How would this group sort out the people saying it as a joke from those who seriously think they are Jedi? I mean if Scientology can convince people to pay thousands of dollars to hear the writings of a science fiction author who said if you want to make money you start a religion then I'm fairly sure people can take Jedis seriously.
UK Atheists Hope to Eliminate Jedi Population
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
Are you volunteering?Ashendarei said:
Might get the paper thrown out doing that. I'd want it recorded for posterity.
Do you really think 400k people putting "Jedi" as their religion will really skew the data? I would of thought the government would be smart enough to spot a joke and not to base legislation on it... all they need do is simply count all the Jedi as atheist and all is well, hardly a big adjustment to make.Flatfrog said:
What does this data affect anyway? are you seriously telling me that if enough people put Jedi on the census we will have Jedi faith schools?... Though that would be awesome
Besides, I don't think "all religions are shit", when I put "Jedi Knight" on the form its for several reasons: 1) OK I may not be part of an organised religion but I don't want to be lumped in with the secular, rake-up-ass atheists 2) Star wars is the closest thing I have to a religion 3) I want to show support for the nerd/geek contingent:- there are more dyed-in-the-wool geeks out there than people think and we want to be recognised as a social group too! (though maybe that's just me)
The percentage of who is and who is not religous is not relevant to secularizing government. Even if 99% of the people are a certain religion, religious freedom would still mandate a secular government.similar.squirrel said:
I think you meant to say "Botching an attempt at destroying religion."
A) Forcing them to put Atheist rather than Jedi is not going to further any attempt at destroying religion, it would not help in any size shape or form.
B) Destroying religion is a violation of human rights. People have both a right to be free from being forced into other's religions, and to have whatever religion they wish.
C) Can you explain precisely why a lack of religion would make the world a better place? Chairman Mao of China, as I recall, did pretty much every horrible thing that religous people do. Same for Stalin. So it seems to me that the basic problems Atheists associate with religion are going to exist even without religion.
If you put Jedi down, you are going to mess with statistics, no matter what you do. For example, say there are 500 people following Religion A and 400 people following Religion B. 300 people from Religion A decide to put Jedi down as a joke, and 100 people from Religion B do so too.
This results in the following Census Result.
Jedi 400
Religion B 300
Religion A 200
And as a result, the government has so choice but to Ignore the Jedi joke and declare Religion B as the largest religion, when it is not.
This results in the following Census Result.
Jedi 400
Religion B 300
Religion A 200
And as a result, the government has so choice but to Ignore the Jedi joke and declare Religion B as the largest religion, when it is not.
Good on you, the population should take the census about as seriously as the government takes them.WrongSprite said:
I'm all for cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
Especially if the face is short-sighted and borderline retarded.
I am assuming anyone with an actual religion or belonging to a church would put that rather than blasphemously state "Jedi", therefore your scenario would only be an issue were atheism a religion, which it is not. Furthermore they are asking you to put "No Religion" which is not quite the same thing as being atheist. People chose Jedi originally for the very fact it equated to putting nothing at all, or "none of your f***ing business". If somehow this movement secures funding for the Church of Jediism then that sort of proves the point people were making in the beginning - that the census is corruptible, intrusive and serves only to collate bad data into bad policies.Blaster395 said:
Not forgetting if you give state funding to a bunch of people calling themselves "Jedis" then chances are they're just going to spend it on booze and weed.
......
Shit ! Put Jedi !!!!!
At worst you could argue that the people who suffer are the genuine practising Jedis of the UK.
Although I haven't seen any lately.....maybe they do not wish to be seen ?
Britain has more than 60 million people. It is more than 61,838,154.* 400,000 is less than one percent of the population. Less than one percent. That is not going to alter the percentages significantly.Blaster395 said:
* Source: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:GBR&dl=en&hl=en&q=british+population
Isn't it sooo great to live in a country were people have such a good sense of humour (sarcasm)
also, the 'It's giving the government the wrong idea' argument... I'm sorry, but wtf is that guy on? Does he honestly believe that the government is going to take anyone who puts Jedi as their religion seriously?
When I start having to do census's I'm going to put Caucasian as my ethnicity (which is true), but then put Rastafarian as my religion, just to see is anyone will actually call me out on it.
also, the 'It's giving the government the wrong idea' argument... I'm sorry, but wtf is that guy on? Does he honestly believe that the government is going to take anyone who puts Jedi as their religion seriously?
When I start having to do census's I'm going to put Caucasian as my ethnicity (which is true), but then put Rastafarian as my religion, just to see is anyone will actually call me out on it.
This thread is depressing. Every single argument is one of the following:
"I support Jedi because I like Star Wars."
"I support Jedi because I don't like The Man."
"I support Jedi because I find Atheists annoying at an ad hominem level."
This is an issue of accuracy in a democratic process. If you don't take your own religion or government seriously, then what the hell do you take seriously? What does that leave you? If you want to act like children, then stop doing it when the grownups are talking.
"I support Jedi because I like Star Wars."
"I support Jedi because I don't like The Man."
"I support Jedi because I find Atheists annoying at an ad hominem level."
This is an issue of accuracy in a democratic process. If you don't take your own religion or government seriously, then what the hell do you take seriously? What does that leave you? If you want to act like children, then stop doing it when the grownups are talking.
Pfft. It's not the government's job to "excise the cancer of religion." If you want to convert everyone to atheism then you should go burn the churches yourself. I'm sure society will be much better then right? It's not like secular ideas like nationalism and Social Darwinism ever lead to anything bad. LOL.similar.squirrel said:
I say wait until genetic engineering improves. Then we can just order mandatory enhancements removing the herd instinct. We should probably make everyone less social too, there's no point and identifying one's self with a group more often leads to hatred than anything good. We might need to get rid of emotion altogether. Vulcan style. Yeah, I like the sound of that.
