For God's Sake Say No!

Truley

Noticed this popping up in my facebook page recently. It's a campaign by the British Humanist Association to get people to tick 'no religion' on their census forms. They also want the question to be rephrased to be less religiously leading. Obviously the idea is old news for people here, this is getting the idea out there on a mainstream level.

Hopefully we might start seeing some discernible change, or at the very least raise awareness. I do love their slogan!

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I think this is aimed at people who are officially members of some church but who are, in practice, atheist or agnostic. It's a good idea. I plan to state 'No religion' on the census, but I am somewhat torn on the issue; 'no religion' does not necessarily mean you do not believe in gods or deities, it could be interpreted as not being a member of an organised religion. On the other hand, including 'atheist' under the 'religion' category seems to imply that atheism is a religion, which it is not.

Perhaps atheism could be put below the rest, with something like:

'If you consider yourself to have no religious faith (i.e. you are atheist), please tick this box: [ ]'

or

'Do you have a religious faith? Yes (theist) [ ] No (atheist) [ ]'

Lumping atheism in with religions is pretty silly. We should have census questions/results categorised like so:

• Theist
• Atheist (no religion)
• No answer

Then the theist category could be broken down in the various religions, including 'non-denominational'. This would remove any ambiguity.

Dades

^^ I don't think atheism should be mentioned at all on the census. My experience here is that, although many people are de facto atheists, they call themselves agnostics or deists, so this isn't a box they would tick.

"No Religion" fits fine. No religion suggests you do not want one or more religious codes getting preference in public policy, which is the purpose of the question I would have thought.

I agree the question the British Humanists are complaining about is a little 'leading', but what is the alternative they are suggesting - I can't find their suggestion? And to be honest I can't see too many people being goaded into checking a religious box just because of the question. If you're of a mind to check "No Religion" the question isn't going to change your mind.

Lastly a facebook campaign is great, but they don't mention young people taking control of their own stats. Do they not have the "mammy-effect" they have here?

They mention that the stats of the last census show a higher amount of religious then any current polls ever do - but have they taken into account the probability that children from zero to whatever don't get the option to choose and are automatically put down as their parents religions? So unless the polls they speak of are polling newborns and schoolkids obviously there will be a huge discrepancy.