Australians urged not to pledge ‘Jedi’ as their religion in Census

This is one of those counts in the world that is large enough to say..." Census people...law makers... govmnt...needs to update and regroup and catch up. That's what it seems to me... took offence and got over it. There IS something going on there....a bit hidden and bigger it seems....hmmmm must meditate! Thanks Marta!

People can be pretty superficial. We're also primates. Give a monkey a typewriter and paper then tell it not to make a mess, see what happens.

How many people would push the big red button if they were told not too? How many would if they were notified that dire consequences would result, just to see what would happen?

We expect people to think and behave the same way we do, and as a result, we get disappointed. The real question is, why does this not sit well us?

carlos.martinez3 wrote: This is one of those counts in the world that is large enough to say..." Census people...law makers... govmnt...needs to update and regroup and catch up. That's what it seems to me... took offence and got over it. There IS something going on there....a bit hidden and bigger it seems....hmmmm must meditate! Thanks Marta!

It will be fine , we will catch up as a religion, nothing to get our knickers in a twist about haha, its just not nice when people call my religion a joke

Right? If they only knew the freedom and joy... smh I would totally volunteer to fill a missionary status down under any day... for the Temples sake of course. Jk but not really... what if they just needed... a word.. or... a push forward? Just an old Jedi s heart on his sleeve there...

If anyone, no matter you secondary (or first) religious beliefs, codes, morals, habitual living, and circumstance.....[b]can[/b] be a Jedi with no universal laws, doctrines, and standards. Then how is there such a thing as someone who "Dosn't take the Jedi Path seriously."

It is ANYONES.....Free right.....to call themselves a Jedi, because....EVERYONE.....Can be a Jedi.

Therefor. If a Non religious, Non follower of any of the online "Jedi Groups" - wants to choose "Jedi" on the Census. Edit: Simply because they want to do so. They should have that right

Just my thoughts.

Trisskar wrote: If anyone, no matter you secondary (or first) religious beliefs, codes, morals, habitual living, and circumstance.....[b]can[/b] be a Jedi with no universal laws, doctrines, and standards. Then how is there such a thing as someone who "Dosn't take the Jedi Path seriously."

It is ANYONES.....Free right.....to call themselves a Jedi, because....EVERYONE.....Can be a Jedi.

Therefor. If a Non religious, Non follower of any of the online "Jedi Groups" - wants to choose "Jedi" on the Census. They should have that right to do so.

Just my thoughts.

Owkeeh , but this Poster says that Jediism is a "Joke" religion , so they dont take Jedi at all serious , and i never said someone had to be a part of a "community " as such , there are a lot of christians who never go to church but still live "the live" according to Yeshua , but all i said was , if you are not a Jedi and dont believe in the Force than dont put that as your religion , but then again , i cannot tell people what to do can i , just make a suggestion :dry:

MartaLina wrote: Owkeeh , but this Poster says that Jediism is a "Joke" religion so they dont take Jedi at all serious

Correct. But since Jediism in itself allows anyone and everyone to be a Jedi......Who cares if others call us a Joke? They have that right, and they have the right to be Jedi because.....Anyone can be.

i never said someone had to be a part of a "community "

I never said that you said as much I was speaking in general......

all i said was , if you are not a Jedi and dont believe in the Force than dont put that as your religion , but then again , i cannot tell people what to do can i , just make a suggestion :dry:

There are no universal laws or rules to being a Jedi. So if someone DOES NOT believe in the force (In fact there are many Jediists who dont) and do not practice it (Practice what exactly? There are no universal things to practice that makes you a Jedi) then anyone, anywhere, for anything....Can claim to be a Jedi.

And if on a Census putting "Jedi" is how they wish to answer something the government has not right to be asking in the first place....All power to them.

And if on a Census putting "Jedi" is how they wish to answer something the government has not right to be asking in the first place....All power to them.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Man... If you're a Jedi, who is religious as a Jedi, then write it down...
If not, don't.

If it IS just a joke and you're writing it down as a substitute for atheism or agnosticism, and you aren't a Jedi, don't joke and call yourself one on the census.

New Zealanders were urged the same at the last census. But they at least offered an explanation along with it. When they do the counts no matter what religion you pick you're counted as "religious". The initial push back (from the kiwis at least. I'm not sure if the Aussies did it for the same reasons) was that we didn't think we should have to disclose whether or not we had a faith of any kind and that it was not only invasive but also irrelevant.

So putting Jedi kind of defeated the point. Except that some of us put Jedi as a serious answer. And said so on our forms.

I just don't like people screwing with scientific data. It ruins what good that data might do.

Sure but what business does the gov't have knowing or even caring about religious affiliations.... neither Australia nor NZ are theocracies. Shouldn't even be a question.... ditto for the US...

