Religion in Australia is unlike anywhere else in the world

Updated

Religion in Australia is rich and unlike anywhere else in the world, but most of the country believes those who worship should keep their beliefs to themselves.

When Vivashni and Avineil Marahaj invited guests to their wedding, some of their non-Hindu friends asked if it would be a "traditional" ceremony.

The answer was no, not really.

This wedding spanned four days and was steeped in Hindu culture, but this ceremony was notably modern.

Sure, there was a statue of a Hindu god in the hotel foyer, but the groom rolled up the driveway in a McLaren.

If it was traditional, the pair wouldn't have seen each other for a week before the wedding; Vivashni wouldn't have left the house.

"From the outside [you] think it's traditional. You see different colours, there's a fire, they do different things, they're not drinking," Avineil, 30, said.

But this young Australian couple broke Hindu tradition by exchanging rings and partying on day four at a very boozy reception.

To get to the heart of the question — it's not that this wedding was traditional, it's that it wasn't Christian.

Contemporary Australia is often referred to as a multicultural society. We seem comfortable with the cultures, but not with the religions they bring.

"I come from a religious background and everyone around me is religious. So that's all I know," Vivashni, 27, said.

"But in the bigger community or nationwide I don't think that's how other people see Australia. We're all about the beer and the barbeques.

"I don't think Australia is perceived as a religious country."

In some communities, religion might not be visible, but it is very much there.

Only 30 per cent of Australians counted in the 2016 census identified as having no religion. That number had increased from 2011, but more than 60 per cent of Australians still identified with an organised religion.

While Christianity is declining, it still makes up the bulk of the religious landscape, then Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. Hinduism is one of the country's fastest growing faiths.

Vivashni's cultural heritage is Fijian-Indian. She moved to Australia from Fiji when she was seven years old.

Twenty years later, on her wedding day, she is sitting in a function centre's dressing room dripping in a dress sari that was custom made in Delhi.

Moments before she walks downstairs, her eyes nervously follow her bridesmaids as they dance to Indian music and grill our photographer about that time he met Kim Kardashian.

In many ways the wedding was no different to one that might start in a chapel or church.

There were the jokes about how much this all cost the parents (a lot), the bride's brother struggled with his speech and kids were running wild at the back of the room — forgotten, assumed safe, left to play.

At the front of the room, Vivashni and Avineil had taken seven steps around a fire to signify their needs and promises to one another.

This wedding is an Arya Samaj ceremony, a type of Hindu service Vivashni describes as strong and pure.

"Where I come from, we pray to a rock, we have different forms of God. Whereas where he comes from, they pray to fire," Vivashni said.

"That's why it's so important that fire is the most important thing in the whole ceremony. That's what is our witness to the wedding."

At a Western wedding, the couple might sign the legal marriage documents after saying their vows.

Vivashni and Avineil did that a week out from the day and were technically already married, but without the religious ceremony and the cultural celebrations that surrounded it, they would not have felt it.

On day one of celebrations, 250 guests danced and watched as henna was applied to the bride's hands and feet.

The darker the henna is by the day of the religious ceremony, the more the groom loves you — so tradition says.

This event was held at the bride's family home in one of the most religious areas of Australia.

It's not exactly a Bible belt

A group of suburbs in Western Sydney are among the country's most religious postcodes, according to the 2016 Census, but you couldn't fairly call the area a "Bible belt".

Eighty-five per cent of residents in the post codes that cover Greenacre, Chullora, Bossley Park and Horsley Park do have a religious affiliation, but the doctrines differ.

In postcode 2190, including Greenacre and surrounds, the same number of people identify as Christian as they do Muslim.

In neighbouring 2176, including Bossley Park and surrounds, the number of Christians triples and there are six times as many Buddhists as Muslims.

"We're one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world," said Dr Gary Bouma, who is an expert on religious diversity at Monash University in Melbourne and an Anglican priest.

"The way we're most diverse is that not only do we have a very large number of specific religious groups in the country, but unlike any other country in the world, we [also] have religious communities that are very substantial."

Islam, Buddhism, Presbyterian and Eastern Orthodox represent more than 2 per cent of the population each.

Just as Christians don't like to be lumped together, the minority religions practise different denominations too.

