The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) was established in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

in 1970, when The Rationalist Association of South Australia decided upon a name change to better declare its basic philosophy, namely

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

. 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 A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

, the

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

and

superstition A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic (supernatural), magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly app ...

in general. The foundation considers religion unnecessary and often harmful. It favours the

scientific method The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and ...

, and the discovery of

physical law Scientific laws or laws of science are statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of natural phenomena. The term ''law'' has diverse usage in many cases (approximate, accurate, broad, or narrow) ...

s, as the best way to understand the truth about reality. The foundation believes that humans are rational and ethical beings, capable of

moral responsibility In philosophy, moral responsibility is the status of morality, morally desert (philosophy), deserving praise, blame, reward (psychology), reward, or punishment for an act or omission in accordance with one's moral obligations. Deciding what (if ...

and creative contributions to society.

Aims

The objects of the Foundation are: # 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.

Activism

The foundation organised the 2010 Global Atheist Convention in conjunction with Atheist Alliance International, and organised a second Global Atheist Convention in 2012. A third convention, planned for February 2018, was cancelled by the organising committee due to insufficient interest. The foundation ran a campaign encouraging people to mark "No religion" on the

2011 Australian Census The Census in Australia, officially the Census of Population and Housing, is the national census in Australia that occurs every five years. The census collects key demographic, social and economic data from all people in Australia on census nig ...

. 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. The AFA hired billboards around the country promoting the campaign. 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. 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. 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 In some national population censuses which include a question on religious identity, media report numerous respondents giving their religion as Jedi (or "Jedi Knight") after the quasi-religious order in the ''Star Wars'' science fiction franch ...

, as this would result in an underrepresentation of non-religious Australians.

References

External links

*
Human Rights Brief No. 3
Assessment of international law pertaining to freedom of religion and belief from Australian

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atheist Foundation Of Australia Atheism in Australia Secularist organizations Atheist organizations Organizations established in 1970 Skeptic organisations in Australia 1970 establishments in Australia Foundations based in Australia

Aims

Activism

See also

References

External links