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BJ - you don' think the fact that you don't subscribe to any of the belief systems that the majority on the planet (probably*) do is a better and more meaningful way of putting it than not having a belief in God?
Then it's on everyone's terms, and you can relax about it 😉
So the data about religion has limited use, and, to be frank, is something harking back to historical censuseseses (censi?).
I think it was only introduced as a question in the 1991 or 2001 Census (apart from Northern Ireland where it has a longer history.
The census is being run buy a US company that has an American legal requirement to release the results to the CIA.
Lockeed supply the computers/scanners, no different to if they were supplied by Dell, Mesh, or RM. Presumably Ammerican Companies are excluded from the bidding process as they wouldnt fourfill the requirments of the data protection act, pretty important in a statistics gathering excercise?
As for the comments about 'Jedi' being counted as religious, thats not true, last time arround they were classed allong with atheist/agnostic/pastafarian/church of the invisible pink unicorn.
Yes, you're right, but. As you said yourself, it's "wacky," it's treated as a joke. Hell, it is a joke.
Yes, it's not even a serious "humourous" protest - if you know what I mean.
But if it [i]was [/i]intended as a form of protest would you still regard the integrity of the census data as more important?
Maybe us atheists should campaign to have Jedis counted as "no religion". Can someone set up a Facebook group for me to join please?
Jedi was assigned its own code in the United Kingdom for census processing, the number 896.[15] Officials from the Office for National Statistics pointed out that this merely means that it has been registered as a common answer to the "religion" question and that this does not confer on it the status of official recognition. John Pullinger, Director of Reporting and Analysis for the Census, noted that many people who would otherwise not have completed a Census form did so solely to record themselves as Jedi, so this joke helped to improve the quality of the Census. The Office of National Statistics revealed the total figure in a press release entitled "390,000 Jedis there are"
from [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_census_phenomenon ]here.[/url]
This implies to me that only those people who fit into an official religion will be counted as religious and Jedi's are not amongst them.
It goes on to say...
In June 2005, Jamie Reed, newly-elected Labour Member of Parliament for Copeland in Cumbria, declared himself to be the first Jedi Member of Parliament during his maiden speech.
and
in April 2006, Edward Leigh, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Gainsborough, asked whether he would be allowed to set up a Jedi knights faith school during a Committee debate on the Education and Inspections Bill
To my mind this would imply that Jedi is used to make a point by many people from the man in the street to our parliamentary representatives.
Those that are piously appealing to our citizenly sense of duty are suffering not only from a bit of a sense of humour failure but also from a woeful misinterpretation of the spirit of the joke.
MTFBWY.
in April 2006, Edward Leigh, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Gainsborough, asked whether he would be allowed to set up a Jedi knights faith school during a Committee debate on the Education and Inspections Bill
😆
Drac, it was funny if you hear it done in the voice of the posters name.
Cougar - I guess I was just trying to say the data is useless whatever you put - which I think you're agreeing with?
Hm. Yes and no. I think that its collection is flawed in so far as optional questions are pointless, either ask the question or don't.
Whether there's any use to knowing the statistical breakdown of the religious make-up of the UK is beyond my knowledge. I think it's interesting, certainly.
Is this available? I've always wanted to get really good at not collecting elephants so all tips and pointers would be useful.
It'd be a useful publication as this has always been a bit of a grey area.
As for the comments about 'Jedi' being counted as religious, thats not true, last time arround they were classed allong with atheist/agnostic/pastafarian/church of the invisible pink unicorn.
Officially this may be true; however, if the raw data is available then they can be classed as whatever is most convenient at the time by whoever is quoting statistics to reinforce a point. Given that the census differentiates between "atheist" and "none" (or at least, it did last time), there's perhaps scope for manipulation.
Yes, it's not even a serious "humourous" protest - if you know what I mean.
If memory serves, it wasn't even a protest last time around. It was a campaign along the lines of if ten thousand people put it on their forms then the Government would "have" to recognise it as an official religion (only, with more exclamation marks and worse spelling).
EDIT - as Tor just said, oops.
"The company, which makes Trident nuclear missiles, cluster bombs and F-16 fighter jets, won the £150m contract to run the census on behalf of the Office for National Statistics (ONS)"
from the grundiad might not be right but running the census implys more than supplying hardware.