Avalonslight wrote: Sure but what business does the gov't have knowing or even caring about religious affiliations.... neither Australia nor NZ are theocracies. Shouldn't even be a question.... ditto for the US...

I believe it has to do with government funding/resources and where it goes.

Plus it's just good to have an idea of the rough numbers. That way when people say "The US is a Christian nation!" we can say "Hold your horses there, let's look at the numbers before we make any claims like that" and that kind of thing.

I don't think they can make it mandatory, or at least they shouldn't, but if you feel like you want to list your religion you can. No harm in that.

Leah Starspectre wrote:

Avalonslight wrote: Sure but what business does the gov't have knowing or even caring about religious affiliations.... neither Australia nor NZ are theocracies. Shouldn't even be a question.... ditto for the US...

I believe it has to do with government funding/resources and where it goes.

Except that in these countries, religious organizations aren't supposed to receiving any government funding? :huh: yknow separation of church and state and everything....

And I don't see how a statistic such as x% Christian, x% Muslim, x% Non Defined Religious or what have you... x% non religious.... how do those affect funding?

Brenna wrote: New Zealanders were urged the same at the last census. But they at least offered an explanation along with it. When they do the counts no matter what religion you pick you're counted as "religious". The initial push back (from the kiwis at least. I'm not sure if the Aussies did it for the same reasons) was that we didn't think we should have to disclose whether or not we had a faith of any kind and that it was not only invasive but also irrelevant.

So putting Jedi kind of defeated the point. Except that some of us put Jedi as a serious answer. And said so on our forms.

I think this response sums up the issue rather well.

The question on the census is specifically about religion. Many people don't think it is the government's business, so they went along with a popular answer meant to make this point. It had nothing to do with Jediism specifically.

It also doesn't matter how you choose to define "Jedi". The question rules out any Jedi who do not practice Jediism as a religion because it is specifically asking to identify your religion. The question does not apply to a Jediist or someone walking the Path without religious belief or implications. As an example, I would not answer the religion question with "vegetarian" because that is a lifestyle choice, not a religious one.

The part that could be considered offensive is the current campaign asking people not to claim Jediism, when it is in fact a religious faith practiced by parts of the population.

Avalonslight wrote:

Leah Starspectre wrote:

Avalonslight wrote: Sure but what business does the gov't have knowing or even caring about religious affiliations.... neither Australia nor NZ are theocracies. Shouldn't even be a question.... ditto for the US...

I believe it has to do with government funding/resources and where it goes.

Except that in these countries, religious organizations aren't supposed to receiving any government funding? :huh: yknow separation of church and state and everything....

And I don't see how a statistic such as x% Christian, x% Muslim, x% Non Defined Religious or what have you... x% non religious.... how do those affect funding?

Religious organizations may ask for grants/funding for things such as schools, clinics, soup kitchens or other charitable aspects of their religion. Donations alone may not be enough.

Goken wrote: Plus it's just good to have an idea of the rough numbers. That way when people say "The US is a Christian nation!" we can say "Hold your horses there, let's look at the numbers before we make any claims like that" and that kind of thing.

I don't think they can make it mandatory, or at least they shouldn't, but if you feel like you want to list your religion you can. No harm in that.

Third party, non governmental organizations do this all the time. I don't see that as a justification for government knowing your religion, not given the history of governments and religions across the planet.

As for mandatory, the one time I've had to do the census so far, I had a lady show up at my apartment and state all questions were mandatory and failure to answer them accurately could be construed as a criminal offense. Including the religion ones.... so...

Leah Starspectre wrote:

Avalonslight wrote:

Leah Starspectre wrote:

Avalonslight wrote: Sure but what business does the gov't have knowing or even caring about religious affiliations.... neither Australia nor NZ are theocracies. Shouldn't even be a question.... ditto for the US...

I believe it has to do with government funding/resources and where it goes.

Except that in these countries, religious organizations aren't supposed to receiving any government funding? :huh: yknow separation of church and state and everything....

And I don't see how a statistic such as x% Christian, x% Muslim, x% Non Defined Religious or what have you... x% non religious.... how do those affect funding?

Religious organizations may ask for grants/funding for things such as schools, clinics, soup kitchens or other charitable aspects of their religion. Donations alone may not be enough.

True.... but at least here, no such money may be used in faith based practices. Something like running a soup kitchen doesn't require religion. Any certified organization could do that. But that same religious organization couldn'the use that money to run religious classes. I'm not sure that having a percentage of religious practices is necessary for that, and since it can't be used for religious purposes anyway..... And to me that still doesn't justify the government being able to attach a religion to each person's name.....

Because when your governing people you need to know what buttons can be pushed on who for specific cultural effects. You need to know the most common moral denominators so you can gauge what you can get away with. You need to know which group has the most power so they can be pandered too.