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Australia asks residents to stop registering as 'Jedi' in census (1 Viewer)

Celebrity

Celebrity

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Australia asks residents to stop registering as 'Jedi' in census | National News - WMUR Home

This was recently a trend.

"If old religious men in robes don't represent you...don't mark yourself as 'Jedi,'" read the post.
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The foundation shared a Facebook post with cartoons of "Star Wars" characters and explained that by writing in "Jedi" or other "joke religions," it makes the country seem more religious. In the 2011 census, 64,390 residents registered as Jedis, which ultimately led to a misrepresentation of atheists.
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How many people really do this kind of thing? Is it just an Australian thing, or could this account for thousands of other Jedi worldwide?
 
Thanks for posting this thread, I needed a good laugh -

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Celebrity said:
How many people really do this kind of thing? Is it just an Australian thing, or could this account for thousands of other Jedi worldwide?
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New Zealand had 1.5% of its population mark Jedi, which was more than the number of people who marked Hindu.

PirateMk1 said:
The Aussie government weenies screwed up. Now MORE people will register as Jedi or Sith just to **** with them. Aussies tend to be a cantankerous lot.
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The request came from the Atheist Foundation of Australia - not the Australian government.
 
brothern said:
New Zealand had 1.5% of its population mark Jedi, which was more than the number of people who marked Hindu.


The request came from the Atheist Foundation of Australia - not the Australian government.
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That's even worse.
 
Not a problem in the U.S. We are well regulated.
"In each decennial census and in its more frequent counts like the American Community Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau mails questionnaires to millions of Americans. Many people fail to respond, either because they consider the questions too time consuming or too “nosey.” However, responding to all census questionnaires is required by federal law.

While it rarely happens, the U.S. Census Bureau can impose fines for failing to answer their questionnaires or for intentionally providing false information.

According to Title 13, Section 221 (Census, Refusal or neglect to answer questions; false answers) of the United States Code, persons who fail or refuse to respond to the mail-back census form, or refuse to respond to a follow-up census taker can be fined up to $100. Persons who knowingly provide false information to the census can be fined up to $500.

Before imposing a fine, the Census Bureau typically attempts to personally contact and interview persons who fail to respond to census questionnaires."
Answering the US Census is Required by Law

A well-regulated country is a happy country...or else. There is a regulation about that.
 
Patrickt said:
Not a problem in the U.S. We are well regulated.
"In each decennial census and in its more frequent counts like the American Community Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau mails questionnaires to millions of Americans. Many people fail to respond, either because they consider the questions too time consuming or too “nosey.” However, responding to all census questionnaires is required by federal law.

While it rarely happens, the U.S. Census Bureau can impose fines for failing to answer their questionnaires or for intentionally providing false information.

According to Title 13, Section 221 (Census, Refusal or neglect to answer questions; false answers) of the United States Code, persons who fail or refuse to respond to the mail-back census form, or refuse to respond to a follow-up census taker can be fined up to $100. Persons who knowingly provide false information to the census can be fined up to $500.

Before imposing a fine, the Census Bureau typically attempts to personally contact and interview persons who fail to respond to census questionnaires."
Answering the US Census is Required by Law

A well-regulated country is a happy country...or else. There is a regulation about that.
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It's not a problem in the U.S. because the Census Bureau is forbidden by law to ask about religion. https://ask.census.gov/faq.php?id=5000&faqId=29
 
pinqy said:
It's not a problem in the U.S. because the Census Bureau is forbidden by law to ask about religion. https://ask.census.gov/faq.php?id=5000&faqId=29
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Perhaps you should read your link.
"Public Law 94-521 prohibits us from asking a question on religious affiliation on a mandatory basis; in some person or household surveys, however, the U.S. Census Bureau may collect information about religious practices, on a voluntary basis."

The law prohibits asking on a mandatory basis. It apparently doesn't prevent them from asking. I would have assumed that as a regulatory supporter you would be familiar with parsing sentences and misleading laws.
 
Patrickt said:
Perhaps you should read your link.
"Public Law 94-521 prohibits us from asking a question on religious affiliation on a mandatory basis; in some person or household surveys, however, the U.S. Census Bureau may collect information about religious practices, on a voluntary basis."

The law prohibits asking on a mandatory basis. It apparently doesn't prevent them from asking. I would have assumed that as a regulatory supporter you would be familiar with parsing sentences and misleading laws.
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The Census and the American Community Survey are both mandatory surveys. ALL questions in the survey are mandatory. So since the topic was about the census, I didn't think it needed to be specified that the Census Bureau can't ask about religion in the Census or ACS (which is part of the decennial census)

And as a matter of practice, they don't ask in any voluntary surveys that I'm aware of.
 
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pinqy said:
The Census and the American Community Survey are both mandatory surveys. So since the topic was about the census, I didn't think it needed to be specified that the Census Bureau can't ask about religion in the Census.

And as a matter of practice, they don't ask in other surveys that I'm aware of.
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I really don't know. But, in the U.S. if you listed your race as American, or Earthling, or Venusian you'd stand to be fined. Two very popular concepts in the U.S. are mandatory and forbidden. Mandate and banned. Must and cannot.
 
jonny5 said:
Maybe people just object to being asked their religion. I know when we do the US census, I dont answer most of the questions. All the govt needs is a head count, they dont need all my personal details.
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:thumbs:

It's the same idea with voter registration, but more nuanced. How can the government confirm that some parishioner isn't inflating the number of their flock? Attach the religion to the identity of any and every person in that parish, and their families. That will give a rough estimate and I assume that the other statistics, such as household size, provide a level of depth that wouldn't otherwise be achieved by a head count.
 
jonny5 said:
Maybe people just object to being asked their religion. I know when we do the US census, I dont answer most of the questions. All the govt needs is a head count, they dont need all my personal details.
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Actually they do need it. Many government programs and policy require statistical information, and refusing to answer, beside being illegal, hurts the accuracy.

They don't care about you personally...all that information is filed under numbers and aggregated....no one can look in the records under your name and see how many toilets you have.
 
I would never answer Jedi on a government form. My religion is none of the government's business.
 
pinqy said:
Actually they do need it. Many government programs and policy require statistical information, and refusing to answer, beside being illegal, hurts the accuracy.

They don't care about you personally...all that information is filed under numbers and aggregated....no one can look in the records under your name and see how many toilets you have.
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No they dont NEED it. They want it. The purpose of the census is to make sure each state gets the right number of reps. Thats it.
 
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