The result is hundreds of different religious groups and a rich tapestry of faiths inside a country that officially calls itself secular.

These groups can worship at the same time, in the same city and all look very different.

Like this Russian Orthodox priest, who enters his church at Cabramatta.

The incense symbolises prayers rising to heaven.

And like Sabian Mandaeans who follow the teachings of John the Baptist.

Here, they're baptised in the Nepean River west of Sydney.

And like Vietnamese Caodaism, which is said to be a combination of faiths.

Worshippers at this temple in Western Sydney make offerings to God.

What is our problem with religion?

Despite our religious diversity, 66 per cent of respondents to the Australia Talks National Survey said they believed Australia would not be better off if people were more religious.

And 60 per cent of respondents said Australians who were religious should keep their religious beliefs to themselves.

Dr Bouma said Australia had "an allergy to organised religion".

"Australia has a low temperature expectation of religion — don't get too excited about it — and those who do get very excited about it or get more serious about it are viewed with a little bit of suspicion," he said.

"That has always and forever been the case in Australia."

Australians on religion Few Australians (15 per cent) think Australia would be better off if more people were religious

71 per cent think religious discrimination occurs; more left-leaning voters agree than those on the right

But most Australians (84 per cent) socialise with people of a different religion Source: the Source: the Australia Talks National Survey

In conversations with several practising Australians, the subjective notion of freedom of religion was raised.

One young believer said she felt it was socially OK to be religious in Australia as long as worship was done in private.

The problem is that in many religious communities, it's the public expression of faith that makes people feel genuinely free to practise it.

"You can run it back to the First Fleet and the first 50 years of convict settlement in this country," Dr Bouma said.

"Religion came as something to make them be good people, to make them toe the line."

Can young people save our souls?

While stories out of the 2016 census were quick to splash the headline 'Australia is losing its faith', Dr Bouma said if you took a deeper look at the numbers, that was not exactly true.

He said while the 'no religion' response went up, the number of people identifying as 'atheist' did not increase and when it came to something as fluid as faith, that distinction mattered.

Spirituality is very different from the institutions of organised religion, and Dr Bouma and fellow researcher Professor Anna Halafoff believe Australia's young people are starting some new traditions around faith.

In a nationally representative survey of Australian teenagers called the AGZ study, only 23 per cent identified as "this worldly", or as having no belief in anything other than what can be proven by science.

Fifty-eight per cent had some form of spirituality, including 17 per cent who said they were committed to a specific religion.

"They may still believe in God or a higher power. They may be practicing yoga, meditation, using tarot cards, believing in astrology, and things like reincarnation or karma. So, other things that … have a more spiritual dimension," Dr Halafoff said.

Vivashni grew up in a home that followed an organised religion, and a fairly conservative version of it, but she has a broader view.

She will always identify as a Hindu, but believes her modern way of worship is to be of service.

"I don't see myself as a religious girl, I see myself as a spiritual girl and I think they are very different," she said.

Despite being scared of being different years ago, the young nurse is now proud of her spirituality — and of "having a four-day wedding" — and believes young people are more accepting simply because they're more exposed to the religious component of our multiculturalism.

The researchers agree.

In their study, Dr Bouma, Dr Halafoff and their colleagues found 91 per cent of teenagers agreed that "having people of many different faiths made Australia a better place to live".

A deeper look at the Australia Talks National Survey showed young people were more likely than older Australians to be accepting of people expressing their religious beliefs.

"They're up to their eyeballs in it. They're in places where they're swimming in a sea of diversity and they say it's OK," Dr Bouma said.

From organised religion to casual spirituality, faith in Australia is different to anywhere else in the world.

Diversity — of people and their practice — is something only Australia can call a tradition.

This week, the ABC is talking about religion as part of the Australia Talks project. To see how your life compares with other Australians', use our interactive tool — available in English, Arabic, simplified Chinese and Vietnamese.

Credits

Reporting, digital production and additional photography: The Specialist Reporting Team's Emily Clark

Photography: The Specialist Reporting Team's Brendan Esposito

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Topics: religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, hinduism, christianity, islam, buddhism, atheism, catholic, spirituality, australia

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