Census

bobbi

Ok hope this is the right place and this might seem like a stupid question although i was baptised roman catholic i'm an atheist i put down no religon on the census is this correct?:)

KTRIC

I did. I don't care for organised religion.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Put down Jedi Knight. Or Gothic Satanist!

Zombrex

bobbi wrote:

Ok hope this is the right place and this might seem like a stupid question although i was baptised roman catholic i'm an atheist i put down no religon on the census is this correct?:)

Perfectly correct. If you don't follow a religion then don't put one down. The idea that you are and always will be the religion you were baptised is rather silly construct of the religion itself in my opinion.

MrJoeSoap

Ah feck. Forgot to tell the parents I no longer subscribe to their "God". Ah well, I'm a Catholic for another 4/5 years so!

seamus

bobbi wrote:

Ok hope this is the right place and this might seem like a stupid question although i was baptised roman catholic i'm an atheist i put down no religon on the census is this correct?:)

Perfectly. Atheism is not a religion.

Sangre

Changed mine as parents had put down Catholic. Mom kept trying to tell me I was bapitised so I was Catholic still. Pointed out would I still be Catholic if I convert to Judaism. Obviously not so I'm obviously not still a Catholic.

Then my mom started calling me selfish be cause I wouldn't bapitise my kids. Apperantely my cousins had terrible trouble trying to find a school because they had no denomination....Just one more reason to leave Ireland I guess.

Karoma

Sangre wrote:

Changed mine as parents had put down Catholic. Mom kept trying to tell me I was bapitised so I was Catholic still. Pointed out would I still be Catholic if I convert to Judaism. Obviously not so I'm obviously not still a Catholic.

I went through that too (Predictably) - I was insisted on 'No Religion'...I checked later, 'Roman Catholic' was ticked. :mad:

MrJoeSoap

Sangre wrote:

Changed mine as parents had put down Catholic. Mom kept trying to tell me I was bapitised so I was Catholic still. Pointed out would I still be Catholic if I convert to Judaism. Obviously not so I'm obviously not still a Catholic.

Then my mom started calling me selfish be cause I wouldn't bapitise my kids. Apperantely my cousins had terrible trouble trying to find a school because they had no denomination....Just one more reason to leave Ireland I guess.

Thats terrible. Imagine a country where its harder to find an education because you don't belong to a certain religion... oh wait... we live there.

Too right it's one more reason to leave!

Scofflaw

seamus wrote:

Perfectly. Atheism is not a religion.

On the other hand, it's a religious position, and if you don't write it in, you don't get counted. I tick other, and write Atheist.


cordially,
Scofflaw

Banphrionsa

These census categories seem to be so limited. For example, agnostic is not a religion, but it does not mean that agnostics are not free to adopt what some may think or otherwise believe to be religious. And, of course, there are several definitions one can refer to for the term agnostic, and they do not all agree. I prefer "free thinker," but I am sure there are many out there in cyberland who would disagree with this definition, and that's my point in bringing this up in the first place; i.e., the census categories, religious or otherwise, are not mutually exclusive, thereby rendering categorisation misleading.

And if you really want to throw fat into the fire, I have some kin who would never check "Roman Catholic" but rather consider themselves "Irish Catholic," which could give rise to yet another argument on a different thread as to what the similarities and differences are.:rolleyes:

Simi

The religion section is complete bull. Every god fearing mother in the country is going to tick Roman Catholic for their non-religious kids and husbands, giving the impression 90% of the country are still devote evangelical morons, meaning the government will be perfectly happy to leave schools in the hands of the church, so they don't have to fork out the full amount for school facilities and staff.

Dades

Scofflaw wrote:

On the other hand, it's a religious position, and if you don't write it in, you don't get counted. I tick other, and write Atheist.

That's what I did. Writing "atheist" in the other religion box doesn't make it a religion, just assists in the "no religion" breakdown, which is too general for those with an interest.

Simi wrote:

The religion section is complete bull. Every god fearing mother in the country is going to tick Roman Catholic for their non-religious kids and husbands, giving the impression 90% of the country are still devote evangelical morons, meaning the government will be perfectly happy to leave schools in the hands of the church, so they don't have to fork out the full amount for school facilities and staff.

Despite the fact that being RC does not make people "evangelical morons" (it makes them RC), it is true that the census is skewed by parents ticking boxes for their offspring. A breakdown in age of each catagory result, or even between who was living with parents and who filled in their own form would be interesting.

lostexpectation

went to check the form and my Dad put me in as Roman Catholic Aaargh, I actually thought he knew where I was at. I changed it no religion.

Dades

lostexpectation wrote:

went to check the form and my Dad put me in as Roman Catholic Aaargh, I actualyl thought he knew where I was at.

