Three religions, or “sects”, predominantly contribute to our Australian culture. These are Popular Humanism; Compromising, Cultured, and Conforming Christianity (The 4 C’s); and Biblical Christianity. Each of these beliefs is a religion because they are based on faith. At least well over 90% of Australians would fit into one of these three categories, and most certainly you will also do.

 Lets start by pointing out that every person, whether they realise it or not, is religious. Every person in the world believes in a set of presuppositions which they base their life on. Every person believes something, "there is no God", "I believe as long as you’re a good person........", "I believe, that it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you......", "I believe that there is nothing more to life than pizza", "I believe life is nothing more than imagination", "I believe in an external creator God, who created me" . Why is it that in our culture, only one of those beliefs is considered to be religious?. Anything is religious if it is a belief that one bases their life on. None of these beliefs are provable, some of them however are more consistent with reality than others and this is what is important. Only one of these "faiths" are however provable from any other source than ones own desire of what one wants to believe (Humanism).

 There is one very important aspect to consider when looking at the foundation of peoples beliefs , and that is that people defend their religion from the perspective of defending their behaviour, or rather the behaviour that they desire to believe is "right". The other alternative is somebody who knows what they are doing is wrong, and admits it, but ignores what they know to be true. In this way the person defends their own behaviour, and leads their own life, led by the actions they desire to do. In the first case a person accommodates a particular behaviour in their life, and then will change what they believe to suit their new behaviour. The person without realising, once changing their actions (or what they decide is OK), changes what they believe (their faith), to accomodate their desired actions. Mostly this is done automatically without realising it. Once the person has changed what they believe, from that point on in time they will rationalise their behaviour on the basis of what their beliefs are. Because of this the person will defend their behaviour from their religious assumptions which dictate the behaviour, of what that they feel is "right for them". In this fashion Christianity becomes relative, relative to culture, relative to what people want it to be, and relative to all "beliefs".

 The Humanist for example believes that they are to discern what is right/wrong for themselves. This is what the person believes for starters yet it is an unprovable assumption, therefore it is a faith statement. This point, the humanist bases their faith on, because it is an unprovable assumption.

Let us also search the fact that the outworking of wrong beliefs is wrong actions. From a purely rational basis lets compare these three popular beliefs on this point. Because a humanist discerns truth for himself, then every other person that discerns truth will also be just as “right” in what they believe (what is right for you is right for you, etc.). For example from what basis can a Humanist argue that what somebody else believes is wrong, since even what they believe to be “wrong” is based on their own opinion. Because the humanist says their are no absolutes, he cannot be ever absolutely sure of what he believes. Further more if he believes that he cannot be sure of what he believes, then he can never be sure of anything, let alone what he values in life or tells others what they should do. This is why the humanist assumes that it doesn’t matter what you believe in, or what religion you are. All religions lead to God, etc, which of course is nothing more than another belief.

 Popular Humanism is best represented in individuals by their concentration on, “I think”, “I believe”, “I control my own life destiny”, etc. Humanism is based on the ignoring of higher accountability in the universe. Rather the belief says that you discern your own truth, because you are the centre of all meaning, and all that exists and is meaningful. Popular Humanism excludes God sovereignty over an individuals life, more than this it excludes God’s input and the extension of Biblical thinking in regards to what God he has said, in his word, and what God has done in creation. All principles and values are based on this religious belief. It is no wonder therefore that the values that the beliefs that come out of this religion are separate and distinct from Christianity.

 Other aspects and derivatives of humanistic thinking are evolutionism, tolerance to all people (all behaviour), vegetarianism, over emphasis on nature, and intolerance to Biblical Christian teachings and morals,

Biblical Christianity is recognised by the unchangingness of beliefs and faith which is founded on the Bible. Biblical Christianity does not compromise to society to any degree, the word of God is not interpreted though the present changing culture, but rather the Word of God interprets how culture should be conformed to God's represented ideal.

