No ‘Jedi’ please, we are all atheists
Print Edition
ATHEISTS are urging Australians not to describe themselves as “Jedi” in the census, warning that doing so in homage to “Star Wars” makes the country appear more religious than it really is.
Ahead of the August 9 five-year census, the Atheist Foundation of Australia has requested citizens mark themselves down as having “no religion” if they are not aligned to a faith.
“If old religious men in robes do not represent you... don’t mark yourself as ‘Jedi’,” says a campaign poster featuring Yoda and two other Jedi masters.
“‘Jedi’ and other joke religions are not placed in the ‘No Religion’ category but in ‘Not Defined’. This makes Australia seem more religious than it really is.”
Foundation president Kylie Sturgess said: “Our attitude is, well here’s an opportunity to have a say on the census; pop down what you are.
“Maybe ‘no religion’ suits you, maybe you are someone who has drifted away from the church.
“But unfortunately ‘Jedi’ is just not an option on the census.”
The joke arose years ago when an email campaign wrongly claimed that if 8,000 people put themselves down as Jedi it would have to be officially recognized as a religion.
At the 2001 census, over 70,500 people listed their faith as “Jedi knight” or something similar, which would indicate Australia had nearly as many believers in the “Force” as it had members of the Salvation Army.
“Whether or not people took the claim seriously, it was the start of a reporting phenomenon that gained speed internationally,” the Australian Bureau of Statistics said in 2013, adding that New Zealand, Canada, England and Wales subsequently reported large Jedi contingents.
Jedi numbers dropped in the 2006 Australian census to 58,053 but bounced back five years later to 64,390.
Australian statisticians could follow Britain’s example.
In the 2001 England and Wales census, 390,000, or 0.7 percent of the population, entered their religion as “Jedi” but they were included among the atheists.
Or they could embrace non-traditional movements as New Zealand did in 2015 when it recognized pastafarians — who wear colanders on their heads, revere pirates and believe the world was created by a giant deity made of spaghetti.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
