Czech Census: 15,000 Identify themselves as Jedi

[safinator]

More than 15,000 Czechs follow the faith of the Star Wars movies' Jedi knights, official census data showed today, while half of the country's 10.5 million people declined to list any religion.

"Many people adhered to the moral values of Jedi knights from the Star Wars saga," the Czech Statistical Office said in a statement, noting that the invented faith also had a strong following in countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Britain.

It said 15,070 Czechs registered as Jedi knights in the census held in March, against 1,083,899 Roman Catholics and 707,649 people who said they believed in God but did not belong to any church.

"Fifteen thousand adherents, which is the size of a small town, is not a negligible social phenomenon," Stanislav Drapal, deputy head of the statistical office, told reporters.

In Prague, statisticians registered 3,977 Jedi knights, or 0.31 percent of the capital's population.

The lightsabre-wielding Jedi knights are an order of guardians of peace for the interplanetary Galactic Republic of the cult Star Wars series, known for their enhanced mind powers that allow them to harness "The Force" to control objects and influence others.

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/19878/53/

[Incal]

May the Force be with them.

[Äike]

This is hilarious!

[Panopticon]

Jedis are not European!

[Sylvanus]

Lucas is the one of the greatest marketing manager! :)

[Gordon Bennett]

This just goes to prove how pointless these surveys are. Give people a choice and they will choose nothing.

[Turul]

What this survey really means...

"15,000 Czechs, a whole small city's worth of people, have shown they are complete and total idiots, competing only with Americans for that high and lofty title of most naive people on the planet."

May the force be with you.

[antonio]

Alternative title:

Czech Census: 15,000 Confess themselves as being heavily colonized by Hollywood sci-fi.

[Humanophage]

Alternative title: 15 000 choose a famous mock answer in a religion poll in the least religious European country.

[Rereg]

I'm Sith and I will destroy all jedi. :D :D

dark side rule!


http://jlawrencekenny.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/clintondarthmaul1.jpg

[Äike]

Alternative title: 15 000 choose a famous mock answer in a religion poll in the least religious European country.

The Czech Republic isn't the least religious country in Europe.

Estonia is the least religious country (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4077) in the world followed by other Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Us, Nordics, are the least religious group of people.

The Czech Republic comes fifth in the world.

[The Ripper]

I guess Finland isn't Nordic since we're so religious. :D

[Drawing-slim]

Jedis are not European!lol

[Äike]

I guess Finland isn't Nordic since we're so religious. :D

Finns are also among the top 10 of the least religious people in the world.

Even implying that Finland isn't Nordic, will make a Finn show up in 5 minutes in almost all forums on the internet. :p

[Humanophage]

The Czech Republic isn't the least religious country in Europe.

Estonia is the least religious country (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4077) in the world followed by other Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Us, Nordics, are the least religious group of people.

The Czech Republic comes fifth in the world.
Depends on the definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Europe#cite_note-eurobarometer_2005-5

"I believe there is a God"
Czech Republic: 19%
Estonia: 16%
Sweden: 23%
France: 34%

"I believe there is some sort of spirit or life force"
Czech Republic: 50%
Estonia: 54%
Sweden: 53%
France: 27%

"I don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force"
Czech Republic: 30%
Estonia: 26%
Sweden: 23%
France: 33%

As for importance, Azerbaijan has 74% in the unimportance of religion chart, which is counter-intuitive. According to World Values Survey 1999, people who don't believe in God are: 61% for Czech Rep., 47% for Estonia, 47% for Sweden, and 2% for Azerbaijan.

A person who identifies as Christian (or any "serious" religion) can easily say religion is unimportant to them, but they would still put themselves down as Christian or believing in god (or something else). It would seem Estonians are somewhat more on the "spiritual", but "non-Christian" side of things when compared to Czechs.

Another WVS poll:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/Humanophage/SpiritForce.gif

[StonyArabia]

Azerbaijanis are Shia Muslims but hardly practice it compared to their Southern neighbour Iran. As well the mosques tend to be empty unless it's on special occasions. They also consume a lot of vodka and Raki with their meals. They are only by cultural Muslims other than that they are not religious at all.

[TheBorrebyViking]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Police-Man-used-toy-light-saber-to-fend-off-stun-gun-135708178.html

[Humanophage]

Azerbaijanis are Shia Muslims but hardly practice it compared to their Southern neighbour Iran. As well the mosques tend to be empty unless it's on special occasions. They also consume a lot of vodka and Raki with their meals. They are only by cultural Muslims other than that they are not religious at all.
Not nearly to the point of ranking above France or the Czech Republic, far above Latvia, Hungary, Russia, etc.

WVS seems to be much more in line with what one would expect from Azerbaijan (quite a bit less religious than Turkey, but rather religious in comparison to e.g. Finland or France).

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/Humanophage/Azeri.gif

[safinator]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Europe_belief_in_god.svg/655px-Europe_belief_in_god.svg.png

[Hess]

I see the Czechs are working overtime to overtake Americans in their number of idiots.

[Humanophage]

I see the Czechs are working overtime to overtake Americans in their number of idiots.
Why? It doesn't mean 15 000 actually believe in the existence of the Force et al. They are simply mocking religious affiliation. Even if they were, I don't see how being geeky qualifies as being an idiot - I'd say quite the contrary is true.

I compiled a WVS chart on the subject:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/Humanophage/GodImportance.gif

[Padre Organtino]

Czechs are very indifferent towards religion unlike Poles. Christianity does not play serious role in shaping their identity. That's why they are quite likely to "identify" as jedis, spaghetti monster believers and etc.

[antonio]

Alternative title: 15 000 choose a famous mock answer in a religion poll in the least religious European country.

I have to disagree: I bet most of them really concede relevance to Lucas' filosofy...obvious not to the point considering themselves Jedis. :cool:

Ps. And that's unfair, it's a syntom of heavily colonized minds to concede a certain degree of relevance to an ad-hoc minimum-common-denominator filosofy crafted for a fucking film (for nice of watching as it was)...as I first stated. :coffee:

[Wild North]

And perhaps Slovaks identify as Sith. :p

[Peterski]

Oh sith! So maybe Yoda was in fact a Czech?:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYRYHLUNEs4