Cyprus-Forum.com

[Get Real!]

"Atheism" is not an "other" religion.

An atheist is just an evolving theist who may or may not get there before his end...

[Atheist]

I don’t recall an interview of any kind… just some youngster who sat in front of a laptop and asked 5-6 questions and filled out the rest of the blanks without asking anything.

That is how it was. This is why I specifically asked for the religion question because my parents were not even asked that one.

[Get Real!]

But even in the highly unlikely case that a "God" exists,...

Do you suppose that the ever lasting universe popped out of one of those evolutionary magic monkey seeds?

[yialousa1971]

Same goes for ethnicity… he assumed “Greek Cypriot” because we spoke in Greek and I said “No, just plain Cypriot…” but there was no such option!

A valid option for you would be "other ethnicity". They can't make an option for every tiny minority of people. That is why the "other" option exists But I am looking at the census results and I can't see anything about ethnicity. There is country of birth, citizenship, language, religion etc... but nothing about ethnicity in the results

Of cause GR would select other as she is a chicken.

http://www.angelfire.com/ak/gchicken/

[yialousa1971]

My Cyprus ID has my nationality as Cypriot / British.
Im happy with this.

You are a certified charlie.

He's the very first Charlie, father of GR!

[yialousa1971]

Situation here in GB...

Any government or council form you fill in also asks questions on ethnicity. You aren't obliged to fill in this ethnicity section.

The choices include ticking either the "gc" or the "tc" option, with no just CY option. So that section goes unanswered.

As to religion, the section usually does contain a simple atheist option.

The issue here is not so much about what options they gave but that an option that was not available during the census interview showed up in the results.

I agree. Even many of those that say they are Christians, usually they are not real Christians.

Agreed! The vast majority of Orthodox Christians are not really Christian!

You and YiaLoser are not real Christians.

I will let God judge that, my little friend.

All creatures great and small, small being Paphitis!

[GreekIslandGirl]

I don’t recall an interview of any kind… just some youngster who sat in front of a laptop and asked 5-6 questions and filled out the rest of the blanks without asking anything.

That is how it was. This is why I specifically asked for the religion question because my parents were not even asked that one.

I am curious as to why you are so concerned with being asked your religion? I for one cannot wait until the day when it is not even asked - when it is like asking someone their favourite comic book. A redundant non-entity. You seem overly concerned for a supposed 'atheist'.

[GreekIslandGirl]

Here's the Cyprus  'C E N S U S  O F  P O P U L A T I O N  2011' questionnaire:

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/ ... 2011en.pdf

Good boy!

It says: "Other, Specify"

So that's where they have the specified number of "Atheists" from and the OP is looking sillier and sillier.

You just made a fool of yourself and now you are grasping at straws "Atheism" is not an "other" religion.

Of course Atheism is a religion! You yourself expected to have it asked in the religion section. Silly billy!

To the relevant question he selected himself "Orthodox Christian" while asking "Orthodox Christian, right?" to which I answered that I was atheist. He then went on to select the option "Other" from the religion list.

[Atheist]

But even in the highly unlikely case that a "God" exists,...

Do you suppose that the ever lasting universe popped out of one of those evolutionary magic monkey seeds?

The creation of our universe is explained to a great degree by science. There is a lot more to learn of course but that is the beauty of science. If we had accepted as the truth whatever was written in "holy books" 2000 years ago then progress would have stopped and we would still think that the earth is the center of the universe. I have no problem to accept that certain things are unknown. I don't need a religion to fill with lies the gaps of our current knowledge.

What I find amazing is that some people find it hard to accept that a comparatively basic universe could have expanded out of "nothing" - which is indeed something not easy to comprehend, but then they accept so easily that a complex entity such as a God could have come out of nowhere. If the logic is "nothing can exist without a creator", then that same logic would apply to a God as well.

And then of course there is the next level of wishful thinking: That not only there is a Creator who created everything, but that this creator actually cares about our beliefs and our well being.

I am not saying that religion can't be helpful for practical reasons. A belief in a God can psychologically help people in many occasions. So from a society point of view religion could be a good thing if not taken to extremes. What I don't like is when religion is imposed on you, and unfortunately in Cyprus (and many other places) it is still imposed in many occasions.

[Atheist]

Here's the Cyprus  'C E N S U S  O F  P O P U L A T I O N  2011' questionnaire:

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/ ... 2011en.pdf

Good boy!

It says: "Other, Specify"

So that's where they have the specified number of "Atheists" from and the OP is looking sillier and sillier.

You just made a fool of yourself and now you are grasping at straws "Atheism" is not an "other" religion.

Of course Atheism is a religion! You yourself expected to have it asked in the religion section. Silly billy!

To the relevant question he selected himself "Orthodox Christian" while asking "Orthodox Christian, right?" to which I answered that I was atheist. He then went on to select the option "Other" from the religion list.

Atheism is not a religion http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutatheis ... ligion.htm

And if you can't see that Atheism is not a religion, then what about the "no religion" option? Are you going to argue that "no religion" is a religion also?

And yes, it would be asked in the religion section, but the option for that would be at the very least "None", not "Other".

Furthermore, as I (and others) noted, this was an interview contacted verbally by some people who filled many of the answers themselves. Many times they didn't even ask the religion of people, they just assumed it. In my case he made it clear that there was no way for him to record my answer of being non-religious in that form. He just ticked the "Other" box.

He didn't even tell me that there is a "specify" part and that "atheist" or "no religion" could be noted there. It would still be technically wrong, but it would be acceptable. However it seems the interviewer didn't think that Atheism and "No Religion" is an Other religion, so he didn't offer even this option.

I am curious as to why you are so concerned with being asked your religion? I for one cannot wait until the day when it is not even asked - when it is like asking someone their favourite comic book. A redundant non-entity. You seem overly concerned for a supposed 'atheist'.

Because if a group of people is shown to be tiny (0.15% as the fake results show the number of the "Atheists/No-religion" group) then these people can be ignored much easier. Example: Mandatory religion courses in schools, which I believe should be optional, but it is much harder to make that argument if fake census data shows that practically everybody who attends our public schools is Orthodox.