It is often said that Australians are not very religious. In 1995 the Christian Research Association published a book, Believe It or Not, that suggests otherwise. The study found that instead of thinking of two groups: church attenders and non-church attenders we need to think of three: (1) attenders - those who have religiously oriented values, beliefs or practises and attend church (22% of the population); (2) non religious - those who do not have any conventional religious values, beliefs or practises and do not attend church (42% of the population); (3) religious non-attenders - those who have conventionally religious values, beliefs or practises but do not attend church (29% of the population). Conventional religiosity would include things like strength of belief in God or a higher power, frequency of prayer, or describing oneself as religious. For example, 58% of religious non attenders believe the bible is inspired, 42% of this group believe miracles happened as in the bible, 38% pray weekly or more often, 29% feel close to God most of the time.
Source: Reported in Believe It or Not. Australian Spirituality and the Churches (Christian Research Association, 1995). The CRA based their analysis on a number of surveys, particularly the 1993 and 1994 National Social Science Surveys.
Applications: mission, evangelism, religiosity, religion, church attendance, Australia, statistics