Comments on: Only 2,418 Scientologists in England and Wales, Vastly Outnumbered by Jedi Knights

By: Chris Paddock

Chris Paddock — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:55:00 +0000

In reply to John P..

I suspect that your arithmetic is impeccable – but you don’t seem to be so hot on geography.
“the population of England, per the census, went from 52.4 million to 56.1 million”

56.1m = England and Wales (per the 2011 England and Wales census, Office of National Statistics) and Wales is not part of England (and England with or without Wales is neither Great Britain nor the UK {and GB and the UK are not the same either}). Try http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/britain/britain.htm for clarification.
Presumably you realised you had made an error of 3m people when you concentrated exclusively on the numbers in your response. Doesn’t invalidate your main point of course, but it’s nice to know you can screw up – why should I be the only one!

By: 1subgenius

1subgenius — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:47:00 +0000

And yet allegedly 1,600 people attended the grand opening of a new Scientology store in Seattle last month.

http://seattle.curbed.com/archives/2012/12/church-of-scientology-opens-up-shop-in-queen-anne.php

By: Django

Django — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:51:00 +0000

A figure of 1,781 in 2001 vs. 2,418 in 2011 could be because Scientology let a few more victims actually answer the Census question, just to up their stats. Just sayin’…..

By: Snuzey

Snuzey — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:13:00 +0000

My first thought when I read 2,418 was how many of these listed themselves as Scientologists but who are not a part of the Church of Sci? I can tell you I found about 6-10 in my (pretty big) city and none are part of the Church! So you can knock that off the total! I’m surprised there is actually that many. It will be that 90% of that total will be based in London/East Grinstead, where they trucked a load in from overseas for 3 months prior to the census being taken. Apart from poor old George who is probably still thinking everyone is stuck in an electronic incident, it really does not feature in the UK. Everyone I know just thinks its a whacky cult in Hollywood!

By: mook

mook — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:13:00 +0000

In reply to BuryTheNuts2. *facepalm* the fine folks at WWP posted this as if it were new story.

By: BuryTheNuts2

BuryTheNuts2 — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:50:00 +0000

In reply to sheepherder. One day!

By: lia

lia — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:01:00 +0000

In reply to John P..

census results in australia reflect the same trend: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-29/scientology-numbers-going-backwards/4101958

By: jensting

jensting — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 07:40:00 +0000

In reply to Xenu’sAdvocate.

Good point! I get the feeling that quite a few indies would be rather keen to put in “scientology” – seeing how they think that they’re representing the genuine, not substituted by David Miscavige – original super golden platinum 110% standard tech!

By: jensting

jensting — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 07:24:00 +0000

In reply to Jason Unohu.

If only members had the balls (or “confront” as they say) to come here and challenge the math… (And, of course, the math is – ahh – worth thinking about twice, as John hopefully makes clear – ha ha – below.)

By: Xenu'sAdvocate

Xenu'sAdvocate — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:12:00 +0000

Just out of curiosity:

(a) Wouldn’t the figure of 2,418 include not only COS members but freezoners or indie scientologists? According to the survey site

“the question (‘What is your religion?’) asks about religious affiliation, that is how we connect or identify with a religion, irrespective of actual practise or belief. Religion is a many sided concept and there are other aspects of religion such as religious belief, religious practice or belonging which are not covered in this analysis2.”

The wording suggest to me at least that such ‘denominational distinctions’, even if explicitly indicated by those surveyed, would be intentionally ignored when compiling the data. If so, then,

(b) How strong is the indie/freezone movement in the UK?