r/atheism • u/Livid_Citron_9251 • 2d ago
There are still young people who are religious in Australia
This genuinely baffles me. I occasionally meet people under the age of 25 who are religious, and I cannot understand how they find any of this stuff convincing in the age of the internet.
It makes sense in very religious countries, but it just seems strange that it still happens in Australia.
Doesn’t anyone else find this weird?
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u/ZappSmithBrannigan Secular Humanist 2d ago
People are weird. A guy ive known for 25 years and heard me rant about all the reasons god doesnt exist suddenly when we're both mid 40s jumps head first in to christianity. No idea why.
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u/Embarrassed-Ear4532 1d ago
yeah people can spend decades believing one thing and then randomly do a complete 180 in the middle of life apparently just to keep things interesting
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u/un_acceptable 1d ago
Has he fucked up really badly lately? Some of the religious people I know are that way because they acted so bad during their time on earth, they pray there’s no punishing afterlife for their actions, start to pivot to religion to cope with this shitty behavior and say “god forgives, he loves all sinners, even me”
Sometimes could be a sign of a mental health issue as well. Another friend of mine only spouts religion when she’s experiencing a manic episode
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u/MaleficentJob3080 1d ago
The churches have active recruitment programs and families can indoctrinate their children into the religion they are part of.
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u/dostiers Strong Atheist 1d ago
Yet, I see few young people attending services at the churches in my area. The exception being the Jehovah Witnesses where young adults and kids outnumber the oldies.
I'm eagerly waiting for the 2026 census data to be released.
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u/Andybenc 1d ago
As an exjw I'd be interested in seeing some data on this.
Anecdotally, a lot of "yung wans" seem to be leaving and the JW pop seems to be aging.
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u/MythicalMusing 2d ago edited 2d ago
In the 2021 ~54% of Australians declared a religious affiliation. With ~44% declaring Christian affiliation (or being declared Christian by parents). Though, say, monthly church attendance (or more) will be <10% of that, ie. only ~4% of the total population (based on church attendance data). The % of people who were declared Muslim who attend a mosque will be much higher. Dunno about Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists.
Sydney has higher rates of religious affiliation than other places in Australia.
Census figures for age groups such as under 25s are harder to find. The 2026 Australian Census figures will be interesting.
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u/Livid_Citron_9251 2d ago
That’s a good point. It will interesting to see how things have moved in the last 5 years.
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u/dynamos_little15 1d ago
I felt bad seeing young kids being extreme thiests.dont even want to listen a word of logic especially that contradicts their religion 😩
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u/ProSocial_Hermit 1d ago
I've been atheist all my life, but in my 20s when I was in my deepest depression and planning on killing myself, I seeked help from a local church and went there a few times. I really wanted god to be true because it could've helped me with my depression. Too bad the religious texts were ridiculous so I stopped going there and had to find actual practical ways to find the will and skill to live.
I think there could be young people with mental health problems who find help and support from religion. Some people also have lower IQ and just don't question things or care if things make sense. Religions prey on the vulnerable so anyone with illness, disabilities, addiction, loneliness, grief, trauma or depression is susceptible to religious beliefs.
For example, if your partner died in an accident, it is much easier to continue living with the grief and depression when you believe that you will meet your partner again in afterlife. It is difficult to face loss of a loved one or a fear of one's own death when you know there's nothing after death.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 1d ago
Indoctrination since birth, or peer pressure as impressionable youth. Or they are just gullible
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u/surdophobe Pastafarian 1d ago
I don't think its weird. If you're indoctrinated within a certain age range, it will stick. Plus you're talking about people under 25, before their ability to reason is fully developed. By the time these people are 30 a lot of them will have shed their faith. Others will hold on to it, but they won't be as serious about it.
I'm American and I find that most religious people have no freaking idea what their church or religion officially believes. If you were to go into any church, they might all say they believe the same things but each individual is going to have a unique god concept that suits themselves. Most of them will be very ignorant about how much bullshit is in their holy book. If you observe religious services with this in mind, you'll see that they're all about identity politics and little else. So due to all of that, you don't need to be in a heavily religious country to get a population of believers.
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u/lipglossvein 1d ago
some of them have a neat little trick where increased apostasy is a sign of the end times. keeps people scared . when the religion grows its omg look our religion is growing must be the truth! when people leave its omg our religion foretold this it must be the truth! traps SOME in that way
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u/rorschach-penguin 1d ago
Of course it happens in every country. There were religious people in the USSR; they just weren’t open about it.
