It sure worked on a burglar. The guy jumped out an apartment window upon seeing Thor. (I preferred the NPR “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” segment on this a while back; it had some good-humored quips from Thor on the event.)
As opposed to Unix geeks, who worship Cron. 
From the linked Wikipedia article:
We’ve got the resurrection thing happening already!
Tell that to the “God is my co-pilot” people. Which of course, is HERESY!!! Since they’re placing themselves in control of the vehicle of their life and making God subordinate. 
Roberta Stewart, with the help of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, successfully sued the Veterans Administration to get a Wiccan symbol put on her late husband’s headstone in a military cemetary. Patrick Stewart was killed in Afghanistan in 2005.
http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=9077
I wouldn’t jump to conclusions about the potential for abusing made-up religious beliefs, as you can do the same for established religions. It strikes me as along the lines of “Catholic? What if he wants to drop everything and run to the confessional after every little skirmish? What if he refuses to kill if he’s cut off from access to a confessional?”. I’m neither Catholic nor military, but I highly doubt that Catholic soldiers do anything of the sort.
That was worth a chuckle.
I got in trouble back in 1990 for listing my religion as Druid. We’d all been required to get a second set of dog tags in preparation for possible deployment to Desert Storm. I was a newly minted E-5 and was discussing the religion line on dog tags with another newly minted E-5. I said ‘these are all done by some government subcontractor. They never even look at this line. It’s not even required’ (I don’t know if that’s actually true). So we both gleefully claimed to be Druids. 2 weeks later they came back proper name, SSN, Blood type and listed Druid as the religion.
The First Sergent was NOT amused. We were required to have them replaced and spent a short amount of time on the shit list. He couldn’t stay to mad at us the Battery Commander thought it was a riot and asked me which trees I worshiped. I said I was a reformed Druid and worshiped bushes.
My only regret is the offending tags were confiscated.
This is what I first thought of when I read the OP – are they really allowing concessions for people who claim to be of a “normal” religion? Holy crap I hope not, let’s keep focused on our job (whether it’s digging ditches, shooting people, or making laws) and get our heads out of fantasy land. That’s for after hours when you’re chit-chatting with the wifey and kids, you can talk about jedi and voodoo dolls all you want. Not when you’re on the clock or have a gun in your hand.
So if you actually were a Druid, would the reaction have been the same? Druids do exist, even in the States. Do they somehow verify what religion you are? Or did you list something else when you entered the military?
Interesting. I’ve been to Circle Sanctuary, which was mentioned in the linked article; I went to the International Pagan Spirit Gathering in Wisconsin back in '94 or '95. Smart, fun people.
There is an active community that publically worships the Norse Gods. You might want to think carefully before associating yourself with this crowd. I’ll point out they reject Christianity because they think it’s a Jewish plot and they like the Odin and Thor because they’re white.
If you had pushed the issue you probably would have won. Seriously, how can they prove you are/were not a druid? Again, the army isn’t going to want to start that fight most likely. Besides, your commander was amnused so he probably would have squished any disciplinary action the 1st sergeant thought of.
Its like this…Jewish guys can wear the little cap thingies in uniform, (i don’t know what they are called), followers of islam can if mission and conditions allow it, pray three times a day facing mecca or however they do it, etc. The thing is “if mission and circumstances allow it”. You can’t bug out at a critical time to go pray or something.
But theres wiggle room for it to be abused. Yuo can say “I’m a jedi and my religion requires me to meditate a half hour after midday meals…so I’m going to a little late coming in from lunch.” Sure you can say “Well, you can meditate in the office.” But he can say 'Well, I have to be playing the theme to star wars loudly while I do so in a continuous loop. That will annoy everyone here. So I’ll meditate at home. Besides I must be alone anyway. So I’ll be in a half hour late after lunch. Seeya Sarge…may the force be with you. Nanu nanu!".
Yes, I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea.
Correction: warmed-over Buddism. 
No, that’s not really his style: they’re probably named after Japanese movie genre.
Many theme and plot elements of Star Wars come from Japanese movies and culture.
There’s something more respectable about believing in stories with a tradition that goes back thousands of years, I suppose. Mostly because of their age.
I fail to see how. We know Star Wars is a work of fiction, period. If any Jedi believe that stuff really happened, they’re nuts. If they like to use The Force as a metaphor, that’s extremely geeky but not insane. The best criticism of Jedism isn’t that it comes from a movie, though, it’s that the teachings are vague, useless aphorisms.
Well, there is precedent. War Hammers and Tomahawks, collectively known as impact weapons are actually listed and approved military armaments/tools. I guess warhammers are pretty common in Airborne units. I can’t find the picture but I once saw a whole platoon posing with their warhammers.
Funny, you don’t look Druish.
Dude, stop using the Army-issue briefs. The leg holes are always too big.
…Hjammer in the morning…hee!
I’m sure the answer varies from one country to another but…
I recall hearing and reading messages, some years back, urging me to put “Jedi” as my religion on census forms, on the grounds that if X number of people give that answer (or ANY answer), that becomes an “official” religion.
My question is: what the heck does an “official religion” mean?
In the U.S., a religion doesn’t have to be recognized or certified by the government. A church will typically register with the government as a non-profit agency, just so that it can legally avoid paying SOME taxes, but that’s the extent of “official” recognition.
As far as I know, there is no Jedi organization in the U.S. that has set itself up as a non-profit agency. So, no matter how many wiseacres write “Jedi” on a census form, it changes nothing.
Suppose, say, 2 million Americans called themselves Jedi, just as a lark. Apart from the amusement factor, where would be the supposed benefit? Since there’s no established non-profit Jedi church for people to contribute to, there are no tax advantages. If anything, the Census Bureau will just toss all the Jedis into the “Other” or “Did not repond” category.
I don’t frown on jokey answers to surveys. Back when I was in high school, filling out college applications, I resented having to enter “race” on forms, so I started checking “Other” and filling in “Hibernian” (my family’s Irish). I got a kick out of that at the time, but really, what did I accomplish? Nothing, except to waste a few seconds of some data entry person’s time.
Why bother?
Because it is our right and duty to be annoying right back at people and institutions that ask intrusive questions.
“You don’t need to have my religion printed on my dog tags.” </handwave>
They claim to be the only one, but I’ve heard of others.