Atheism outside the US

In My Humble Opinion
41

Australia is generally like the other non-US countries mentioned above; hardly anyone cares about religion and it’s rarely a topic of casual conversation. You would NEVER ask someone’s religion unless it was relevant to the situation or conversation.

But politics is starting to go that way. The ruling party (called Liberal but actually right wing) is heavy with religious types and is also influenced by happy-clappers like the Hillsong church and the Exclusive Bretheren. And the otherwise admirable new leader of the opposition has also explicitly brought his religion into play. This makes a lot of people uncomfortable; Australia had a long period of political conflct between Catholics (mostly poor and Irish) and Protestants (well off and English) that didn’t really die down until the 60s or 70s. Most folks would rather not go back there and think people should keep it to themselves.

42

When explaining to friends in Seattle what the religious situation is like in Australia, I made the analogy that being devoutly religious in Sydney is a lot like being gay in Seattle. It’s something that’s generally accepted and tolerated but not something you really throw out out randomly in conversations with strangers. Most people will probably have one or two devoutly religious friends but it’s still somewhat of a novelty.