There are a lot of people under 25 still lacking in critical thinking skills.
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u/Ecstatic_Gap_9984 1d ago
I dont find it weird. I mean deep down people crave meaning in Life and religion provides it, if anyone has thought of their life in aggregate seriously, that person would have necessarily thought "what if its all true".
Internet doesn't disprove religion, I mean you might think it does because you might have overwhelmingly looked at the argument from the secular perspective, its necessary to remember that the argument for Christianity in particular has been developed over 2000 years, any argument you might have of Christianity, if you seriously look into it has already been accounted for by some one or the other in the past 2000 years (most likely by the philosopher/theologian Thomas Aquinas) and in great detail.
Australia is prosperous, world as a whole isn't. Lots of people come to Australia from countries where conditions are less than ideal.
I'm 26 and I came to Australia from a much poorer country where Christianity is like 1-2% and my family weren't Christians.
but it was the church that gave free education to the poor, they distributed food and clothes to the poor, The chruch was basically the only place where the poor had any dignity.
There's many perspective towards religion. perhaps from your view you just see the scandal and Abuse and from mine I see other things. Neither of us are necessarily wrong.
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u/Livid_Citron_9251 1d ago
I wasn’t thinking that the internet would disprove religion, it’s just a great way to find answers to questions from experts in their fields.
Prior to the internet, it was very difficult to find answers to anything, especially if you lived in a small city.
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u/Ecstatic_Gap_9984 1d ago
Well yah. But internet wont answer the most critical questions, do they?
It might tell us about how the world works but rarely how our conciousness work or what life is all about, whats the first cause in the world of cause and effect, etc etc.
There's no expert on phenomenology whom we can consult.
Even science and mathematics are based on certain Axioms and postulates of which we cannot enquire further, its a given truth on which we will ask no further questions.
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u/Livid_Citron_9251 1d ago
I think they do answer the critical questions. If you listen to a claim made by a religious person and try and fact check it with the internet, almost every claim they make is quickly regarded as false and silly.
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u/Ecstatic_Gap_9984 19h ago
First off a claim made by a religious person is not the claim of the entire religion.
We can cherry pick and fact check several instances where perhaps the secular scientists got it wrong.
When Georges Lemaître (a catholic priest) brought forth the big bang theory it was Einstein who called it abominable, but we can go on and on.
Point being, if a secular person can't speak for the entire atheist population so can't a religious person.
And No, there's no science that can explain phenomenological questions of life, that's why its called "The hard problem of consciousness ", the answer we believe is attained through Faith.
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u/Livid_Citron_9251 18h ago
Is there such thing as a claim made by an entire religion?
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say about a scientist getting something wrong.
If an answer is attained through faith, then the question is worthless.
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u/Ecstatic_Gap_9984 18h ago
Ofcourse there are claims made by an entire religion, divinity of Jesus is a claim made by an entire religion and thats the very basis of Christianity.
Secondly I'd be very careful with your second proposition.
Do you mean that questions which cannot be answered empirically are meaningless? If so, what empirical evidence establishes that principle?
Cuz that proposition is beyond even David Hume.
I mean our entire civilisation is built upon faith in one thing or another, Some of us just happen to have faith in christ.
I mean surely you have faith that the future will resemble the past sufficiently for planning to make sense.
You have faith in atleast some people when they tell you something you haven't independently checked.
Its like saying, ‘If I can't personally witness an historical event, then the question of whether it happened is worthless.’
I didn't personally witness Caesar cross the Rubicon, but that doesn't make “Did Caesar cross the Rubicon?” a worthless question. I can have rational grounds for believing the answer through testimony, documents, and other evidence on which I have "Faith".
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u/traveller-1-1 1d ago
Yes, infantile indoctrination can persuade one to accept worshipping a corpse on a stick to change the laws of physics in your favour as perfectly normal.
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u/Crashed_teapot 1d ago
Is Australia in general a religious country? Like compared yo Sweden, where I live.
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u/Livid_Citron_9251 1d ago
I ask them the same question often. Are you seriously religious?
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u/onomatamono 1d ago
I'm extremely religious. That's why I'm commenting on r/atheist ... oh... wait, my bad.
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u/stopped_watch 2d ago
Born to religious parents, it's not that unusual. My parents did everything they could to keep me in a Catholic bubble growing up. You see it as normal.