Little news item today, saying that in the upcoming Australian census, they won't recognise an answer in the "religion" box if you put "Jedi" or "Pastafarian"...
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/census-wont-count-jedis-or-pastaferians/story-e6freonf-1226103025136

YOU may be a Jedi or even a pastaferian, just don't expect it to be acknowledged in this year's census.
On August 9, millions of Australians, whether living at home, in tankers, on submarines or in remote communities, will be asked more than 60 questions on their profession, religion, income and the makeup of their family.

At the launch of the 2011 census in Sydney tonight, Federal Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten asked people to keep the jokes to a minimum.

"In 2006, 55,000 australians marked themselves down as Jedi. That's not a recognised religion in Australia," Mr Shorten told reporters.

The Australian athiests organisations tried to have a "no religion" option included in the religion question, but the government wouldn't agree...you can leave it blank, but that doesn't count in the census as being an athiest. The athiests said, quite rightly, that many people just mark down whatever religion they grew up with, even if they don't follow it themselves, and this allows churches and religious groups to claim special funding by pointing to how many "christians" there are around the place.

What's even worse is the blasphemy that followed in the article...

"You hear all sorts of discussion in the social media about calling yourself a pastaferian, which is a worshipper of pasta.

The sheer ignorance of a dearly held religious belief is astounding!! Pastafarians aren't "worshippers of pasta", they are believers in the Flying Spaghetti Monster (may his noodly appendages bless us all)...

Sounds like the oppression of religious minorities to me

Found a link to the athiests requests over the census...
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/atheists-assert-themselves-in-census/story-e6frea8c-1226101012120

ALMOST 15,000 people have joined an Atheist Foundation of Australia push to mark "no religion" on the August 9 census.
The foundation has begun unveiling billboards across the country urging people to join their campaign to take the religion out of politics.

In Queensland there are two billboards - on Breakfast Creek Rd, Newstead and Fairfield Rd, Yeerongpilly.

Thousands have also pledged to mark "no religion" in a Facebook campaign asking Australians to question whether they hold religious beliefs.

AFA president David Nicholls said many people simply marked down the religion they were born into, despite not now being religious people at all.

He said the transfer of taxpayer money to religious organisations was justified on the basis of the census results, as were special concessions and exemptions including the right to discriminate against some groups.

How hard would it be, and who would it hurt to have a "no religion" or "athiest" option in the census? I mean they recognise any other religion you may care to put, so why not allow people the freedom to at least put "no religion"?

Or make it an optional 'write in' section. You write in your religion, or put atheist (or leave it blank, which would indicate the same thing)

Oh don't worry- there are large numbers of theists who insist that atheism is a belief, and of course, with all that divine instruction about not lying, being honest, doing unto others, etc. etc., they will be enraged by this and insist that "atheism" be included as a choice on the poll.

I think, recalling the last census, that is it indeed a "write in" section...I could be wrong, but seeing how many people wrote in "pastafarian" or "jedi" last time, I think I could be correct. However, if you put "no religion" or "athiest" in a write in section, it's treated the same as leaving it blank...it isn't counted.

I'll let you know what the census form actually looks like in thats section when we get ours this week. I'll scan it in and post it here.

So you're telling me that Chad is actually more progressive on this issue? When they came by for the census in 2009 I distinctly remember being able to give the option "no religion" (and did so).

It's ridiculous in a modern so-called secular society we can't have the option to put 'no religion'. Fucking religion and its bullshit...

If someone writes something into a box on a census, that should be reported. Full Stop. Otherwise the census is not reporting what it was told.

And the woman who said she would not fill in the census because she did not believe in censorship would be correct.

chairman bill wrote:Or make it an optional 'write in' section. You write in your religion, or put atheist (or leave it blank, which would indicate the same thing)

Unless atheism is fallaciously declared a faith-equivalent belief system, as my daughter was told by her RE teacher only two weeks ago. She decided not to argue the toss.

On the other matter, I hope the fundamentalist arm of the Pastafarians don't try and take extreme action over this.

It's further disgusting because polls show that 1 in 4 Australians are atheists, the 2nd largest group in Australia.

I'd imagine there may not be many STRONG atheists who (positively) believe that there is no god but there would be a vast number of weak atheists like secular humanists, rationalists and freethinkers. They need a box to collect this,more intelligent, thought-out, grouping rather than a collect-all of "no religion".

Having a bunch of no-religion won't tell the politicians what is the reality of the demographics of the population.

Actually what do the black fellas tick ? Aboriginal beliefs must be tracked too ? Or does the Government ignore them too ?

The Australian athiests organisations tried to have a "no religion" option included in the religion question, but the government wouldn't agree...you can leave it blank, but that doesn't count in the census as being an athiest. The athiests said, quite rightly, that many people just mark down whatever religion they grew up with, even if they don't follow it themselves, and this allows churches and religious groups to claim special funding by pointing to how many "christians" there are around the place.

Impotent census.

Here's a link to past census information:

http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/home/census+data

I had a quick look at my locality and the "religion, by sex" tag, and came up with the interesting fact that 356 people in town (about 400 people here) were listed as some religion...mainly catholic, presbyterian, and uniting...but our town doesn't even have a church, and no one know goes to church. In fact, by the way people speak out here, I'd say we're a pretty normal bunch of heathens who have absolutely no time for god-botherers. In fact, some Seventh day Adventists came around one day door knocking early one sunday...that went down well in a town made up completely of shift workers who work seven days a week and 365 days a year...

I suspect greatly that people have indeed just "marked down whatever religion they grew up with, whether they follow it or not"...

Most interestingly, I do notice that there's a tag for "athiesm"...funny, but I don't remember that being an option when I filled it in last time...I'll take a closer look this time. But I believe it's a loaded question...they say "what religion are you", and most people wouldn't think that "athiest" is an option for "religion". Perhaps a second question saying "are you an athiest or have no belief" would be interesting...

I'm pretty sure there is a "no religion" box to tick. It is just right down the bottom of the question and hard to see.

Yeah, but it's not counted as atheist, just means no organised religion.

Sounds more like the census is measuring the ability to lobby as one political bloc rather than belief.

Pretty much. And their decision to not count "Jedi" votes just enforces that suspicion. On what logical grounds is Jedi dismissed?

If the no religion campaign doesn't get us the changes we want. I reckon we should have a "vote islam" campaign in 2016. We can push the Islam vote from 2-3% up to 30%, anything to piss of the Christians.

There is a box for "no religion", just right down the bottom in small print.

Yes the question is illogical and misleading.

No there seems no possibility of having the question changed to one that makes sense.

Yes you can answer "atheist" by choosing "other".

Yes marking religion as "other" and "atheist" makes no logical sense for those who actually know the meaning of the word, but we seem stuck with the question as it is for the foreseeable future. Instead of having your say buried in the grab-bag of "other" with "bretheren" and "salvation army" why not put it in "no religion", means the same in terms of demographics.

Yes "no religion" includes those who choose it because they don't subscribe to an organised religion even though they are theists, not sure how this matters for the purposes of the census, i.e. making demographic decisions in terms of infrastructure and such.

Marking "Jedi" or "pastafarian" is simply giving your say on religion in public life to Jim Wallace, think about that.