From the excellent book:

“The Australian Book of Atheism”1

Excerpt from the chapter outlining religion in Australia, starting from the bit where white bastards formally invade the country of a nominally theist peoples.

“The history of Australian atheism begins with the First Fleet. There was no religious agenda underwriting the settlement [sic] of Australia. The colony was founded, primarily, to provide a dumping ground for Britain’s convicts, and most of the felons transported to Australia between 1788 & 1831 had little interest in religion. In the last 18th century, the attitude of Britain’s lower classes towards the clergy ranged from apathy to open hostility. Preachers were seen as the corrupt supporters of the status quo, and the evangelists who serviced Britain’s jails and prison hulks only entrenched this fervent anti-clericalism. The distribution of religious tracts on transport ships proved pointless: female prisoners tore out the pages & used them to curl their hair; the men used the leaves of their Bibles to make playing cards; Bibles that escaped intact were sold off in Sydney to buy rum.

“Despite the presence of a chaplain, there was no divine blessing at the foundation ceremonies of the new colony on 26 Jan 1788. Indeed, First Fleet chaplain Richard Johnson complained bitterly that he was ‘left to stand under the shade of a tree, and was made to feel that neither God nor I was wanted at the foundation of the new nation’. Administering a penal settlement at the furthest end of the earth meant that religion was often at the bottom of the early governor’s priorities. When, after six years, the colony still lacked a church, Rev Johnson begrudgingly paid for the construction of a building out of his own pocket. Built to accommodate 500 people, the church attracted less than 40 to its inaugural Christmas service in 1793. Four years later, in protest at a government crackdown on compulsory church attendance, the convicts burned the building down!”

Ah, that explains a lot.

How different from the Catlick Spanish & Puritans invasions of the Americas.

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1 – ISBN 9781921640766

http://embiggenbooks.com/australian-book-of-atheism-the.html