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[endlessrarities]

Yippee!! An awfully nice lady just appeared at the door and asked if we'd be willing to complete the census.

Hey, I'm a purveyor of the past.  Of course I said yes!!!  (Swells with pride at being asked to contribute to this exercise in historical data gathering.)

And no, I won't be screwing up the results by saying 'Jedi Knight'.  Even though I am a self-confessed Star Wars fan....

Comments

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

Had the same visit a short time ago. I thought I'd post on the subject but I might be interrupted by a sisterly visit.

[clairehawthorn.livejournal.com]

I wasn't considered worthy of a personal visit.
The postman shoved a census form through my letterbox a week ago with a deluge of junk mail.
I have yet to fill it in. My husband wanted to complete the task. However, once he realised he was only allowed to tick a box in answer to certain questions, rather than launch into the long-winded rant he was itching to do, the job was handed over to me.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Maybe they're really desperate for respondees round here!!

[technophobe1975.livejournal.com]

You are now making history :)

[jandersoncoats.livejournal.com]

You guys get a choice whether or not to fill it out? Heck, here they mail 'em to everyone scattershot and hope for the best. If you don't send it back, you get polite but insistent postcards until you comply. If you still don't send it back, you get a personal visit by a big hairy guy named Vinnie who cradles a lead pipe and politely inquires when you might do so.

(Okay, maybe not that last part. You do get a visit, though. Usually from a nice lady with glasses in a neon vest.)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I got the impression that the selection was random, and that it was up to you whether you agree to participate or not. Which seems a bit strange, especially when you compare this situation with the English/Welsh contingent.

There's probably some weird phrase in the Declaration of Arbroath which states that the Scots will only have to complete a census if they choose to:-)

[jandersoncoats.livejournal.com]

Oy, I don't even want to think how the Statute of Rhuddlan requires Welsh people to fill out the census.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I thought everyone had to do it, though of course you're Scotland rather than EnglandandWales, so perhaps it's different for you?

Anyway, our form came in the post a week or so ago and is sitting on the bookshelf in the hall waiting for the appointed day.

The religion question gave me pause for thought. Because there's no way to write a proper explanation, I'm going to have to put Buddhist, though I attend the local Quaker meeting. I am certainly not what most Christians would recognise as Christian anyway, so that's going to be the best match.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to put 'None' in the religion box. I'm just impossible to categorise.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Filling in the census form is a legal obligation - in England anyway. I'd be surprised if it was otherwise in Wales, but I'm not sure about Scotland.

There's a big push for pagans to step up to the plate this year on the religious question. Google: 'pagan dash' for information.

I never know what to put. I'm an atheist, but there's no box to tick for that, just a box for 'no religion' which isn't necessarily quite the same thing. On the religion question I'd like to see an additional tick box for 'I am active in my faith' because I'll bet that 90% of the people who tick 'Christian' are of the christenings/weddings/funerals variety. People who have not been inside a church for forty years will still tick Christian because they sang hymns in school assembly and like getting presents at Christmas and were probably christened into the church by well meaning parents before they had any say in the matter.

Have you noticed that there's no way you can get un-christened?

Don't get me started... oh, you have... sorry.
:-)
This year I might have to be: Pagan - Atheist. Though Jedi is awfully tempting, or Pastafarian (Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster).

In 100 years time when my great great great grandchildren come looking for me to add to their family tree, at least they'll learn I had a sense of humour.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I like to think of myself informally as a pagan with Episcopalian tendencies, but when my back's against the wall I flop into the 'agnostic' camp!!! Which is probably a euphemism for the 'I don't know what the heck's going on out there, so I'll hedge my bets...'category.

There is certainly no box for pagans with Episcopalian Tendencies...

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I'm deeply hypocritical when it comes to religion. While professing to be a committed atheist and having no belief in an afterlife or a supreme being I did an annual Christmas show tour for 15 years (and made 3 carol CDs) on the principle of 'it's business.' I definitely have pagan tendencies, but more in the nature spirituality and philosophical sense. And at the same time I am still a product of approximately 3,500 hymn-singing school assemblies and of having 'Christian values' pumped into me all my life. I am one of those people who could easily put 'Christian' on my census form when I ap patently not by belief, but am by culture. The census form actually makes it easy to tick the Christian box because by doing so we don't have to think about the rest of it. Hence I would like a box that asks if I actively pursue my faith.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Our form definitely stresses the 'organised' religion bit. So I guess I'll be ticking 'none'!!