Aug 2016: Jedi Is One Of The Fastest Growing Religions In Australia...

Jedi Is One Of The Fastest Growing Religions In Australia, And It's Causing Some Problems

http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/jedi-one-fa...e-problems

In the nation’s census, a staggeringly high number of Star Wars fans have been putting “Jedi” down as their religion — a number that has climbed to 65,486 Australian citizens in 2011, according to Mashable. For those wondering, that’s more than the Seventh-Day Adventists, Salvation Army and Orthodox churches in the country. 

This is hilarious, right? So, what’s the problem? Well, it’s apparently skewing the religious statistics — making it seem like there are more religious people than actually reside in the country. Oops. So, with the 2016 census looming, atheist groups are making a push to inform residents not to joke in the religion question, and check the “No Religion” box if applicable.
 
The president of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, Kylie Sturgess, told The Brisbane Times that the Jedi joke can misrepresent the number of religious people in the country, possibly skewing everything from perception to potential spending.

I wonder how many are joking? Maybe the spirituality some people find is close enough to Jedi?

Or they would rather pick Jedi than be associated with anti-theistic faiths like New Atheism?

Jedi Is One Of The Fastest Growing Religions In Australia, And It's Causing Some Problems

I wonder how many are joking? Maybe the spirituality some people find is close enough to Jedi?

Or they would rather pick Jedi than be associated with anti-theistic faiths like New Atheism?

I think it raises valid questions.

Recently on BBC TV (yes, I know I should know better...) I saw a group discussion of overall distribution across different religious/non-religious groups according to surveys.

One of the atheist commentators claimed that survey results were unreliable, for example because many of those who put say Church of England were just using it as a kind of default response, when their actual beliefs might not correspond. He also suggested something about the 'spiritual but not religious' category, I don't recall the exact argument, but it was an attempt to devalue that too. If we question all of the statistics, where does it leave us? Presumably it means that we should also question and possibly reject those who put 'atheist' or 'no religion' too?

It's surely only a matter of time before there's a Jedi church that conducts its services in Klingon.

What's interesting to me is the movement toward drawing spiritual inspiration from known fictional works (Adventure Time, Star Wars, Harry Potter) - I realize some might find this silly but I see it as recognizing the influences the artists engaged in - along with their own contribution of essence - on their way to creating the works.

But then, to me, art through its access of the Imaginal is more than material - from the old Visionary Artist thread:

Art is magic... But how is it magic? In its metaphysical development? Or does some final transformation culminate in a magic reality? In truth, the latter is impossible without the former. If creation is not magic, the outcome cannot be magic.

-Hans Hoffman

=-=-=

The present painter can be said to work with chaos not only in the sense that he is handling the chaos of the blank picture plane but also in that he is handling the chaos of form. In trying to go beyond the visible and the known world he is working with forms that are unknown even to him. He is therefore engaged in a true act of discovery in the creation of new forms and symbols that will have the living quality of creation.
-Barnett Newman

=-=-=

When something unreal can become almost real, it is perhaps more frightening to us, and perhaps more revealing.
-David Levinthal

It's surely only a matter of time before there's a Jedi church that conducts its services in Klingon.

Wash your mouth out.

[Ninshub]

(I'll post this here 'cause I don't want to start a separate thread for this.)

In my quest to make at least one Beatles-related post a week, here's the next one.  

Who knew that Sgt. Pepper and Star Wars were such an amazing, mind-boggling fit??? (The guys behind this spent several years putting it together.)

Give this a chance if you like either.



Go to the youtube page if somehow you can't get the whole album/film playlist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYD3QtyE...MNxs9QdthO

(Personally I love Luke is the desert and whining).