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'What is your religion?' People are being urged to think hard about that come census night

The Humanists Association of Ireland want people to consider how they really feel.

THIS YEAR’S CENSUS is going to be held four weeks from tomorrow and there’s a campaign to make sure people think carefully about one particular question.

Question 12 asks people, What is your religion? 

On its specialised website Census.ie, the Central Statistics Office says that everyone should answer the question whether they have a religion or not, but it also gives some guidance about how they answer it.

The CSO says that the question is not about how often they attend church or how they are brought up, but rather how they feel.

“People should answer the question based on how they feel now about their religious beliefs, if any,” the CSO says.

The question is asking about the person’s current religion or beliefs and not about the religion the person may have been brought up with. If the person has a religion they can identify that religion by ticking one of the tick box categories, or by writing in a description of your religion or beliefs in the write-in boxes.

“If they do not have a religion, they should go to the end of the question and mark the ‘No religion’ box.”

cso.ie CSO.ie CSO.ie

One group encouraging people to tick the ‘no religion’ box if they don’t practice or believe in a religion is the Humanists Association of Ireland (HAI).

The HAI says that the census consistently underestimates the number of people who are non-religious.

Its director Terry Flynn argues that the question itself is poorly worded because it presumes people have a religion rather than asking if they do.

Also the way the answer is structured, it doesn’t give you Christian or Muslim or Buddhist, it immediately asks you if you’re Roman Catholic or Church of Ireland. They’re denominations of a religion.

Flynn says it should be a two-part question which first asks you if you practice a religion and, if you say ‘Yes’, only then should ask about the specifics.

“If you look at it, ‘No religion’ is at the bottom, really it should be at the top,” Flynn argues.

Even though the CSO says the answer should be based on how you feel rather than how you were brought up, Flynn says this isn’t made clear to people.

Flynn also says people mightn’t think about the consequences of the religious question. Specifically, how the government may use it in decisions regarding schools and hospitals.

People are unsure what store the government bodies or other people put into it and what policies that could affect. Like, is it just academic information or does it derive policy directly?

Speaking about humanism, Flynn says their members would be made up of atheists, agnostics and others with their members encouraged to have,

an open and rational mind in our belief systems, no superstition and no supernatural.

The 2011 census found that 270,000 people classified themselves as ‘No religion’.

PastedImage-40615 census.ie census.ie

Read: Interview where Stephen Fry tells Gay Byrne God is evil is up for an award >

Read: Secular Schools Ireland to apply to run three new primary schools in Dublin >

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    Mute Charlie Fogarty
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    Oct 29th 2016, 7:57 PM

    Christmas gift for myself I think.

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    Mute mcgoo
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    Oct 29th 2016, 8:01 PM

    +1

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    Mute Type17
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    Oct 29th 2016, 9:45 PM

    Been getting my hair cut in Pip Connolly’s since the late 70′s – he won’t take new customers now, only his regulars, but he’s still going strong.
    Great to see Eric’s shots – the story of Ireland, along with the likes of Matt Kavanagh and Peter Thursfield.

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    Mute Patrick Mac
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    Oct 29th 2016, 7:13 PM

    Careful Eamon, some lefty types might accuse you of being a racist.

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    Mute Martin Byrne
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    Oct 29th 2016, 7:20 PM

    Well lefties and also people who aren’t racists.

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Oct 29th 2016, 7:51 PM

    Why? Because multiculturalism is a load of tripe? All races are equally OK, all cultures are not.

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    Mute Joe
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    Oct 29th 2016, 8:39 PM

    @Greg Blake:

    Imported medievalism dressed up in progressive authoritarianism and liberal bigotry.

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    Mute BL
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    Oct 29th 2016, 8:23 PM

    Great photos, Eric. Very evocative. You were always a great photographer, and a gentleman to work with back in the IP days.

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    Mute Daniel Fontaine
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    Oct 29th 2016, 8:12 PM

    You’d hardly know the place now.

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    Mute Tariq ibn Ziyad
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    Oct 29th 2016, 8:22 PM

    That’s a good thing though,the empty churches are a sign of progress and better education.

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    Mute eastsmer #IRExit
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    Oct 30th 2016, 1:36 AM

    @Tariq ibn Ziyad: Odd, my church is not empty

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    Mute Tariq ibn Ziyad
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    Oct 30th 2016, 10:58 AM

    That may be the case Easter,but it’s unusual to only have one pew in a church.

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    Mute joe o hare
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    Oct 29th 2016, 9:05 PM

    Multi cult hell hole.….. Catch a grip of yourself.

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    Mute Martin Duggan
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    Feb 25th 2017, 10:21 AM

    Great images

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