Australia Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Religion=== {{Main|Religion in Australia}} [[File:St Mary's Cathedral as viewed from Hyde Park, Sydney.jpg|thumb|Australia hosts a diversity of religions. [[St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney|St Mary's Cathedral]] in Sydney belongs to the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic Church]], Australia's largest religious denomination.]] Australia has no [[state religion]]; section 116 of the [[Australian Constitution]] prohibits the [[Federal Government of Australia|Australian government]] from making any law to establish any religion, impose any religious observance, or prohibit the free exercise of any religion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Australia: Religious Freedom |url=http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/religion.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806061716/http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/religion.html |archive-date=6 August 2011 |access-date=31 December 2011 |publisher=Dfat.gov.au}}</ref> However, the states still retain the power to pass religiously discriminatory laws.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Puls |first=Joshua |date=1998 |title=The Wall of Separation: Section 116, the First Amendment and Constitutional Religious Guarantees |url=https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/FedLRev/1998/6.pdf |journal=Federal Law Review |page=160 |via=Austlii}}</ref> At the 2021 census, 38.9% of the population identified as having [[Irreligion in Australia|"no religion"]],<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=General Community Profile |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/AUS/download/GCP_AUS.xlsx |series=2021 Census of Population and Housing |publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics |type=[[Excel]] file}}</ref> up from 15.5% in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2001/0 | title=2001 Australia, Census All persons QuickStats |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240308064233/https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2001/0 |archive-date= Mar 8, 2024 }}</ref> The largest religion is [[Christianity]] (43.9% of the population).<ref name=":02"/> The largest Christian denominations are the [[Catholic Church in Australia|Roman Catholic Church]] (20% of the population) and the [[Anglican Church of Australia]] (9.8%). Non-British immigration since the [[Second World War]] has led to the growth of non-Christian religions, the largest of which are [[Islam]] (3.2%), [[Hinduism]] (2.7%), [[Buddhism]] (2.4%), [[Sikhism]] (0.8%), and [[Judaism]] (0.4%).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-07 |title=Religious affiliation in Australia |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia |access-date= |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":02"/> In 2021, just under 8,000 people declared an affiliation with traditional Aboriginal religions.<ref name=":02"/> In [[Australian Aboriginal mythology]] and the [[animist]] framework developed in Aboriginal Australia, the [[Dreaming (spirituality)|Dreaming]] is a [[sacred]] era in which ancestral [[totem]]ic spirit beings formed [[Creation myth|The Creation]]. The Dreaming established the laws and structures of society and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). pp. 163β69</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page