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Australia Oppresses Jedi
eberry writes "Despite over 70,000 respondents (.37% of the population) replying "Jedi" to an optional faith question on Australia's census, it will not become a recognized religion According to CNN "Australian officials say respondents could face a $1,000 fine for supplying false information. Citing, and I quote, "...people of a particular religious affiliation do not provide the correct information, certain facilities might not be built that otherwise would be."
Personally I find their lack of faith disturbing." And I find the fact that this is on CNN even more so ;)
They shouldn't remove the answers. The data accurately reflects what it should reflect: when asked for their religious Australians answered:
.....
X1% Religion 1
X2% Religion 2
They have no idea what religion people really are. They know what they claimed on the form, and that should be the number reported.
The American census takes the same position on issues like race, you are what race you claim to be.
bad example.
That had mpore to do with politics and a pissy pope then it had to do with religeon.
Did you know the cathlic church built and maintian one of the planets first observatories?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I agree- I've often wondered what would happen if someone were to dig up JRR Tolkien's books 1000 years from now. His world is so in depth and detailed- even down to the grammer of different elvish dialects- that it could very easily be taken for an ancient civilization's written history. His gods would become their gods. Frodo could be Moses.
Actually the jedi faith is very similar to hinduism in it beliefs about the force being vreated by all living things. I didnt write the following excerpt but thought I would post it here. ______ It is a very little known fact that George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars world, has strong Hindu beliefs. Just as Hinduism affects our lives, so has it affected his, which can be shown by the fact that he has incorporated Hindu themes throughout the Star Wars trilogy. This essay will touch, through various examples, the way Lucas has weaved Hinduism into his movies. Of the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back seems to portray Hinduism in the fullest sense. Specifically, the part when Luke Skywalker goes to find Yoda. When he first arrives, Luke finds himself in a forest, looking for the old, wise Yoda to learn the ways of the Jedi. This is very like Hindu's Janoi (Gujarati), where young males run to the forest in search of the old, wise yogi, who would provide great knowledge. Just as a yogi "tests" potential students on their patience to enter into the arduous task of learning, so does Yoda "test" Luke by not telling him who he is. His purpose, of course, was seeing if Luke had patience or not. As the training progresses, Luke learns to control what is called "the Force." Yoda explains that everything is part of the Force, such as the "...the tree, the rock..." etc. This Force is very similar to the Hindu concept of the One or the Universe (in essence Om). In Hinduism it is said that we are all part of the One, just like what Yoda said about the Force. Simply put, it is concluded that Yoda was referring to "the Force" as the Force of the One. Luke also learns about illusion. In one scene, he tries to pickup his X-wing with the Force, but fails. Yoda explains that one should not judge anything by it's size (in essence, what we see is an illusion). He calls all material items "crude matter" and that these are the not the things to judge with. This scene illustrates the Hindu concept that life is an illusion (or Maya). During the same training scenes, Luke gets a vision of his friends in trouble. Luke then prepares to leave to save his friends. Yoda persuades him not to go by saying that he must finish his training because it is more important. This exemplifies the Hindu concept of duty over family. The duty over family lesson can be seen in stories like the Bhagavad-Gita, where Lord Krishna tells Arjun to fight his cousins, despite his feelings for them, because it is his duty. At then end of the training scenes, as Luke is leaving, Ben Kenobi warns Luke to never "give into anger and hate." This lesson of benevolence is also taught by Mohandas Gandhi, which he derived from Hinduism. Besides the training scenes, there are other areas of Star Wars that portray Hinduism. For example, the concept of destiny. In Star Wars, the word "destiny" is used many times in the context of fulfilling one's destiny. This is very similar to duty. Another example is the father-son relationship between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. This parallels with Krishna and his uncle who are both related and nemesis. Finally, one last example, Luke, being the only son, cremates Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi. Though I have heard of other religions cremating, it is a predominantly Hindu ritual. In the above examples I have suggested a few connections between Hinduism and Star Wars. Of course, these are arguable, but they are a starting point in which to provoke thought. -Rajan Rajbhandari, 1994
If one of the Aussie's gov't main points is that "certain facilities will not be built", maybe they should just get over their prejudice against the Jedi and build them a temple! Hell! I'd start attending service if there were a Jedi temple in Jersey! And there is little doubt in my mind that The Way of the Force is a more spiritually enlightening path than that of the Chrurch Scientology!
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
Why would some other joke of a religion be deserving of the money? The tenants behind the philosophy of the Jedi are very much so based in beliefs found in "real" religions throughout human history.
How would this money get diverted from "real" religions that abuse the money? There isn't a central Austrialian Jedi Order Church to give the money to, so I imagine it wouldn't be allocated to the first guy that claimed to be the JediPope.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
A lot of people here seem to have a healthy contempt for these 70,000 Australians. I'd like to point out that it's not quite as sad as it seems. We're not talking about something that takes a lot of effort. And in particular, these people weren't trying to make any sort of serious point.
