I think "data-chiselling" is a little strong but I do take your point. I
think (and I'm second-guessing the figure here knowing neither method
nor aim) it may have been a 'strategic aggregation,' borne out of
positionality rather than any perception of being able to directly map
one set of beliefs upon another. I'd guess the intention would be to
delineate 'geocentric worship' as opposed to monotheism etc. Remember,
the claim is made in a fairly basic advert sent out to a non-specialist
audience and probably intended to agitate interest. You're quite right,
of course, there were probably heathens shuddering at being lumped in
with Druids, Wiccans with Pantheists and so on but maybe some of them
shrugged their shoulders in order to make the most of the opportunity?
Best wishes,
Andrew
D E wrote:
> my research with the census data was to give some supporting numbers
> of pagans in the UK, but I compared that to 'straight' religions to
> give an idea of the minor scale, and the census numbers included a lot
> of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikh, atheists etc,
> and to artificially aggregate all neopagans into one lump to force
> them into number 7 on the list is, imo, duplicitous and criminal
> data-chiselling, especially when that aggregate might well include the
> 1500 or so who self-labeled as Satanists, and who would presumably
> abhor wiccans/pagans almost as much as they abhor xians.... plus a few
> thousand Druids, who in many cases are as much 'Celtic christian' as
> much as they are pagan, and a whopping 32 thousand Spiritualists,
> (ditto for nominally christian underpinnings), with only just over
> 7000 self-labeling as Wiccan
>
> with maybe (a big maybe) 120-140,000 being nominally pagan or
> something similar (this includes all the small numbers of Santeria,
> Asatru etc)
>
> and that figure is simply dwarfed by the 390,000 Jedi Knights : )
>
> dave e
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Fergus Wilson"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 7:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] [Norton AntiSpam]
> [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Witchcraft/Nature worship talk. Midlands, England.
>
>
>> D E wrote:
>>> *suppresses laughter*
>> Well, I'm delighted to have brought happiness - suppressed or not -
>> to your your day.
>>
>>> this isn't the same census data I spent hours working with few years
>>> back, then .....
>>>
>> Did your findings vary then? It would be very useful if you would
>> share it :-)
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>> /Paganism is the oldest religion in the World, dating back to the
>>> cave man. And it's still growing in popularity. At the last
>>> census (2001), Paganism was the 7th largest religion in the UK -
>>> and it's grown in popularity since then. /
>>>
>>
>
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