Religious Freedom Bill

The proposed Religious Freedom Bill will enable organisations and individuals to discriminate in accordance with their religious beliefs.

The bill does not protect freedoms, but grants religious belief undeserved, unnecessary, and outrageous privileges.

The Atheist Foundation of Australia opposes the Religious Freedom Bill and will fight to protect the rights of all Australians.

Read our Submission

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Religious Discrimination Bill is resurrected

In a recent webinar with Family Voice Australia, Kevin Andrews (Liberal Party Back Bencher) indicated that "compromise had been reached" regarding the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill, and that it would be introduced into the Parliament "shortly". Mr. Andrews...

Religious Freedom Bill Submission

Religious Discrimination Bill – Second Exposure Draft Date: 19 January 2020 Submission type: Non-Profit – Atheist Foundation Of Australia and Sydney Atheists Email: [email protected] Confidentiality: For Public Release The Atheist Foundation of...

Submission to the Australian Bureau of Statistics – Review of 2021 Census Topics

The question on religion in the Australian Census contains an element which is problematical in obtaining accurate figures. The problem is that it asks “What is the person’s religion?” This is a leading question and can elicit a religion of baptism when the person may...

Submission to the Queensland Law Reform Commission Review of Termination of Pregnancy Laws

February 2018 In line with the recommendations of groups such as the Queensland Branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMAQ), Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), the Queensland Nurses Union, the Health...

Non-believers now Australia's largest religious group: Time to listen to what we want

What is the role of the godless in Australia’s current social and political climate? What level of influence should the the non-religious have in Australia’s version of secularism? The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) is calling for a national discussion on these...

Religious Freedom Review Panel Submission

Religious Freedom Review, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Parliament House, Canberra. Submission: Copies to all members of the Review Panel and PMC Secretariat: To whom it may concern, The Australian Law Reform Commission interim report 127 has previously...

Politicians cannot hide from fact any more regarding voluntary assisted dying

The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) supports the two Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) Bills before state Parliaments in NSW and Victoria. This is an important demonstration of evidence-based medical opinion and indisputable patient need triumphing over...

Richard Dawkins and Ben Goldacre in Melbourne for Reason to Hope

The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) is excited to announce that evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and Ben Goldacre, best-selling author of Bad Science and Bad Pharma, will speak at the 2018 Global Atheist Convention, Reason to Hope. “We are delighted...

Non-believers by far Australia's largest single 'religious' group: Now give us the recognition we deserve

The godless in Australia say enough is enough. After today’s release of Census data showing that non-believers make up 30.1% of the population – easily overtaking the previously-highest response “Catholic” for the first time in Census history – the Atheist Foundation...

Tracey Spicer and Clementine Ford to speak at 2018 Global Atheist Convention; Tickets now on sale

The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) is excited to announced that Tracey Spicer – journalist and author of The Good Girl Stripped Bare – and prominent feminist writer Clementine Ford will speak at the 2018 Global Atheist Convention, Reason to Hope. "We are...

Our Philosophy

The Atheist Foundation of Australia recognises the scientific method as the only rational means toward understanding reality. To question and critically examine all ideas, testing them in the light of experiment, leads to the discovery of facts.

As there seems to be no scientific evidence for supernatural phenomena, atheists reject belief in ‘God’, gods, and other supernatural beings. The universe, the world in which we live, and the evolution of life seem to be entirely natural occurrences.

No personality or mind can exist without the process of living matter to sustain it. We have only one life – here and now. All that remains after a person dies is the memory of their life and deeds in the minds of those who remain.

Atheists reject superstition and prejudice along with the irrational fears they cause. We recognise the complexity and interdependence of life on this planet. As rational and ethical beings we accept the challenge of making a creative and responsible contribution to life.

Atheist Foundation of Australia

Our Aims

To encourage and to provide a means of expression for informed free-thought on philosophical and social issues.
To safeguard the rights of all non-religious people.
To serve as a focal point for the community of non-religious people.
To offer verifiable information in place of superstition and to promote logic and reason.
To promote atheism.

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Are these religious nuts really still living in the dark ages?...it's okay, I already know the answer to that.

if you follow anything that makes you feel guilt for being yourself, or makes you hate another person for being themselves, leave it.

