Like Lily Tomlin said, "reality is just a collective hunch..." :) Thursday October 11 8:41 AM ET

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of Britons devoted to the ''Star Wars'' films have claimed the fictional faith Jedi as their religion and forced it onto the next national census, newspapers reported on Thursday.

An e-mail campaign convinced more than 10,000 fans of the enduring science-fiction films to list Jedi -- known by the mantra ``May the Force be with you'' -- as their religion on Britain's 2001 census, the Daily Express reported.

It was enough for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to give Jedi its own code, meaning it will appear in the 2002 census.

``When the forms are processed, all data is encoded and we have given Jedi Knight a code because a large group of people have entered it on their forms,'' an ONS spokesman told the Daily Express.

``But we are not saying that this is an official religion,'' the spokesman added.

In the ``Star Wars'' films, the Jedi Knights are a noble order of protectors unified by their belief in and ability to tap into a universal power called ``the Force.''

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

Answers

It's been quite a while since I saw any of the Star Wars movies (and I didn't even see the "new" one(s?)) but it seems to me that the Jedi religion made as much sense as many!

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

ah ha! Earth Mama too cool! Maybe that is my religion, because I often tell people on leaving "May the force be with you!" and I have a lttle statue of Yoda in my kitchen. I just love that little guy, he is so humble but so wise.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

At the time of our 2000 census, there were emails going around (and around and around!) urging Neo-Pagans to list that under religion. Except that the US census stopped asking for religion awhile back. Oh well. It would have been really interesting to see how many such a question on the census would have turned up, as there is no official count. The numbers estimated vary widely. Of course, it wouldn't be comprehensive -- lots of folks are in the broom closet.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

That is so cool!!! When I first entered AA they talked about God and I was having no part of any of it. I decided that I could believe in the "force" and called it the force of basic goodness, which was how I first understood God. Still do...........love and basic goodness...would that all could.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

Oh, I love anything that forces people to re-think their labels. Hurrah for the Jedi Knights!!

Thanks, EM, I needed that!

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

I especially like the Lily Tomlin quote, how very true!!!

May the power of the Jedi be with you all, tee-hee!!!

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001