A New Religion, 'The Force' (2 Viewers)

This just off the net, and I'm not making this up.
"Thousands of wannabe Luke Skywalkers in Britain have apparently converted to the Force, listing "Jedi Knight" as their faith on the country's 2001 national census form, Britain's Web-based news service Ananova reports.
Spurred reportedly by a fan's jokey email campaign, more than 10,000 Britons put down George Lucas' mythical Star Wars religion as their own, forcing the government's Office for National Statistics to classify "Jedi Knight" as a separate category in compiling the statistics.
When the forms are processed, all data is encoded and we have given Jedi Knight a code beecause a large group of people have entered it on their forms," an ONS spokesman tells Ananova. "But we are not saying that this is an official religion."
At last we Jedi nuts can reveal ourselves to the world.
May the schwarz be with you.
[Edited last by Steve Christou on October 11, 2001 at 07:11 PM]

I'll slip this in before the mods close it, as it will inevitalbly lead to a religeous discussion.
Can anyone say Blasphemy? It's a damn movie for Gods sake! You know their's a word for this sort of thing, cult.
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God bless the USA and the men and woman of our military and their families!

It's just a joke, no one could seriously take up 'Jedi Knight' as a religion, how can you?
It's just thousands of Star Wars fans having a laugh at the census takers.

Well, in that case, !!
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God bless the USA and the men and woman of our military and their families!

1. This is false. http://www.snopes2.com/religion/jedi.htm .. Snopes.com is your friend.
2. "Religious Cult: The church down the street from yours."

Given the obvious ties to many eastern religons this isnt' that big a stretch...certianly not blasphemy
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http://www.mts.net/~glendap/

All I know about being a Jedi is you get to wield a lightsabre (cool), levitate spaceships out of swamps (supercool), find out the most feared evil bastard in the universe is your dad (wow, way to go dad!), and being taught the fine art of levitating rocks with your mind by a garden gnome (hmmmm).
[Edited last by Steve Christou on October 11, 2001 at 07:57 PM]

Sorry Steve, I just returned from an attempt to enter the Darkside. I felt the force and went in with my saber lit, but once I reached the entrance of the Imperial stronghold I was rebuffed. My wife slammed her book shut, turned off the light, told me to take my saber and shut the door on my way out!

Oh dear, thorry to hear that Eric, ath a Lord of the Thith, I mean as a Lord of the Sith, I'm already well elevated when I enter the bedroom, Sandra my angry young Yoda is already making rude noises and beckoning me to take off my custom made Jedi Kilt, and enter the dark side, which I do willingly.

My only thoughts on the matter are that I wish George Lucas had been debuting reviews for A New Hope on September 11, rather than the very sadly appropriate The Phantom Menace....
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Link Removed | Burt Lancaster is Link Removed | dOc

Well back in March, I put down "Jedi" as my religion in the NZ census. If the bastard government refuses to acknowledge my religion then I refuse to acknowledge the government. ANARCHY!

If you do become a Jedi, is it okay to use it to "attract" the ladies? Come to me, Emmanuelle....submit!
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He thought on homeland, the big timber, the air thin and chill all the year long. Tulip poplars so big through the trunk they put you in mind of locomotives set on end. He thought of getting home and building him a cabin on Cold Mountain so high that not a soul but the nighthawks passing across the clouds in autumn could hear his sad cry. Of living a life so quiet he would not need ears. And if Ada would go with him, there might be the hope, so far off in the distance he did not even really see it, that in time his despair might be honed off to a point so fine and thin that it would be nearly the same as vanishing.
-- Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain
[Edited last by SteveGon on October 11, 2001 at 11:36 PM]

Is jedi considered a religion in the Star Wars universe? It seems like jedi are more of the clergy than the followers what with the training and what not. I can't remember seeing anyone that I would classify as a follower of the jedi religion. I always though of it as more of a job.
brianca...

Who else thinks that George Lucas is going sue the people at the British census for using "Jedi Knight"?
Peter
P.S. If you don't get the joke, don't ask!

Hmmm.... The words 'life', 'a', and 'get' spring to mind...

Rob, I think 'sad loser' probably describes some of the people who did this, but I suspect a lot more were just displaying the characteristic Brit thing of not taking officialdom seriously. I know a couple of people who claimed to have done it who definitely fall into the latter category.

No doubt, and kudos to them. But there are people who actually think this stuff is for real. Perhaps those are the guys who've gone to the trouble of making all this official?
Scary! There are some scary people out there and they don't all live in Afghanistan.

Star Wars was kinda a mix between Hindu and Pantheism.
I'm not trying to start anything

Good.