Keeping the faith: Father Kevin Dillon outside St Mary’s Basilica.
By Cherie Donnellan
GODLESSNESS has recorded Geelong’s biggest increase in religious affiliation, according to new census figures.
More than 52,000 residents answered “no religion” in 2011, almost 11,000 more than the previous census in 2006.
Australian Bureau of Statistics defines “no religion” as including agnosticism, atheism, humanism and rationalism.
Atheist John Perkins said Geelong’s results suggest a “general pattern taking place worldwide”.
“It’s interesting. There’s a general drift away from religion but at the same time religion is becoming more prominent in government and policy.”
Mr Perkins said Geelong possibly had so many non-believers because it generally had fewer immigrants with strong religious backgrounds, “demographically speaking”.
Atheist Foundation of Australia president David Nicholls said the census figures probably understated Geelong’s non-religious population.
“Some people tick a certain religion on census forms because they were baptised into, say, Catholicism but they don’t practice the religion at all.
“Many people don’t like to call themselves atheists but they really are because they don’t have a god in their lives. Many people class themselves as free thinkers because of access to a greater amount of knowledge.”
Geelong Catholic leader Father Kevin Dillon said he had noted “the trend” away from religious belief.
But some non-believers also returned to or adopted faiths, he said.
“We do live in a society where people are not affiliating themselves with a church but that doesn’t mean that they don’t believe in God”.
Fr Dillon said the census data might not be “entirely accurate”.
“Some might say I don’t believe, so they select that option, but some choose it because they just don’t actively practise or they believe in God but they don’t associate themselves with a church.”
ABS data shows that Oriental Orthodox and Australian Aboriginal “traditional religions” are the fastest-growing religions in Geelong, with 150 per cent increases in adherents since 2006. Oriental Orthodox followers increased from 14 to 35, while the Aboriginal faiths were up from six to 15.
Geelong’s Pentecostal churches recorded the biggest membership loss, down almost 17.5 per cent.
Catholicism retained the the city’s largest religious following, with 59,581 parishoners.