Simply put, the census is a royal pain in the ass and if your typical Australian knows of a way to poke fun at it without criminal sanction, he'll do so.
The problem with some of these faith based programs (the ones where you are forced to live on-site) is they REQUIRE you to partake in religious activities more often then not. Say you are an athiest and you are alcoholic. Then let's say you got arrested for drunken & disorderly. The judge orders you to rehab. Wouldn't you be a little irked if a court inadvertently ordered you practice a religion you want no part of?
Now, nation states themselves are in large part fictions. So which other fictions should they associate with and invest in? Should a state appropriate, even nationalize, a good fiction when one comes along? Should George II wear his Mickey Mouse hat on state occassions? Should he carry a cross? Should Saddam be let to live a few more years if he'll just play along and dress like Darth?
Even the most "realistic" views of the world are largely fictions. It's time to take conscious control of our choices here; and more than anything it's time for some new religions which are compatible with, but broader than, science. The precise place to find these is the field known as science fiction - duh.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
You're comparing Apples to Hydrogen. Believing you are a Jedi, you try the mind trick. It doesn't work. That doesn't mean you aren't a Jedi, it just means you are bad at the mind trick. If a Christian can't turn water into wine, all that means is that the Christian simply isn't the second coming of Christ. It doesn't mean that he doesn't believe in the Christ.
And the Christ wasn't a member of the Christian religion ethier. By all accounts, he was a Jewish carpenter, possibly a Rabii. Perhaps the first Jedi will turn out to be a Hindu cab driver.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
Why is being a Jedi any more of a fantasy than being, say, a Mormon? Angels bringing golden tablets in "Egyptian" to some loser in upstate New York? They might as well have been packing light sabers too.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
If my government (USA) prosecuted me for filing misleading personal information on a census form, I'd see them in court. And in court, the census bureau would have to demonstrate that they tracked personally identifying information to me. Yes, I would pay $1000 to get that into a court record.
I would expect the EFF, the ACLU, and the New York Times to take a great interest in that court record, and I expect a few more Americans to wake up about the surveillance state.
Here is some information from Statistics NZ about the NZ equivalent. Two obvious conclusions from this: with 1.5% of the population, the Jedi faith is much stronger in New Zealand; and statisticians have no sense of humour.
--
Thanks for your enquiry. There were 53,715 people who identified
themselves as Jedi in response to the question on religious affiliation.
This was 1.5 % of the people who responded to the question.
For your information, most people realise the importance of the Census
and therefore provide meaningful and accurate answers. The religion
question, which has been asked in the Census since 1851, asks people
to identify what religion, if any, they affiliate with. They may elect
not to answer this question. If people's belief system was genuinely
Jedi, they could mark the "other" box and write Jedi in the space
provided. These data were captured during the processing phase but have
been coded as "Response outside Scope". Jedi is not part of the
agreed list of religious affiliations noted in the New Zealand Standard
classification. Hence it will not appear in the official results from
the Census.
Although supplying misleading information on a census form in the UK is a criminal offence, interestingly there is an exemption for religion. Enough people put Jedi on the 2001 and census to have it added to the list according to the BBC. However the information on how many will not be made publically available. However its presence on the list does not mean it is officially recognized. This article points out that it is all a hoax and that it wont be added to the list. Hhh, conflicting ideas from the same media source, i dont believe it =) Cheers Rob
Rob 'robster' Bradford
Debian Planet Guy
We are the apt. You will be packaged. Resistance is futile.
Saying Higher power instead of naming a particular God is just a dancearound. In 12 step programs, you must admit that you, personally are powerless. This is the first thing wrong with them. Next, you must turn to "Higher Power" for help. What else is this higher power but a deity? 12 step programs replace addiction to alcohol or street drugs, or gambling with addiction to the opium of the masses. They do not cure addiction.
How ya like dat?
No substantial part of its activity may be attempting to influence legislation
Such as influencing abortion, stem cell research or homosexual marriage legislation, for example?
Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
So you wouldn't mind it if muslims tried to teach you about Allah when you went to Wendys for lunch? See, you seem to love religous freedom, all christians do. They just want religous freedoms to only extend to other christians, and not to others. If we lived in the middle east, where Christianity is banned, I'd bet you wouldn't be quite so happy...
--Forest C. Adcock--
It's important to note in the examples above that the Old Testament has been superceded by the New Testament... Old Testament is now Obiter Dicta...
;p
I don't want to tell you what to believe, but Christians shouldn't be dictating the rules from Exodus, (ie Homosexuality is no more 'wrong' than wearing a shirt made of cotton and wool at the same time, or only having one kitchen to cater for milk, meat and others) and atheists shouldn't be pointing out the contradictions between the Old and New Testament - because that was the whole point of Christ, was to 'give a new commandment' that superceded the ten, which had had their run.
But it makes me think - maybe you should have about 4000 years between any sequel
(or in this case, at leat 20 years)
---- *dog sitting next to a computer, with his beady eyes shifting left to right*