What’s Jediism? Devotion to Star Wars? Apparently more than a few people are taking it so seriously that it’s more or less a religion, reports BBC News Magazine:
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Followers of Jediism are aiming to build a belief system that goes beyond the Star Wars films. But does it amount to a new religion?
It began as a joke at the expense of statisticians. In the UK’s 2001 Census, 390,127 people – or 0.7% of the population – described themselves as Jedi. A question on religious belief had been asked for the first time in a census and Jedi – from the cloak-wearing, lightsaber swishing rebels in the Star Wars films – was a tongue-in-cheek response.
It was a post-modernist Star Wars joke by atheists. Or so many assumed. But for some the force was strong.
An ideas festival at Cambridge University this weekend will look at how new “religious movements”, such as Jediism, the Indigo Children and Wicca, have expanded online.