Biblical Christianity moves away from the idea of self determined truth. The Israelites did what they felt was right in their own eyes, and this is the point, that because we are fallen in nature (we sin), our eyes aren’t clear to know and do what is good. If anything people are not naturally good but people continually prone to be bad (murderers, adulterers, Hitlers, etc). If a man does what he feels is right in his own eyes it inevitably leads to disaster, communism, or people who rationalise killing. If God is unchanging then why would he change his mind on how society should run. Society changes and always will, how can morals change from one day to the next, how can something that is truly wrong, given the exact same instance, be truly right the next day. Of course, this is what one can expect if there are no moral absolutes, one makes of truth what one wants to, "for you it is right, but for me it is wrong, everything is relative". Perhaps it is not God's word that needs to conform to society, but society that needs to conform to God's word. If God's word did not change over several thousand years and when Christians were living amongst several different cultures, then it seems clear that the Bibles teaching on conformity is not to conform at all. More than this, the Bibles teaching is that God's values, God's moral statutes are indeed unchanging regardless of cultural conditions. But the last thing we should do is base Biblical Christianity solely on the Bible, even though it is Biblical Christianity.

If God's word is true then it is defendable upon a logical and extensive basis of logic and rational thinking. The Humanist has a hard time with rational thinking and logic, because of their religious belief of rationalism (not rational). It is therefore interesting to note that in effect it doesn't serve much to "prove" Christianity, because they won't listen to logic and commonsense anyway (even though it is consistent with reality). Furthermore even if they do, they will still defend what they believe to resist changing their moral lifestyle (as already pointed out). To get back to the point God's word is confirmed in rational thinking, since God is a rational God. In this short writing a complete written summary of Christianities defence can not really be given. However what could be said, simply, without having to explore all areas of apologetics, is that the God of the Bible is made known through the things that we see in all of creation. Bla Bla Bla (presupositions etc, the bible is wrong etc, there is no God)

 Conforming Christianity (the 4 C’s) compromises to the will of society. When Christianity is oppressed in any nation this will inevitably happen, to an unstable part of the church/society. Can I be a Christian and still......... , is representative of this faith. Probably upwards of 70% of Australians make up this religion. People of this belief recognise God and recognise Jesus Christ, perhaps Mahumad, but in general as for other "religions" they are not too sure. They see the benefits of Christianity in regards to heaven, and general moral ideals, love your neighbour, etc. They also see, what they consider to be "problems" with Christianity "intolerance" towards evil doers, "oppression" of other people, "mythology" in the Bible, dogmatism, Christian fanatics, Christians who don't live out what they say, etc. Because they don't believe in these things they don't take them on board in their faith. Alternatively their faith is represented by some aspects of the Christian faith, existence/or possibility of a higher authority, general morals, Love, heaven/hell, etc. These people identify themselves as being Christian, although the rest of what they believe in the outworking of their primary beliefs is nothing short of Humanistic. A persons religious beliefs can be seen through a persons lifestyle. It doesn't matter what a person says they believe, what matters is whether their actions display their belief. In the case of what these people believe they demonstrate though their lifestyle that morals are relative, that “anything goes”, that “as long it feels OK then it's OK”. These people commonly adopt tolerance as their belief in life. Tolerance of all beliefs, that is, they tolerate what "should be" tolerated and not tolerated. But where they base what is tolerable and what isn’t is based purely on self deterministic ideas. These people are also intolerant of facts which contradict what they believe should be tolerated. Conservative (Biblical) Christianity from these peoples viewpoint becomes something that is just "out of touch with society". The main reason for this being is the fact that it doesn’t comply with society, the media, or the universities religious will. Interesting enough Compromising Christianity general only forms in the case of three separate scenario's. In the case where individuals want to be "Christians" but still want to do what they want, in the case where the governmental system cannot tolerate Christianity (Roman Empire, Communism), or thirdly where the media and universities oppresses Christian morals and beliefs (Australia).