Atheist Foundation of Australia

The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) was established in South Australia in 1970, when The Rationalist Association of South Australia decided upon a name change to better declare its basic philosophy, namely atheism.[1]

Atheist Foundation of Australia
Founded1970
Area served
Australia
Key people
Andrew Skegg (President)[1]
Websiteatheistfoundation.org.au

The foundation defines atheism as "the acceptance that there is no credible scientific or factually reliable evidence for the existence of a god, gods, or the supernatural." It rejects belief in a deity, the supernatural and superstition in general. The foundation considers religion unnecessary and often harmful. It favours the scientific method, and the discovery of physical laws, as the best way to understand the truth about reality. The foundation believes that humans are rational and ethical beings, capable of making responsible and creative contributions to society.

Aims

The objects of the Foundation are:

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

Activism

The foundation organised the 2010 Global Atheist Convention in conjunction with Atheist Alliance International,[2] and also helped organise the second Global Atheist Convention in 2012.[3]

The foundation ran a campaign encouraging people to mark "No religion" on the 2011 Australian Census. Then-President David Nicholls stated that many people "simply marked down the religion they were born into, despite not now being religious people at all", and that as census results are used to gauge public funding to religious groups, this was giving religion more tax-payers' money than its entitlement.[4] The AFA hired billboards around the country promoting the campaign.[4][5][6] The 2011 census results showed that the percentage of people declaring no religion had risen from 18.7% in 2006 to 22.3%, becoming the second largest response.[7] The AFA ran a similar campaign for the 2016 census; results showed the percentage of people declaring no religion rose to 30.1%, becoming the top response.[8] In 2016, then-President Kylie Sturgess objected to non-religious individuals answering with joke answers in the census in response to the Jedi census phenomenon, as this would result in an underrepresentation of non-religious Australians.[9]

See also

References
  1. "About Us". Atheist Foundation of Australia. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  2. Holkner, Rachel (15 March 2010). "The rise and rise of atheism". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  3. Taras, Nick (21 February 2012). "Global Atheist Convention". beat.com.au. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  4. Craven, Jessica (25 July 2011). "Not religious? Don't give religions cause to take chunk of your tax, say Atheist Foundation". News.com.au. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  5. McKenny, Leesha (5 February 2011). "Atheists call on like-minded to declare lack of religion in census". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  6. "Atheism wins converts as census looms". Herald Sun. 25 July 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  7. "2011 Census QuickStats". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 30 October 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  8. "2016 Census data reveals "no religion" is rising fast" (Press release). Australian Bureau of Statistics. 27 June 2017. Archived from the original on 7 August 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  9. Knott, Matthew (29 July 2016). "Atheists urge Australians not to joke around by putting Jedi as their religion on the census". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
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