Posted on 08/27/2002 9:11:12 AM PDT by marshmallow
More than 70,000 people in Australia have declared that they are followers of the Jedi faith, the religion created by the Star Wars films.
A recent census found that one in 270 respondents - or 0.37% of the population - say they believe in "the force", an energy field that gives Jedi Knights like Luke Skywalker their power in the films.
Most of the 70,509 people who wrote Jedi on their census forms were suspected to have done so in response to an e-mail encouraging all Star Wars fans to get it recognised as an official religion.
But the majority do not seriously tell each other: "May the force be with you", according to Australian Star Wars Appreciation Society president Chris Brennan.
"When you look at it you probably have got about 5,000 people in that 70,000 that were true hard-core people that would believe the Jedi religion carte blanche," he told ABC Radio.
"Then you would have 50,000 fans that said 'oh yeah we'll just put down Jedi for fun, we don't actually have a religion of our own'.
"Then you probably have 15,000 people who did it just to give the government a bit of curry," he said.
'Not defined'
An e-mail was sent around the world in 2001 saying that if 10,000 people declared they were Jedi, it would be recognised as an official religion.
But the Australian Bureau of Statistics said it would be categorised as "not defined".
Thousands of people in New Zealand and the UK also followed the advice of the e-mail - with Jedi Knight even being included on the list of religions by UK census authorities.
"This is not the information you're looking for."
This is not the information we're looking for.
"Move along, move along."
Move along, move along.
At the least, it proves that the Apostles (and 500 others) were absolutely certain of their eyewitness knowledge that Jesus rose from the dead.
Good point. But why the need to pass the plate? Let the force be your guide. Surely a Sith Lord could drop some loose change on a plate from across the room with nothing more than the wave of his hand.
Sure... people who will die for a statement of fact which they know to be false are oh, so common.
The truth is that more people were killed in the name of atheism in the last century than the sum total of all of the religion related deaths you can actually cite numbers for, which attests to the fact that religion has had an overall good impact on man's history.
Atheism's track record is looking pretty dismal, so far.
( ( ( ( ( ( PING ) ) ) ) ) )
But why don't you accept the very real presise that the whole book is a lie? Maybe these apostles weren't really willing to die for Jesus. Maybe they didn't exist at all, since no evidence outside the Bible exists.
"You have been a practicing Jedi since 1992" (says OP, staring blankly into space)
Well, no evidence at all -- aside from the 2 billion Christians (cause - effect), the reams of extra-biblical testimony (Josephus et al), the vast amount of manuscript evidence etc., etc.....
Nobody really doubts that Aristotle existed; Nobody really Siddharta Gautama Buddha existed; Nobody really doubts that Julius Caesar existed; nobody really doubts that Mohammed existed; yet men will irrationally deny the existence of Jesus and the Apostles for whom we have vastly more evidence.
Why? Because they are emotionally unable to deal with Objective Reality, that's why.
Hmm... looks like not *everyone* holds him in high regard...
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