Australian Census says 1500 Scientologists - alt.religion.scientology

Message from discussion Australian Census says 1500 Scientologists

Neil Muspratt

More options Oct 9 1997, 3:00 am

Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology

From: n...@gargoyle--.apana.org.au (Neil Muspratt)

Date: 1997/10/09

Subject: Re: Australian Census says 1500 Scientologists

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On 6 Oct 1997 12:29:06 +1000, f...@thingy.apana.spaaaamtraaaaap.org.au

(David Gerard) wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Oct 1997 20:27:45 GMT,
> Eric S. Smith: Left-Field Marshal <cs...@blaze.trentu.ca> wrote:
> :In article <slrn63dqsp.d91....@thingy.apana.org.au>,
> :Frank Copeland <f...@thingy.apana.org.au> wrote:
> :>Anthony Fore <T...@four.com.au> wrote:

> :>>Its Offical!!! the recent census figures from 1996 record 1500
> :>>Scientologists in Australia.
> :>Source? The previous census gave only 1091.
> :Well, obviously, Scientology is using its miracle technology to grow and
> :expand. To a round figure, no less.

> Round figures happen. I would be surprised by growth in the figure though.
> Must look up past Censuses some time though.

Perhaps the growth is easily explained. Just imagine .au clams being
ordered in 1996 to put "Scientologist" in the "Religion" section come
census time to make it look like the cult is growing here. Plausible?

Whatever the real reason for this increase, I'd say there are *more*
than just 1,500 in the country. It's likely there are some who don't
mention their true religious affiliation on the census form, perhaps
due to paranoia about what the government might do with that sort of
information (I have wondered from time to time if ASIO or the Federal
Police keep tabs on our favourite cult on the quiet).

Still, 1,500 falls far short of the number dreamed up by an official
cult mouthpiece in "The Weekend Australian" from 1 February this year:

... by the mid-1990s, Scientology had a firm foothold in Australia
with, according to a spokeswoman, Virginia Stewart, "two churches
in Sydney, and one in Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and
Perth". Stewart estimates the total membership at about 150,000.

If the census data is reasonably accurate, that's quite a discrepancy
there. Two orders of magnitude in fact. But, exaggerations like that
didn't seem to bother Hubbard very much, so I guess they don't bother
Virginia very much either.

150,000 is about 0.8% of the current population of Australia (about 19
million) and is probably more than the total number of people serving
in our military forces, both regular and reserve!

Somehow I think Virginia is including BTs in the count.

> :--Eric Smith
> :(Is Australian census data Webbed?)

> Not much of it - have a look at http://www.abs.gov.au/ . Basically they
> want us to buy data we've already paid for in taxes, and which was
> acquired compulsorily anyway.

The ABS should start its own religion. They'd clean up.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Neil Muspratt SP3.07 n...@gargoyle.apana.org.au |
| Brisbane Australia |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

We have never had the idea of recognising the Church of Scientology
as a religious association.

- French Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement, 30 July 1997

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