Eight police officers and two staff in Scotland’s largest force listed their official religion as Jedi in a voluntary diversity form. I hoped they were joking, but that doesn’t seem to be the case:
About 390,000 people listed their religion as Jedi in the 2001 Census for England and Wales. In Scotland the figure was a reported 14,000….
Last year, brothers Barney and Daniel Jones founded the UK Church of the Jedi – which offered sermons on the Force, light sabre training, and meditation techniques.
According to Wikipedia, “the real-world Jedi assert the existence of the Force, and advocate adherence to the Jedi code. According to recent censuses in some English-speaking countries, over 500,000 people declared their religion as Jedi, and a few Jedi churches exist around the world.”
And here’s the punchline:
The Office for National Statistics did not recognise it as a separate category, and incorporated followers of Jedi with atheists.
Not quite the numbers boost we were looking for, eh?
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29 Comments
I dunno… Every once and awhile, I still close my eyes and try to summon the remote control to me from a distance. Hasn’t worked yet, but I still have faith in the midichlorians.
I wouldn’t attribute that belief to atheists, though. Just any kid that grew up watching the movies.
I get the distinct impression that most of the people who list their religion as Jedi do so as a joke. The existence of “a few” Jedi “churches” doesn’t make me think that any sizable proportion of the 500,000 declared Jedi actually believe in it.
Cheers,
Craig
What Craig said. I was one of those who listed herself as Jedi – it was a big meme at the time, and I suspect at least 95% of the purported Jedis were either atheists or noncommital CofE members (so basically agnostics).
Well, as far as I know (and it’s not very far, I’m sorry to say), Jediism has no theistic God, much like Buddhism. So, by definition, jedis would be… Wait for it… Atheists!
Not having a god in your religion does not make you an atheist, not having a religion makes you an atheist.
How exactly is Jedi, a religion based on a creative work of fiction, any different from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. etc?
It’s not really, is it?
Here in Australia, people take to listing themselves as “Jedi” on the census as a joke to annoy the government. As others have said, it does not generally imply a great deal of belief in midichlorians.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_census_phenomenon
Everyone knows they got their
moralsJedi code from the Bible…Timely news, Dan, I’ve been known for missing church so much as to be willing to join a cult ;-)
I shall look for the local chapter.
Last year, brothers Barney and Daniel Jones founded the UK Church of the Jedi – which offered sermons on the Force, light sabre training, and meditation techniques.
…
Jedi Gym
Interesting, didn’t know about the meme thing. Hopefully that explains most of this!
Yeah, it was a joke in the UK. There was a tongue in cheek campaign because if a certain number of people (I want to say 15,000? Not sure though) put it as their religion on the census the government would have to recognise it as an official faith. I don’t think it made it but the movement’s obviously still going strong! It’s almost all atheists who do it, it’s a piss-take!
I don’t think that “The Force” is that far off of reality. I mean, I don’t take all the telepathy stuff as based in reality. But, I feel that all living things are connected in some way. I don’t know if it’s electrons or what, but that’s the way I feel.
Saying that your a Jedi is kinda corny. Saying that all living things are connected in some way, could be real. Without evidence, it’s just a theory, just like religion.
May the Force be with you…..LOL
“Saying that all living things are connected in some way, could be real. Without evidence, it’s just a theory, just like religion.”
Sorry man, it’s not a theory without evidence supporting it; but yes, just like religion.
All living things are connected, both by the ecosystem and by descent from common anscestors. To me, this is a lot more interesting than a fictional energy field.
There was a serious campagin for Jedi-ism in my country too. Lots of people thought that if enough NZ’ers put Jedi on their census the govt. would have to recognise it as a religion, but after all the campagining for it, it turned out that a high percentage on the census does not a religion make. I’m pretty sure in NZ they went under “Other” not “Atheist”.
Personally, I think a little light-hearted Jedi-ism has gotta be good for you. Lightsaber training = exercise, meditation has been shown to be good for your mental and physical health, a feeling of connection to the rest of universe has gotta have good ecological and interpersonal consequences.
Yeah, sorry, Daniel. We were just doing it to feck with the governmental office. I probably should have mentioned that :)
Just as a side note, however, and contrary to what the (not particularly) reliable BBC say, I read that the number of people who had identified themselves as Jedi was large enough to have Jedi now listed as one of the officially listed religions of the UK. Sadly, I don’t have a link so you may take that with a pinch of salt.
1.- Live is Force
2.- Live do exist
3.- Therefore Force exist
—————————————————-
1.- How could the universe exist without Force?
Therefore Force exist
This offends my religion!!
they should respect the jedi faith!
I think there are more Jedi than Sikh in the UK:)
Undoubtedly this neo-religion is part hoax and part (maybe it will work and we too can be tax exempt) wishful thinking. Sadly though I am sure there are those who will rationalize this into a faith. Yoda is full of Taoist statements “do or do not there is no try”–Yoda “I dont belive I can do it-luke That is why you fail-Yoda”. Not hard to see how a person seeking truth could beat their brain into thinking the author was also inspired by the force as the biblical writers had been by god.
Funny in one sense, very sad in the other.
Look – update! :D http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1172816/First-police-officer-admit-Jedi-follower-uses-mind-tricks-suspects-truth.html
I dont see why they do not allow it as an official religion. even if you exclude those that were foolin around there is nothing wrong with a group of people believing in something even if it is abstract. the base morals of Jedi are more than honorable. if more people believed in a religion as benign as jedi we might have a more peaceful place. who knows.
Well the work of fiction IS better-written…
Fiction? Can you PROOF the Force does not exist?
(Now I have to work on a Star Wars version of Pascal’s Wager)
I don’t know…what do they list Scientologists with nowadays?
If you don’t use the Force you suck.
If you do use the force you can use lightsabres.
and become a ghost,
and have a galactic empire,
and be super powerful,
and chock people,
and have telepathy,
etc.
etc.
Therefore, it is better to use the force.
lol. I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to come up with a variant of the ontological argument that picked out the force. (an action taken by a impersonal force is greater than an action taken by a mere actor, therefore…)
Err, typo
I meant “choke”
Just re-read…the figure obviously wasn’t 15,000 as 390,000 people put that on the census. Don’t know where that came from!
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