Aussies tell Dawkins: Live and let religion live

When Cardinal George Pell and Professor Richard Dawkins faced off on ABC’s Q&A last Monday, they did so in front of an audience that seemed quite relaxed with the idea of discussing religion in the public square.

Dawkins correctly emphasised the importance of empirical research as the basis for scientific knowledge. But he was tetchy and misjudged his audience. He cited jet lag. But Aussies know about long haul flights and don’t fall for that hoary excuse.

Pell, a boy from Ballarat, can pitch religion almost faultlessly to an Aussie audience. There are limits to human reason, he argued, and some truth is best expounded and expressed by myth.

Pell stumbled once or twice. But the Q&A studio audience seemed to grasp what he was saying.

Militant secularists must have been dismayed by such open-mindedness. They want religion removed altogether from the public square.

They are a noisy group, but they are a small one. Indeed, a new study by researcher Mark McCrindle suggests as few as 4% of Australians are passionately opposed to religion.

‘The idea of a 21st century sceptical, secular mind dominating is not accurate,’ says McCrindle.

Although one in two people did not identify with religion, McCrindle’s survey of 1,094 Australians suggests that religion continues to be an important part of our culture.

Almost half of those surveyed (48%) described themselves as being open to a religious worldview. About 40% identified as Christian and 19% as spiritual.

Christian leaders might be encouraged by these figures. But with only one in four Australians going to church, they are unlikely to translate into active church membership.

‘Our Aussie approach to religion is, like everything else, a bit laidback,’ says McCrindle. ‘It’s an identity, it’s not an activity and more about who you are than what you do.’

What is real, however, is an innate openness towards religion and tolerance of different religious beliefs, which is entirely in keeping with the Aussie ‘live and let live’ ethos.

So while Dawkins and his local disciples maintain their rage against Rome, Mecca, and Lambeth Palace, the rest of us are not as troubled. Most Australians are comfortable with both the secular and the sacred sharing space in the national life.

The Reverend Peter Kurti is a Visiting Fellow with the Religion and the Free Society Program at the Centre for Independent Studies.