Parents should be more realistic.

It's like husbands putting their wife's occupation down as "supermodel"...
Stating it in the census won't make it so.

Fallen Seraph

This is quite odd... I also had trouble in getting my parents to put down no religion for me.. It really baffles me... Do they think that having it down on the census makes it official in God's books..? I didn't realise so many people could run into this problem...

seamus

Fallen Seraph wrote:

This is quite odd... I also had trouble in getting my parents to put down no religion for me.. It really baffles me... Do they think that having it down on the census makes it official in God's books..? I didn't realise so many people could run into this problem...

Irish guilt again. Much like dieting, so long as they tell everyone else that they're doing it, they don't feel so bad about not doing it.

Crucifix

I put down no religion. I was tempted to put Jedi, but I decided no religion probably needed everyone it could get.

the real ramon

I never had any problem with the whole parents insisting on putting down RC for me. My mum always said she'd wished since she was a kid that she could've chosen her own religion and passed that attitude on to us three kids of hers. She was far in advance of Irish society for someone born in the a**e end of nowhere during 'the emergency'.

Since I was a teenager I was always allowed fill out my own section, all of us were. I guess I was lucky:)

Dave!

Another Roman Catholic here...

This is ridiculous, can't wait to see the results of it... 90% RC (1% practicing)

Stephen

Same thing happened here. Parents put me down as RC, and apparently I can speak Irish now as well. Their logic being that I went to school here, how could I *not* know Irish?!? -- They think being able to string a cupla focail together is fluency.

The tippex was quickly whipped out there
Changed the religion section to "no religion".

superfly

Ikky Poo2 wrote:

Put down Jedi Knight. Or Gothic Satanist!

i put Jedi

MidnightQueen

Another stupid census question: "How many people in your family were born alive?" Haha! What has that got to do with the population in Ireland? Do the people dead really matter??

Orion

because the people born alive are not dead and need to be counted perhaps?

Orion

Scofflaw wrote:

On the other hand, it's a religious position, and if you don't write it in, you don't get counted. I tick other, and write Atheist.
cordially,
Scofflaw

It's quite the opposite. Atheism is the absence of religion and denial of the existence of a super-being. No Religion sums up atheism perfectly.

Zombrex

Macros42 wrote:

It's quite the opposite. Atheism is the absence of religion and denial of the existence of a super-being. No Religion sums up atheism perfectly.

Yeah I agree, I think "No Religion" is the one to go for here if you are an atheist.

I know people want "atheist" actually counted in the statistics, but what is "Atheists" if not "No religion"

It only confuses matters to put down "My religion is atheist", especially after all the who-har we have these days trying to explain why atheism isn't a belief system or religion in of itself.

When people ask me what religion I am I say "I don't follow a religion". If they then, rather stupidly, ask "But you do believe in God right?", then I say no, I'm an atheist (someone who doesn't believe in gods).

If you don't follow a religion put down you don't follow a religion. Don't put down "My religion is the one that doesn't follow a religion"

Yossie

Wicknight wrote:

I know people want "atheist" actually counted in the statistics

That's exactly what I want.

I stuck down "No religion" with a heavy heart. The problem is with the question. Rather than it being "What is your religion?" It should read something more like "What are your religious beliefs?" which, although not perfect, I could justify answering with "atheist".

Zombrex

Yossie wrote:

That's exactly what I want.

I stuck down "No religion" with a heavy heart. The problem is with the question. Rather than it being "What is your religion?" It should read something more like "What are your religious beliefs?" which, although not perfect, I could justify answering with "atheist".

What do you all actually mean by "not counted" .. not really following that

Surely in the statistics there will be a "No religion" section? Or is that just completely ignored and you have to add up all the religions and subtract it from the total number to get those that ticked "No religion"?

Yossie

Wicknight wrote:

What do you all actually mean by "not counted" .. not really following that

Is that for me...?
If it is, I think you are the victim of my terrible lack of articulation. AFAIK they are all counted including "No religion".

I would just like to have myself recognised as an atheist (and find out how many other there are).

Dades

Yossie wrote:

I would just like to have myself recognised as an atheist (and find out how many other there are).

That's the thing. "No religion" is still vague. Putting down atheist/agnostic or whatever in the box along with No Religion is harmless IMO. If you look at the way the results are listed in the last census, it's just that little bit more specific.

Zombrex

TBH I don't see that there is such a difference that it would matter

I find it unlikely that a lot of people would believe in a god but put down "No Religion"

And in fairness to the census writers, the question is do you follow a religion, not if you believe in god or not. The government doesn't really care if you do or don't not believe in God, but what religion you follow is important

TBH I don't see it being a big deal.