AUSTRALIA AND SOUTH KOREA
Comparison of the Religion’s Significance in Australia and South Korea
Religion is undeniably one of the most important parts of the humanity. It has always been there, first as a form of fear before the unknown and misunderstood forces of nature, and then as a form of moral guidance and help. People have been showing a necessity to believe in something above them for a very long time, and even though the times have changed, this necessity still remains intact in many. However, religions do differ greatly depending on many factors: nationality, geography, climate, historical evolution, political situation and so on.
Therefore, it is always interesting and valuable to learn and to know about religions in different cultures and societies. This essay is meant to research and compare the significance placed on religion in Australia and South Korea, providing an overall description for each country separately, and then naming some important differences and similarities between them.
Religion in Australia is very diverse, and the key to this diversity lies within section 116 of the Constitution of Australia, stating that: “The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.” (Henry, N., Kurzak, K. and Sherlock, C. 2012, 3).
Because of it, Australians are capable of exercising any religion they are willing to exercise without anything to neither stop nor control their choices or beliefs as long as they do not bring hatred upon other people or anything else for that matter. Topping it all up with the flow of immigrants, Australia has definitely faced some major statistical changes in religion, including the increase in numbers of those not following any: atheism has its fair part in the total tapestry of religions. It is also important to mention, that because of its cultural and national diversity, Australia can be analyzed deeply based on the concentration of certain religions in certain areas. Information such as age, country of birth, and ethnic background of the people can be easily obtained with the knowledge of which religion prevails in that particular region.
Among all, Christianity certainly plays a major role in the religious world of Australia. The 2011 Census of Population and Housing states that there are three major groups of religions practiced by the Australians: Christian (Catholic, Anglican, Uniting Church, Presbyterian and Reformed, Eastern Orthodox, Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Other Christian), Non-Christian (Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Other non-Christian) and No Religion (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). Even though the practice of religion is free and diverse, there are more and more people each year choosing to state that they belong to no religious affiliation at all.
Thus, it is no big surprise that the number of non-religious people has increased from 15% of the total population in 2001 to 22% in 2011. Important to state, that such pull from religion is the most prominent in the population of young people (28% of those aged between 15 and 34 years have reported to have no religious affiliations at all) (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012).
Although Christianity remains on the top of the list when it comes to statistics, it has also seen some changes in the recent decade. The total number of people practicing Christianity has decreased from 68% in 2001 to 61% in 2011 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012).
This is especially evident in the major Christian religions: Catholicism and Anglican. Catholicism, for instance, has seen a drop from 27% in 2001 to 25% in 2011, while the Anglican Church has lost 4% of its supporters (from 21% in 2001 to 17% in 2011). Meanwhile, some smaller Christian religions have seen a slight increase, like the rise in numbers of those affiliated with Pentecostal from 1.0% of the population in 2001 to 1.1% in 2011 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012).
As for the non-Christian religions, they have experienced some major increases in the total numbers: from approximately 0.9 million in 2001 to 1.5 million in 2001, which is respectfully 4.9% and 7.2% of the total population. To break it down in smaller chunks, the highest-ranked non-Christian religions of 2011 were Buddhism (approximately 2.5% of the population), Islam (2.2%) and Hinduism (1.3%) (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). Even though all taking the top rank positions, these religions have had some different numbers as for the increase part.
Thus, Hinduism has had the most people start affiliation themselves with it since 2001 – 275,500 (which is plus 189%); Islam holds a second position – plus 69%, with a final number of 476,300, and Buddhism closes the line facings an increase by 48% with a total number of 529,000 having converted to it judging by the 2011 Census (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012).
In spite of the political freedom and governmental tolerance towards various religions, Australians themselves have expressed some major issues and misunderstandings when comes to the particular religions. Thus, a 2012 report “Mapping Social Cohesion” presented that on a large scale Australians tend to have negative feelings towards the population of Muslims, as shown by the 25% of respondents (Henry, N., Kurzak, K. and Sherlock, C. 2012, 4).
Of course, Islam is not the only religion towards which Australians express their negativity, both Christianity and Buddhism have had their share as well (5 and 3 per cent of people have expressed negative feelings affiliated with these religions), but it is definitely the most disliked of all, as can be seen through the great difference in the percentage (Henry, N., Kurzak, K. and Sherlock, C. 2012, 4).
