To be an actual Jedi one must train under a Jedi Master and pass a test administered by the Jedi Council. Good luck finding either one in meatspace.
Why do you assume that one must be able to perform miracles in order to be a Jedi? According to Mark 16, any true believer in Christ must also be able to perform miracles, yet we do not disqualify Christians for being unable to do these things. If we take the film as parable and allegory (like another religious document you may know), then it is enough that they teach a set of values in order to consider them a religion.
Why do you assume that a religion must involve literal interpretation of scientifically testable phenomena? No one applies that rule to Christianity, otherwise it would be disqualified in a heartbeat.
In the Star Wars movies, the method for becoming a Jedi was to meet one and train under him (or her?). How does anyone outside of the movies do this? Have you ever met an actual Jedi Master?
Have you ever met Jesus Christ? No? How about one of those true believers who "can drink deadly poison and it will not hurt them at all"? (Mark 16:18) What's the difference, then?
I did it as a form of protest, not so much against the census itself but against the notion that some religions are more "valid" than others. I await some idiot government lawyer's attempt to "prove" that the Jedi religion is somehow not legitimate, while other religions are.
What makes a religion "legitimate?" Numbers of followers? We've got that. Supernatural beliefs? We've got that. Scriptures? We've got that; a whole bunch of films. Unless a religion needs a history of oppressing others in order to be considered "legitimate", there's really no valid criteria for declaring, say, Catholicism any more of a "valid" religion than Jedi.
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Why do you assume that one must be able to perform miracles in order to be a Jedi? According to Mark 16, any true believer in Christ must also be able to perform miracles, yet we do not disqualify Christians for being unable to do these things. If we take the film as parable and allegory (like another religious document you may know), then it is enough that they teach a set of values in order to consider them a religion.
Why do you assume that a religion must involve literal interpretation of scientifically testable phenomena? No one applies that rule to Christianity, otherwise it would be disqualified in a heartbeat.
I did it as a form of protest, not so much against the census itself but against the notion that some religions are more "valid" than others. I await some idiot government lawyer's attempt to "prove" that the Jedi religion is somehow not legitimate, while other religions are.
What makes a religion "legitimate?" Numbers of followers? We've got that. Supernatural beliefs? We've got that. Scriptures? We've got that; a whole bunch of films. Unless a religion needs a history of oppressing others in order to be considered "legitimate", there's really no valid criteria for declaring, say, Catholicism any more of a "valid" religion than Jedi.