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NON-RELIGIOUS/ HUMANIST BELIEFS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO RELIGIOUS BELIEFS WITHIN WESTERN SOCIETY… While religious beliefs remain an important part of our society, western society is becoming more and more reluctant to place their faith in God . Parents have become more prone to letting their children choose their own faith and as a result children are less likely to have grown up as part of a certain religion. In fact, in the 1921 census only 0.5% of the Australian population stated they had “no religion” while the 2001 census placed 15.3% of all Australians in the “no religion” category, this is a 14.8% increase in just eighty years . There has therefore been a significant increase in the number of people who subscribe to non-religious beliefs. Non-religious beliefs are those not involving supernatural beings . This means that non-religious people do not believe in the existence of God, the soul or the afterlife. There are many different forms of non-religious belief, including Atheism, Agnosticism, Hedonism, Materialism, Rationalism, Naturalism and Humanism . Each has a very different philosophy on life. "Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance which affirms that human beings have the