Canadian Census: 20,000 Jedi Worshippers

Lev13than writes "Canada.com is reporting that some 20,000 Canadians listed "Jedi" as their religion in the last national census (2001). Apparently this is the offshoot of an Internet joke which originated in Australia a few years back. The results are interesting on a couple of levels. While it show that some people may have too much time on their hands, it also raises questions of privacy rights, Internet activism and data integrity. Although it's not statistically significant given Canada's population of 31.5 million, 20,000 lightsabre-wielding census-takers is nothing to sneeze at. StatsCan's full report (with no mention of Jedis) can be found here."

Comments

hmmm...

[jeffy124]

(standard disclaimer: IANAL)

I know in the US someone can register for religious recognition if they have something like 100 followers. (i dont know the exact number) The application can be accepted as long as no animal or person is sacrificed or otherwise eliminated as part of the religion's practice. Other requirements probably have to be met, but I do know that religious killings are a no-no.

Canada probably has something similar. Maybe someone should consider institutionalizing the Jedi religion and filing the proper paperwork.

Religion Question?

[mharris007]

Which brings up a question; Should Religion be a question on a national census form?

If people are getting offended by the race question on the U.S. census form, I can just imagine the number of people that are going to get pissed off by a religion question.

Re:Religion Question?

[RestiffBard]

For the people that are going to say its no one's business about this or that or how many toilets they have and so forth allow me a moment. First off, the toilet question was a real question from the 2000 US Census.

Now, before people get up in arms there are legitimate reasons for wanting this data. And they in no way harm any citizen. They are designed to help citizens.

For instance, the Marklar race respond that on average they earn 12,000 a year and have no indoor toilet. This lets the government know 1. Marklars may not be getting the racial equality that in the US should be mandatory. 2. Marklars are not properly being serviced by their government. This is rudimentary but you get the idea (i hope).

as for the questions, a curious thing happened in 2000. people complained about the questions, race, toilets, salary etc... Trent Lott, then Senate Majority Leader said that if people didn't want to answer the questions then the Census had no right to compel people to do so.

Here's the funny part. 1. the Census is meant only to count heads. 2. the other questions on the Census are tacked on by Congress 3. Congress in fact gives the Census the mandate to compel people to answer. 4. Trent Lott is an obvious asshat.

Finally for all of you clever people that thought the Census wouldn't count you if you closed the blinds when ever an enumerator came by you're wrong. Enumerators, towards the end of the Census would park at the end of your street and count people entering and leaving. How many cars in the driveway? How many people-size shadows behind the curtains? They would make an educated guess at the number and put that down.

Where is the 2000 Census data now? Arizona. In a big vault for the most part.

How do I know? That's where I Fed-Exed it. I was a Census Clerk for 2000. No, I really didn't care what you wrote down.

By the way, James Weatherby of 3247 Main St. has 5 bathrooms.

Re:Religion Question?

[franimal]

Actually, I received a census form a few months back and after reading the "You are required by law to truthfully complete this survey" statement, I decided to give them a call. Guess what. That religious and race data gets used. It's available to all those congress men and women just itching to do a little social engineering and earmark funds for their various flavors of constituents. For instance, the woman I talked to indicated something along the lines of "I there is an area with a high race concentration that has difficulties they may be elligible for special funding."

The good thing is that she also indicated that it'd be acceptable if I entered 'DECLINED' in the objectionable boxes. Even though it's really not optional ... they'd prefer that to a lie or the bother of fines/legal action.

The really bad thing is that this data gets used and it's likely not even right! How many people intentionally enter false data? The really infuriating thing is that this data, perhaps incorrect, is used to collect information on social engineering programs like affirmative action. Yes, it makes sense. But it still drives me nuts.

Re:Religion Question?

[ajs]

The one that really gets me is when the option of Aetheist is listed as a religion

In that sense, Atheist is being used as a "none of the above", which is a more valid use than some I've seen.

Is atheism a religion? I'm willing to roughly define religion as "a belief system, generaly characterized by the personification of natural forces, worship of same and a system of ritual." In that sense no, atheism is not a religion.

On the other hand, if you simply defined it as, "a set of beliefs concerning a system of one or more deities," then yes, atheism is a religion, at least as practiced by some.

I have a friend, for example who has what I would characterize as a "deep and irrational faith" in the non-existance of all gods and the evils of all religion. This is his core faith in the way the universe works, and I can't really make a strong distinction between that and believing that the Post Office box down the street created the universe in 22 nanoseconds out of the belly-button lint of Winston Churchill.

I, on the other hand am a strict agnostic. I have reached what I consider to be one of only three rational conclusions about religion: that we currently have no conclusive proof that there are any deities, and even if George Burns poped into my living room today and whisked my off to a distant galaxy to show me wonders beyond my imagining, I would still have no proof of anything but a George Burns-looking guy with some amazing abilities (at least to make me see cool stuff, if not actually manifest cool stuff) and a god-complex.

The other two rational conclusions are a) Pascal was a jerk for pointing it out, but he was right... choose a religion based on the degree of the negative outcome it predicts and hope you're right (note, such people are still technically agnostic in my book) and b) There are more important things to wory about. Enjoy the sun-rise and then get back to work.

FWIW: When I was about 10, I realized that I was an atheist (I didn't know the term agnostic, much less "strict agnostic" at the time), and in thinking about what that meant I was perhaps more terrified than I have ever been. It's a big deal for a 10 year old to have to face the insignificance of his own existance all at once, but I got over it and decided that I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted anyway.

I've since refined my sense of ethics based, not on fear of reprisals by a deity, but on the drives that I have in terms of a comfortable society of tolerant peers. Woefully there are too many folks in the world who will never introspect to that degree. For them, religion seems a fair way to deliver a moral and ethical outlook that they'll never have the inclination to generate for themselves.

Dodgy reporting?

[gwernol]

So if as the article claims:

"Statistics Canada didn't report the number of people who responded Jedi in tables listing response rates for other religions, saying that their analysis did not include the "media-driven'' response, in part because the sample was so small. However, statisticians did when asked produce tables showing a much smaller number of Rastafarians, Scientologists and Satanists."

How do they know that 20,000 Canadians declared themselves to be Jedi? Could it be (gasp) just a number that the web site made up so it could write a story about the NZ and UK census returns?

Re:Just Wondering

[swordboy]

There's not an organized society for the Jedi religion like there is for other larger religions is there???

I would imagine that some enterprising individuals will take advantage sooner or later. At least here in the United States, a religion gets tax-free benefits. Wouldn't it be cool if someone organized a religion and then created a business underworld to avoid the government ala scientology?

For example,

A business could hire a Jedi employee. But instead of paying him/her with US currency, they could be paid in Jedi Dollars - JD (insert creative currency name here). The JD's could then be spent at any participating Jedi establishment - merely tax free. If so inclined, the Jedi could ask the employer to pay in a portion of taxable US dollars or the employee could trade them at market rate.

The opportunity is endless. When someone does implement it, I sure hope that they aren't as crooked as those fucking scientologists.