Greetings my fellow Padawans,
Many Christians are cashing in the Star Wars universe, connecting their belief with Star Wars terminologies like “The Force”, “Jedi”, etc.
Well… I really do not know anything about Christian business strategies and tactics but I know something about the Star Wars Universe.
So hold and get ready ‘coz we’ll be going hyperspace!!!
Point 1: Is “The Force” God?
Answer: No
Allot of believer says that The Force is the same as God to connect Star Wars and justify it to be the same with their belief. But Master Obi-Wan has already told us what The Force is.
The Force was a metaphysical, binding, and ubiquitous power that held enormous importance for both the Jedi and Sith monastic orders. The Force was viewed in many different aspects, including, but not limited to, the light side, the dark side, the Unifying Force, and the Living Force. The first two aspects were concerned with the moral compass of the Force in its various manifestations. The light side of the Force was the facet aligned with compassion, courage, healing, and benevolence, while the dark side of the Force was the element aligned with hatred, fear, aggression, and malevolence. The latter two aspects were defined by prominent Jedi philosophies: The Unifying Force essentially embraced space and time in its entirety while the Living Force dealt with the energy of living things. Though the Force was categorized in this way, there were no specific abilities or powers that were only usable by a follower of a different path of the Force; the Force partially existed inside the life forms that used it, and drew energy from their emotions.
In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the original Star Wars film, the Force is first described by Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi as an energy field created by all living things, that surrounds and penetrates living beings and binds the galaxy together.
He said that The Force,
“…is an energy field generated by living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”
So, it’s an energy field generated or created by living things. It is created. The Force is generated by all living things and is an inextricable part of life itself. Nevertheless there exist inanimate objects and places which are strong in one side of the Force or the other. The Force exists in all life, and when great amounts of life pass away, a disturbance is created, running through the Force like a scream which only Force-adept can hear.
The Force can enhance natural physical and mental abilities, including strength and accuracy. Manifestations of the Force, which were mentally-based abilities and tapped through the practitioner’s willpower, could take many forms, and included telepathy, psychokinesis, and enhanced physical and metaphysical perception. The Force could be used to bend the will of weak-minded beings and guide an adept’s body. Users who were very good at using the Force could cease merely reacting to their surroundings and actually predict events in the very near future, such as the next blow in a duel.
“The Force is what gives the Jedi his power.”
So it say that the Force can be manipulate and use to one’s advantage. But if you are not purge with elements that leads to its dark side, then it cannot be controlled and become addictive, which leads to curruption.
Also, notice that the Force is not worshipped. There is not temple for the Force, only an academy that is located in Corruscant.
Point 2: The Force has two sides.
Unlike the Judeo-Christian God, the Force is expressed with two opposites, it has an evil side but within the same nature. More like the Yin-Yang of Taoism.
The evil in the Force is not about temptations and sin. It’s about discipline and balance.
Master Yoda is very clear on that matter. “A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side! Anger,
fear, aggression – the dark side of the Force are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan’s apprentice.”
“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
The dark side of the Force comes from the hate, vengeance, malice in all living things, one’s own will to power, ego, and selfishness. They must be purge from your life to achieve discipline and provides insight into the ethical use of the Force.
So there, I hope I shed some light on Christian mischief regarding The Force. There is nothing Christian on the Star Wars Universe. It is a mixture of Eastern mysticism and discipline with a touch of romantic chivalry and space-age adventure.
You don’t need to enroll in a Jedi Academy in Corusscant or to have a large metaclorian count to learn that.
assuming the force in star wars is true, it may prove spirituality since the 'binding' property of the force is quite similar to spirituality's concept of oneness. to say however that the force is god is pushing it. as you said, the force comes in two flavors, the good side and the bad side. god is supposedely good only(at least the christian god is).
Igme – I didn’t realize stargate atlantis used zeropoint energy in its story line. cool. at least the author makes an effort to work it into pop culture, and I think you’ll be seeing more of that in the future.
zpe is an actual observed energy state that scientists don’t have an explanation for. It works like this – if you have an environment with absolutely no influence from heat, light or radiation of any kind and take the temperature down to zero Kelvin (-273C), you create a vacuum state. Some areas in space approach this environment, but never achieve it because even radiation from the most distant stars constantly zip all over the place and transfer energy along the way. A particle like a proton or neutron carries significant energy, so once one of those guys find their way into a controlled environment, a true vacuum state disappears and all bets are off.
Anyways, what they observe in this environment is quite curious. Small, constant, measurable backround energy can always be detected no matter how carefully controlled the setting is. Scientists have no explanation for this discrepancy, and are still trying to figure out where the energy is coming from till this day. Instead of throwing the laws of thermodynamics out the window because of this pesky unexplainable anomaly, Einstein instead derived the cosmological constant to arbitrate the difference.
Over the last few years, lots of quackery has come out of zpe, with certain people claiming to have created devices that tap zpe from wherever it comes from. Heres whats interesting and frustrating – the u.s. patent office will not issue patents on devices that produce energy without adequately documenting how that energy is converted , and if your invention violates the laws of conservation of energy somehow as a zpe device most certainly would, good luck in getting it approved. I saw a guy on cnn once who was in this situation, and there are others who swear to have discovered how to do it. If this was boring, I apologize but you brought up SW and the force and I got quite excited. Haha. Btw, this post is entirely of my own minds understanding of zpe so wiki or google the topic to verify what I am trying to explain here.
@wes – good one… could use a little work on the voice. hehehe
@theSN – what like Stargate Atlantis zeropoint energy?
"Fucked, the Jedi are"
a little blatant honesty out of yoda would have been nice. lol
ever look into overunity? i direct my prayers to the omnipotent force for a scientific breakthrough with zeropoint energy. I hope it comes in our lifetime.
ah that explains why Ratzinger reminds me of Palpatine
For the weak minds they say the force works only. Amazed at how many christians that force works on, I am. Of weak-minded christians is the whole galaxy made up, hmm? Foolishness, connecting star wars to christian belief is.
LOL! I agree with yoda ^_^
The Crusades and the Inquisition were of the Dark Side.
who cares about god and enlightenment I want one of them lightsabers!! 🙂