Comment Re:Survey with "Jedi" option available (Score 0) 262
Knowing religion is somewhat useful, as it allows the government to make plans: for example, if they can predict how many children will be going to grant-maintained schools (or whatever they're called now), they know what is worth funding (and, more importantly, they can guess how many aren't going to state schools, and thus how many classrooms they don't need to build).
Even local councils might find it useful: if a denomination is in long-term decline (as Judaism is here) they can assume that there won't be much of an increase in the need for parking around a synagogue. OTOH, if a denomination is growing, they might ins is that they set aside land for future car parking around new facilities.
That said, the French system (with an almost impregnable wall between church and state) does have a certain appeal.
We know that Jedi is an entirely fictional belief system - if Lucas were inspired to write the films to teach us about the Force, there's no way he'd have been inspired to write The Phantom Menace. Even the dark side would have done a better job.