, while 0.10% do not belong to any religion.

References

  1. ↑ "Participation in the Census". Statistics New Zealand. Archived from the original on 2010-05-26. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  2. ↑ "Religious Affiliation Questionnaire Model". Statistics New Zealand. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  3. ↑ Table 28, 2006 Census Data – QuickStats About Culture and Identity – Tables Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine .
  4. ↑ "Diverse Communities – Exploring the Migrant and Refugee Experience in New Zealand" (PDF). Ministry of Social Development. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  5. 1 2 "2018 Census totals by topic" (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet). Statistics New Zealand . Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  6. ↑ Olson, William. H. (2000). The secularization debate. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   9780742507616.
  7. ↑ Ward, Kevin (2004). "'No Longer Believing' – or – 'Believing without Belonging'". In Stenhouse, John (ed.). The Future of Christianity: Historical, Sociological, Political and Theological Perspectives from New Zealand. Adelaide: AFT Press. pp. 64–66.
  8. ↑ "Who is Secular". Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  9. ↑ "Religion In New Zealand: International Social Survey Programme" (PDF). Massey University. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
  10. ↑ "Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says". BBC. March 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  11. ↑ Abrams, Daniel M.; Yaple, Haley A.; Wiener, Richard J. (January 2011). "A mathematical model of social group competition with application to the growth of religious non-affiliation". Physical Review Letters. 107 (8): 088701. arXiv: 1012.1375 . Bibcode:2011PhRvL.107h8701A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.088701. PMID   21929211.
  12. ↑ "Religion set for extinction in NZ, says US study". The New Zealand Herald. March 22, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  13. ↑ Burns, Kelly (11 December 2009). "'There's probably no God' coming to a bus near you". The Dominion Post . Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  14. ↑ NZ Atheist Bus Campaign Blog $10,000 and growing fast
  15. ↑ Walrond, Carl (4 April 2018). "Atheism and secularism". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage . Retrieved 3 February 2019.
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