[pingec]

One strange thing (to me) about Indonesian ID cards is that they have a compulsory field "Religion" where one must choose one of six possible religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. If one is without religion or follows another religion he must still pick one of those 6.

Another strange thing (to me) is the complex dependency between institutions. In order to be able to apply for various things like documents, benefits, scholarship, school admission etc. one needs approval from head of family then head of the village, then letter from the police and so on. Be on bad terms with any of these (individuals) and some government services are unavailable to you. I heard a story from and Indonesian about how he could not go to university because the head of the village didn't want to give him the letter that he needed to apply to university.

Also marriage between members of different religions is not possible. So one person must convert to the other's religion before they can be married.

[jhgb]

> Also marriage between members of different religions is not possible. So one person must convert to the other's religion before they can be married.

Ah, a strongly typed country!

[aruggirello]

...with an enforced ACL.

[dcolkitt]

> "Religion" where one must choose one of six possible religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. If one is without religion or follows another religion he must still pick one of those 6.

It always felt, to me, like the Dutch colonizers culturally transferred their concept of pillarisation[1] to Indonesian society.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillarisation

[novok]

The reason why religion is probably Mandatory(tm) is because Indonesia is an islamic country. You see similar behavior in other islamic countries in the middle east and their documents.

[langitbiru]

> Also marriage between members of different religions is not possible.

You can. But it's hard. So basically the main requirement of marriage is it must be performed in a religious ceremony. You cannot have a pure civil marriage in Indonesia. So the thing is.... the clerics, the priests are not fond of mixed-marriages. But there are marriages between Buddhist and Catholic, Christian and Catholic, Muslim and Christian. I'm an Indonesian.

Also, there is a loop-hole. You get married overseas and register it in an Indonesian embassy.

[hannofcart]

I believe the reason why Indonesia does not list atheism in government forms is because in most Shariah influenced jurisdictions, atheism would amount to apostasy and hence be deemed a crime.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_athei...

[cher88]

But so would converting to one of the other five religions...

[novok]

But if you never converted, then you never committed apostasy, and Christians and Jews are 'people of the book'.

[basementcat]

A "religion" field in government documents is fairly common. In many countries, some tax revenues are given to religious institutions proportional to the number of citizens that belong to that religion.

[klmadfejno]

That doesn't make any sense if there's no non-religious category

[Cerium]

Where would the tax money go? /s

[masklinn]

That would actually benefit the state (financially anyway) as it could just pocket the extra income.

But afaik in Germany if you’re officially non-religious, or your declared religion is not party to the church tax system, you just don’t get taxed.

[nicbou]

This is correct. The Church Tax is only collected if you belong to denominations that collect it. The state takes a cut on the collection, so Church Tax indirectly benefits other citizens.

On the other hand, it's pretty unsettling to be asked your religion when you register your address for the first time. The church in your home country can sometimes onboard you without your knowledge, and you end up paying the church tax. This happened to French and Italian friends.

[m-p-3]

To /dev/null

[h0nd]

It is common in non secularized countries.

[emmab]

It's not strange. Many religions contain an absolute prohibition against denying your faith. It prevents any true believers in those religions from having government documents.

It's fully intentional.

[dqpb]

The US has “race” fields on most forms with equally ridiculous options.

[CamTin]

There's usually (always?) an "other" or "I would prefer not to say" option though.

[dqpb]

In my view, the categories they provide, and even the question itself perpetuates racism.

I acknowledge that the data is useful for understanding communities. But the question should be reframed to not reinforce racism.

[tpush]

In that case even the mere presence of a field called 'race' is the ridiculous thing.

[uyt]

It's weird to me that Confucianism is listed. That one is more like a philosophy?

That's like listing cynicism/stoicism/utilitarianism/or-whatever-else-ism as a religion.

[novok]

It's basically saying 'I'm chinese-indonesian'