Articles pertaining to the Jedi being more than just sad devotees to an ancient religion.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2.../ethnicity.asp
(The official uk census)

At the time the Census was carried out, there was an internet campaign that encouraged people to answer the religion question "Jedi Knight". The number of people who stated Jedi was 390,000 (0.7 per cent of the population).


Top religions in the UK:

Christian: 72.0%
No religion: 14.7%
Chose not to respond: 7.8%
Muslim: 3.1%
Hindu: 1.1%
Jedi: 0.79% (390,000)


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...th-630971.html


So many people entered "Jedi Knight" on their census form that the Office of National Statistics has given the creed an official numerical code, denoting it as a religion within the "other" category.

The census number-crunchers learnt the hard way that those who stand in the way of the Jedi are doomed to fail. They dismissed as a lunatic fringe the Star Wars fans who responded to the question on religion in this year's census with the answer "Jedi Knight".

But they were up against a power they did not understand. Self-proclaimed Jedis were using e-mail to persuade followers of the creed that they must make their allegiance public and stand up for their faith.

And even if they were taking George Lucas' sci-fi saga a touch too seriously, the Force must have been with them, because they have triumphed over the ONS.

During the e-mail campaign, potential Jedis were told that if 10,000 people claimed to be followers the religion would become official, but the ONS was insistent last night that it did not mean the Government had recognised Jedis or "the Force" as a new religious group.

Yet somewhere in Whitehall a computer now lists hundreds or possibly thousands of people under the classification "896" for Jedi Knight.

A somewhat weary spokesman for the ONS refused to state how many Jedi Knights the census had recorded, saying that information would not be available until autumn next year, and then only to those willing to pay an unspecified fee.

The spokesman said: "We were trying to get the census taken seriously but we recognise that there was this mood where people would put this answer in the 'other' section whether we wanted them to or not.

"A sufficient number put it in that we felt it was appropriate to give them a code for administrative purposes just so it was quicker to put the information through the machines. It is not a recognition of anything."

The spokesman added that it was not yet clear if the Jedis had warped the view of the religious make-up of Britain provided by the census. "That is for others to decide. We just count the numbers," he said.


Official government release: 390,000 Jedis There Are
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nug...nk=2&Rank=1000

In New Zealand and Australia.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...jectid=2352142

Despite only one week's notice, 53,715 people did just that - unofficially showing this country has more Jedi Knights than Buddhist, Baptists, Mormons, Hindu and Ratana Christians.

Australian Star Wars Appreciation Society president Chris Brennan doubted there were many true believers among the more than 70,000 wannabe Skywalkers.

He told ABC Radio last week that only about 5000 would be "true hard-core people that would believe the Jedi religion carte blanche".


2001 NZ census top religions:

Christian: 58.9%
No religion: 29.6%
Object to answering: 6.9%
Jedi: 1.5%
Buddhism: 1.2%
Hindu: 1.2%
(Wiki)

In the 2006 census the number of Jedi fell to 20,000 in NZ.

Only around 0.1% of Canadians admitted to being Jedi in their census. It is however an aided census with checkboxes for some religions and not others.


Lori

what do you vote if you're just a padawan

You are confusing Jedi Knight (of which a padawan is an apprentice) with any follower of the Jedi faith. In the same way that you don't have to be a Monk to be a Buddhist or Christian.

Many people dream of attaining the rank of Jedi Knight, but very few have the discipline to do it. A quick search of THIS WEBSITE alone shows there have been 250 posts refering to Jedi since October 14 last year.



The Jedi faith stems from the belief that there is one all powerful Force that binds the entire universe together. Many Earth scientists devote their life looking to describe this exact force (usually called GUT). Often their ignorance to religion means they don't know they are likely to be believers in the Jedi teachings.

As with many religions, people suddenly realise they have followed the Jedi faith without even knowing it. One of the prime doctrines, that of "Balance in the Force" is believed in across the universe and often manifests itself in belief in such things as "Conservation of mass/energy", "Conservation of momentum", "Conservation of angular momentum", "Conservation of charge", "Conservation of baryons", "Conservation of leptons" all of which are evidence that the Force does indeed seek to be balanced.

The question of free will is settled without debate in Jediism. The Force merely guides us (or rather those who want to listen) but does not demand we follow, or make us go in a direction we do not want to.

Lori

If a New Zealand Jedi could prove he can harness the Force, I'd be down for that in a hot second. In fact, I'd...

...I sense a disturbance in the Force. Something I haven't felt since...

i dont know why but when i read this i almost spit out my drink funny stuff

any scientists trying to prove the existance of metaclorians?

I almost moved this to video games before reading it.

It's hard to know whether anyone really takes this seriously or whether it's all a big level. I've met enough Star Wars fans not to just assume the latter.

Me, I'll believe when you can show me a midi-chlorian and not before.

You have to realise that a lot of things are changed in translation. The events that the prophet Lucas has described are from a long time ago and far far away and did not happen in American English. His prefered media for spreading the teachings of the faith is film and out of necessity to convey the underlying messages it is important to create easy to understand concepts. It is also possible he didn't understand everything he saw himself.

It seems likely that the Earth word "mitochondrion" is actually what midichlorians (often mistakenly called metaclorians) are.

Mitochondria are an essential part of living cells, they are an organelle (subunit within a cell with a special function) and they convert nutrients into ATP which is the energy that your entire body operates on. It is believed by Earth scientists that they come from bacteria from a long time ago. (According to endosymbiotic theory).
The number of them within a cell varies widely.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endosymbiotic_theory

In short, it's unlikely that scientists are searching for metaclorians (sic) as we already have our culprits.

Lori

I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all powerful force controlling everything.

But midi-chlorians are sentient. So you're implying that mitochondria are sentient.

Which means we're more Parasite Eve than Star Wars.

Whether they're sentinent or not is up for debate. I would go with not if pressured for an answer.

http://wiki.ewokpedia.com/wiki/Midichlorian

The Midichlorians were a metaphysical, binding, and ubiquitous power that held great importance for the Jedi and Sith monastic orders.

Described by Ben "OB1" Kenobi as "an energy field created by all living things," some societies and organizations thought of the midichlorians as a non-corporeal sentient entity that might be capable of intelligent thought, while others simply considered it something that could be manipulated and used as though it were a tool.




Lori

the ewokpedia is very reliable

Has George Lucas made any official statement on this? I am of the opinion that he is much more interested is selling movies than creating a new religion. But hey what do I know this worked well enough for Hubbard I suppose

Wow it is quite amazing that people who interpret the census results have the audacity to use "they didn't really mean it" as an excuse to ignore the result.

There's some hearsay about Lucas' thoughts in this thread on page 3. It's actually quite an interesting thread and discusses pros and cons of the religion from believers and sceptics alike.

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2002...ryone.aspx?p=3

Lori

So wait, there are people that actually believe in the ways of the Jedi? I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Bah! Wookiepedia.

Darth Vader died for our sins.

Any guesses as to what religion the people who wanted to ignore the result were?

Probably the Sith.

A+

hilarious!

would read again!

.

im totally putting jedi in on my next census survey

May the fourth be with you

Lori

Lol you're a nerd.