- Sep 20, 2004
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Should We Let Jedi’s Wear Lightsabers To The Office? The Mind Of An Atheist
With the census coming up next year I am reminded of the stupidity of the religion results from the last one. Nearly 400,000 people listed their religion as Jedi in a mocking bid to get it recognised as a bona fide religion. This, not surprisingly, did not work and whilst it provided some light amusement and plenty of press, nobody with half a brain cell would consider it to be a genuine religion.
So many people selected Jedi that they out performed Sikhs. According to the Sikhs however, this is because Sikhism was listed in the religion section and not under ethnicity. Apparently this caused many Sikhs to not report their religion as it was an optional question. Could they not be bothered to answer one final question? Either this, or they had such a strong objection to their religion being classed as a religion that they felt compelled to ignore it. I’d love to know where they think they could live without their religion being called a religion.
It’s this refusal or laziness to answer this question which makes the UK Sikh Federation’s planned ‘human rights’ lawsuit against the Office Of National Statistics completely laughable. Apparently their inability to complete a form justifies the huge expense to the taxpayer such a lawsuit would cost. Their cobbled together claims that they are being denied the services they’re entitled to because of lower-than-accurate results is the lamest thing I’ve heard in a while. They should clearly just get over themselves and tick the ****** box.
The religious using the ‘human rights’ banner to bypass common sense is getting beyond a joke. Just last month a Sikh judge spoke out about how Sikh’s should be able to wear daggers to school or work. I had to check I’d read that right when I saw this story. We should allow children to carry daggers around in school because it’s their religion? Great idea. They themselves point to how these daggers are ‘ceremonial’ and are an important part of their religion; ‘essential’ to their faith. You can stab someone with a pencil, so giving kids daggers can only be stupid and just because they have decided they have to wear such a thing to win a place in eternity, they should not be allowed to walk around with them. Apparently these people think their right to walk around with a dagger is more important than my right to have a dagger free work place.
All this conjured up a question in my mind. If 400,000 people in the UK class themselves as Jedi, and given that recently a Jobcentre manager had to write a letter of apology to a Jedi who refused to remove his hood, shouldn’t we extend the same rights to the Jedi?
Surely in order for us to have an equal world they should be allowed to turn up at the office wearing their lightsaber. It’s really no different from a dagger is it?
I’m being sarcastic here. A Jedi’s insistence that he be allowed to walk around like a yob; just because he doesn’t have a life and watches Star Wars all day, is just as preposterous as a Sikh’s insistence he be allowed to walk around armed to the hilt; just because Guru Nanak decided it was ‘essential’.
Am I the only person who thinks this is going too far now? Maybe I should try and start a religion and see what stupidity I can get away with in the name of religion. I think I might call it “Seventiesism”. Essential to my faith will be the requirement to wear an incredibly large afro wig, bright flares and star shaped sunglasses. Given the logic being laid down by the powers-that-be I should be able to look like this even if I worked on the counter at HSBC.
With the census coming up next year I am reminded of the stupidity of the religion results from the last one. Nearly 400,000 people listed their religion as Jedi in a mocking bid to get it recognised as a bona fide religion. This, not surprisingly, did not work and whilst it provided some light amusement and plenty of press, nobody with half a brain cell would consider it to be a genuine religion.
So many people selected Jedi that they out performed Sikhs. According to the Sikhs however, this is because Sikhism was listed in the religion section and not under ethnicity. Apparently this caused many Sikhs to not report their religion as it was an optional question. Could they not be bothered to answer one final question? Either this, or they had such a strong objection to their religion being classed as a religion that they felt compelled to ignore it. I’d love to know where they think they could live without their religion being called a religion.
It’s this refusal or laziness to answer this question which makes the UK Sikh Federation’s planned ‘human rights’ lawsuit against the Office Of National Statistics completely laughable. Apparently their inability to complete a form justifies the huge expense to the taxpayer such a lawsuit would cost. Their cobbled together claims that they are being denied the services they’re entitled to because of lower-than-accurate results is the lamest thing I’ve heard in a while. They should clearly just get over themselves and tick the ****** box.
The religious using the ‘human rights’ banner to bypass common sense is getting beyond a joke. Just last month a Sikh judge spoke out about how Sikh’s should be able to wear daggers to school or work. I had to check I’d read that right when I saw this story. We should allow children to carry daggers around in school because it’s their religion? Great idea. They themselves point to how these daggers are ‘ceremonial’ and are an important part of their religion; ‘essential’ to their faith. You can stab someone with a pencil, so giving kids daggers can only be stupid and just because they have decided they have to wear such a thing to win a place in eternity, they should not be allowed to walk around with them. Apparently these people think their right to walk around with a dagger is more important than my right to have a dagger free work place.
All this conjured up a question in my mind. If 400,000 people in the UK class themselves as Jedi, and given that recently a Jobcentre manager had to write a letter of apology to a Jedi who refused to remove his hood, shouldn’t we extend the same rights to the Jedi?
Surely in order for us to have an equal world they should be allowed to turn up at the office wearing their lightsaber. It’s really no different from a dagger is it?
I’m being sarcastic here. A Jedi’s insistence that he be allowed to walk around like a yob; just because he doesn’t have a life and watches Star Wars all day, is just as preposterous as a Sikh’s insistence he be allowed to walk around armed to the hilt; just because Guru Nanak decided it was ‘essential’.
Am I the only person who thinks this is going too far now? Maybe I should try and start a religion and see what stupidity I can get away with in the name of religion. I think I might call it “Seventiesism”. Essential to my faith will be the requirement to wear an incredibly large afro wig, bright flares and star shaped sunglasses. Given the logic being laid down by the powers-that-be I should be able to look like this even if I worked on the counter at HSBC.