What people go through

Damn that's disappointing, but a relatively small sample size....

A huge percentage of Australians believe everything the media tells them to. No matter how absurdly false it is.

Perhaps the Howard/Abbott/Morrison governments’ policies of tax breaks for megachurches and religious chaplains but no secular counsellors in schools worked, and in a decade’s time, it will be common knowledge that Australia is a fervently religious place, like America.

Another factor for soul belief is the research that shows the mental capacity for theory of mind results in children as young as six naturally modelling personality as separate from the body, and so jumping to the conclusion they are independent phenomena. Therfore evolution of the brain explains the myth of the soul.The fact that you can read this and imagine it was written by a person you have never met is evidence for this.

Based on biased and leading survey by an organisation with a vested interest in the results, I call BS on this.

to quote Phineaus T Barnum, "there is one born every minute" and this survey just helps to confirm that. If they had asked the respondents if they believed there was an invisible man in the sky who made the universe in 6 days, is all powerful, created the covid virus and the vaccine, will tear you apart with bears if you dont believe in him but loves you and needs your money. Then you may have gotten a different result!

If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world. - Hitch

Wow............. talk about massaging the questions to get the desired outcome. Most atheists would end up in the "believing" side with how those were worded. Are you open? Yes, I'm open to being wrong. BAM! Now I'm down as a believer.

A sad reflection on Australian education

Doesn’t mean much. The survey was carried out by McCrindle Research for the Centre for Public Christianity. Firstly, who is going to trust a survey on religious attitudes commissioned by a christian organisation. Secondly, McCrindle Research left/was removed from the Australian Market and Social Research Society a few years ago after an ABC (yes the same ABC that published this article) investigation exposed McCrindle Research for over exaggerating response bases. Does this mean that the survey is misleading? Nope. But i wouldn’t be trusting it until a more reputable research center conducts the same research commissioned by a more objective organisation.

An opinion piece from an author with a vested interest on a "survey" of a vanishingly small number of people with a link to the data that doesn't work from a body with, again, a vested interest. Shame, ABC, this is not news and should not be on your platform

Ask a thousand people in front of a church when the sermon ends and you get a surprisingly high belief in religion. Same as this survey. Not like the survey collection sponsor is unbiased.

0.004% of Australia was asked

Was this survey done in a country town? 😂

Ooops a daisy ...I thought scomo was his right hand man...and the media tell us ALL the facts ...how delusional of me...

A low bar, for sure, but at least this crud is labelled as opinion.

I prefer to believe in Easter bunnies who bring chocolates.🤣

1000 people is an extremely low sample size. And how can the writer say 'only 48 per cent". That figure is way too high.

McCrindle research = not a random sample

I don't have a problem with McCrindle Research at all but there's WAY TOO LITTLE info about this tiny (1,000!) cross section. The contention that contemporary narcissisism may explain belief in the concept of a 'soul' rings true.

Little declasse of ABC holding such a poll on religious beliefs at Easter. I wonder if they would do this over Ramadan? My bet would be a firm no.

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it always perplexes me that there are people in this world that need some invisible force sitting on their shoulder to do the right thing in life, like they would do otherwise if that force was not there.Just feels like that point about men who say "she asked for it" ... are you in such little control of your actions you can't stop yourself from acting out against a woman? Or are you in such little control of your own actions you need someone to constantly tell you "don't be a dick"?

I used to be Christian, I always found it strange when people said stuff like "If god wasn't real, there would be no reason to do good things". My instinctive logical response was "well, doesn't that mean you're a bad person if that's your only reason for doing good?".

Exactly the mindset of the religious people who have been almost irreversibly brainwashed to think that one has to believe in God to be a good person.

Awesome reading. That thinking is part of our evolution as humans. Many people and cultures are still stuck with archaic religious believes.🤷🏻‍♂️

Atheism isn't something you choose. Absence of belief leaves one with no other avenue.

No,.you don't. In fact,.you don't need to mention God at all...

'U dont have to believe in god to b a good person'. One of the most annoying silly comments out there. Its true, but still reeks of religious b.s. I hear the empasise on 'have'. I think they mean the opposite.