Wednesday, December 06, 2006



Increasing diversity

After the last census, the Department of Statistics noted the rapid growth of non-Christian religions. In case anyone is wondering, here's an updated version of the table:

And in case anyone else was wondering, the census recorded 1,167 Satanists, 2,316 Exclusive Brethren, and no Jedi.

10 comments:

That means their statistics aren't reliable then, they've been censored / doctored, because I know at least one person who put Jedi! Me!

Posted by Anonymous : 12/06/2006 09:26:00 PM

Anon: You're probably counted in "Other religion nfd" (not further defined). But there's no seperate category for "Jedi", and thus no seperate count.

There's no category for "Cthulhu Cult" (whether orthodox or reformed) either.

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 12/06/2006 10:03:00 PM

I think the plurality of "no religion" is the most pleasing outcome. 36.7% is significant enough to keep pushing the secularisation of the state.

Posted by Libertyscott : 12/07/2006 06:27:00 AM

Wtf is "spiritualism?" Apart from code for "I'm a sucker for any new-age bullshit," I mean - is there actually some religion called spiritualism?

Posted by Psycho Milt : 12/07/2006 07:39:00 AM

Psycho Milt: Traditionally, speaking to the dead via a medium. Very popular in the late C19th. Today, its cross-fertilised with all sorts of other new age bullshit, but I don't doubt there are people who genuinely believe it (after all, people believe in god, and we don't doubt the genuineness of their belief).

See the Wikipedia entry here.

Danyl: get enough people to put it down for long enough to get noticed by their sociologists, would be my guess. but I'd also suggest putting "New Church of the Great Old Ones", since there are already people doign that.

As for the Satanists, I think it would be amusing. But there's even less of them than there are Exclusive Brethren.

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 12/07/2006 11:17:00 AM

We will feel the wrath of noodly appendages if we are not careful

Posted by Anonymous : 12/07/2006 12:24:00 PM

New Church of the Great Old Ones? Heretic! Only the Reformed New Church of the Great Old Ones is the true path to the time when the stars are right!

Posted by Weekend_Viking : 12/07/2006 12:38:00 PM

Thank you I/S. I was about to despair that 20,181 such imbeciles exist in NZ, not to mention that there's been a 26% increase in such imbecility since 2001, but eventually calmed down enough to realise there's actually no less reason to be a spiritualist than anything else, so it's alright. Hmm, on second thoughts, that shouldn't actually make me feel better.

Posted by Psycho Milt : 12/07/2006 03:18:00 PM

Psycho: The "Spiritualism" top-level category listed in the graph includes everything from Wicca and Druids to Scientologists, so there's multiple typs of imbecile in there.

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 12/07/2006 03:26:00 PM

It may also be worth noting that the increase in just one of the Christian denominations (Catholicism) is only 5000 less than the combined increase in Buddhism and the Muslim population, which have increased 26 percent and 53 percent respectively. Large percentage increases of small groups mean nothing when compared to small percentage increases of large groups.

Posted by Swimming : 12/08/2006 06:51:00 AM