Australia’s having a census next year, and you know what that means: Statistical religion hijinx! Australia will no doubt continue its proud tradition of pumping up some joke religion to wreak havoc on the census statisticians. The exercise also serves to nurture a vain hope of forcing the government to elevate the ‘religion’ to official status.
So what’s the new Jedi? Possibly heavy metal, if this Facebook page is any indication. (Its UK counterpart is doing rather better.)
It’s all a bit of fun, and everyone loves to take the piss, but I’d like to encourage all atheists and agnostics to put down ‘atheist’ or ‘agnostic’ (whichever you are). That way, we’ll boost the ‘none’ category (we’re still not sure if ‘Jedi’ did), and there will be more specific evidence for the rise of a*ism, if anyone breaks the results down.
I’m kind of excited to see what comes out of this. We know that the ‘nones’ have been growing steadily for several decades (that’s the blue part in the chart at right), and it’ll be fun to see the pattern continue as the stats come in.
More encouraging is the announcement that people in same-sex relationships will be able to tick the ‘husband or wife’ box for their partner, and it will be counted the same as a hetero marriage.
Paul Lowe, Head of the ABS Population Census Branch, announced in an email to Australian Marriage Equality (AME) that “the count of people in same-sex relationships who tick the ‘husband or wife of person 1’ box at question 5 will be made available as a part of the standard output from the 2011 Census”.
Australian Marriage Equality (AME) national convener, Peter Furness, welcomed the decision, which will count the number of married same-sex couples living together even though such marriages are denied recognition under Australian law following amendments to the Marriage Act in 2004.
“As government agencies like the ABS begin to recognise the reality that some same-sex partners are married, the Rudd Government’s opposition to recognising same-sex marriage looks increasingly outdated”, said Mr Furness.
“The Rudd Government may choose to bury its head in the sand and pretend same-sex marriages don’t exist, but clearly the ABS will not.”
One more step to full acceptance for our gay and lesbian friends, and to equality for all.
4 February 2010 at 8:40 am
That's cool! It'll be fun to see how the stats turn out.
5 February 2010 at 7:49 am
Rock N Roll is my religion, and I am my own god!
4 May 2010 at 3:55 pm
God is the one and ONlY God and thats the one i serve and love with all my heart. Homosexuality is disgusting but that gives us no reason to treat them differently.
4 May 2010 at 3:55 pm
God is the one and ONlY God and thats the one i serve and love with all my heart. Homosexuality is disgusting but that gives us no reason to treat them differently.
4 May 2010 at 4:12 pm
I totally agree! Homosexuality is wrong but you shouldn't treat those who are any differently.
19 January 2011 at 4:43 am
Marking Jedi or similar is the handled by the ABS as if you have not filled out the section. Therefore marking Jedi, heavy metal or any other non-recognised joke attribution will not be taken as 'no religion'.
I urge people without faith to mark the census correctly, otherwise it affects funding and decision making and falsely inflates the religious privilege.
19 January 2011 at 4:51 am
Hey, Davo — do you have a cite for that? I was trying to find out, but couldn't.
And I fully agree. Why put some joke answer when it might just go into the 'did not answer' category?