A survey has just been released which outlines what Australians believe about Jesus. The results show that a surprising number of those who don’t claim to follow the Christian faith still believe the Easter story, including the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The independent survey of 2500 people found that out of the 85 per cent who did not identify themselves as born again, including people of other religions, 45 per cent believed in the resurrection of Jesus.
Noted author and church historian Dr John Dickson, the co-director of the Centre for Public Christianity in Sydney, said the number who believed in the resurrection included agnostics and secularists because the total percentage was far higher than the remaining Christians surveyed.
We are staggered. We thought the survey would show the profound scepticism of Australians. Instead, it shows there is a base-level assumption among the Australian public that accepts the Jesus story even if it has no relevance to their lives.
Dr Dickson said the survey wanted to explore the understanding of non-churchgoers, so the results were produced from those who were non-religious, or from another religion, or who loosely identified with Christianity.
My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.
Today we discussed the survey and what it means for spirituality in Australia. Can I encourage you to click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post to listen to our conversation?
The survey also found that 57 per cent of those who wouldn’t consider themselves as born-again knew that Easter is connected with the death of Jesus but a much higher 87 per cent know that it concerns the resurrection. To clarify exactly what it’s all about, Ross and I also talked about the basic details of the Easter story and what it means for us.
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This stat makes me wonder what is preventing people who believe in the resurrection from becoming followers of Christ. I would expect that to be one of the hardest aspects of Christianity to believe.