With that said, both Australian government and its people are not willing to leave this be, and there have been efforts to reduce these numbers and spread mutual understanding between all religions: National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims and Jews; The Australian Partnership of Religious Organizations; The Australian Intercultural Society and so on. With their common efforts, changes will definitely be made, and there will be an increase in the mutuality of understandings without the borders of religions, cultures and identities.
Because of the rapid changes in the Korean economy due to globalization and development, more and more immigrants flood the country, dispersing its famous homogeneity. Besides, South Korean government does everything it can possibly do to increase the diversity in its population, and to encourage people from different countries come to Korea and bring their cultural and religious experience along.
When it comes to South Korea, the first thing that might definitely startle a researcher is that almost a half of this country’s population (48%) identifies themselves as having no specific religious affiliations (Gilani, I. S., Shahid, R., Zuettel, I. 2012, 3).
This number comprises not only the atheist, but also those who have not decided yet on their religious status, as well as those practicing small local religions, which are still fairly popular among the population of South Korea. Because this atheist-religious ratio is usually the first thing for people to analyze, it is already clear that comparing to the population of Australia, Korean people have far less interest in religions, especially in Christianity.
Such gap has probably been created due to the fundamental differences between the evolution of indigenous populations of both of these countries, and because of their geographic location and resources. However, the 52% of the total South Korean population are affiliated with religions, and all of them are free to practice their beliefs on the equal standards. Here in South Korea, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam all exist peacefully and in tolerance with the local shamanism.
As for the strictness of statistics, which is always the best argument, those Koreans who say they belong to any religion, fall into several major groups and categories:
43% of South Korean population (which is 10,726,000 if counting in people) are a part of the Buddhist belief system/philosophy,
34.4% per cent, on the contrary, or 8,616,000 people belong to Protestantism,
20.6% (5,146,000) are a part of the Roman Catholic religion,
the rest 1.9% of people (483,000) have chosen to practice some other non-specified religions, such as Confucianism, Won Buddhism, Jeungsangyo, Cheondogyo, Daejonhhyo and Islam (Department Global Communication and Contents Division, n. d.).
The numbers, of course, keep changing slowly as more and more people become invested in the Korean culture, ideology, or even K-Pop, and migrate to Korea to study, work and live. Besides, there has been a recent flood of Christian believers into the country, which has lead more and more people to become a part of some Christian religion.
However, it is not large, due to the very core of Korean philosophical foundation: it just so happened that having China and Japan as neighboring countries, Korea has been under the influence of their philosophies, and thus has integrated them most into its daily life. Nonetheless, it is definite that as the population grows and becomes more diversified, it faces the increasing influence of various foreign cultures and where there are cultures, there are religions. Subsequently, these numbers should definitely be expected to keep on changing and getting more and more diverse as well.
It is evident from the information presented above for both countries that religious diversity and significance is far more important for the population of Australia, whereas South Korea has more people choosing not to be affiliated with any major religious system. This might be so due to the differences of development these countries had to face. Australia was primarily colonized by the European population, and Christianity has always been one of the most important religions there.
Later on, with the increased numbers of immigrants, it has also seen an increase in numbers of Christian missionaries (which has brought its brick to the religious diversity there in means of increasing the number of smaller Christian communities), Muslims, Buddhist et cetera.
All these factors were far less prominent when it comes to South Korea. This country is surrounded by other giants of the Eastern philosophy, such as China and Japan, and it has been a part of both of these governments. Besides, South Korea has been a relatively secluded country for the most of its existence, starting to face the highest of its development only after the end of Korean War in 1954. Therefore, philosophies prevail here over religions, even though these numbers are changing.
In spite of being valuable, religions do not define neither Australia nor South Korea, both these countries support religious diversity and freedom. This is a great thing to note, because religions are important to many people, and allowing freedom in their exercising is one of the key steps towards creating a strong, tolerant and developed community.
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012. Reflecting a Nation: Stories from the 2011 Census, 2012–2013. [Online]. Available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/2071.0Main%20Features902012%E2%80%932013 (Accessed: 24 January 2017).
Gilani, I. S., Shahid, R., Zuettel, I. 2012. Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism, Press Release. WIN-Gallup International.
Henry, N., Kurzak, K. and Sherlock, C. 2012, Religion in Australia, fact sheet, The Australian Collaboration: A Collaboration of National Community Organisations.
