rickym

a lot of people are right now trying to make the movie into a religion. you can search the internet on 'jediism' to find out.

if youll notice, there is no mention of god. there is a discipline of the mind and emotions similar to buddhism which is atheistic. 'the force' can not really be god because there is a 'good side of the force' and a 'bad side of the force.' it seems bordering on the supernatural side though which some atheists would not be comfortable with.

george lucas has implied in interviews that he is buddhist, but he also says that he believes in god.

is star wars atheist?

Tao of Pooh

I remember reading something about this several years ago and thought it interesting but sort of a "trekkie" kind of thing. (If a Star Trek fanatic is called a trekkie what's a Stars Wars fanatic called?:huh: )
in my opinion Jediism is more of a philosophy than a religion, and yes, atheistic.

Karalora

That doesn't follow. There have been plenty of dual-natured deities in world mythology. Pele, Kali, pretty much any trickster god, etc.

Tao of Pooh

I don't know much about the force but I get the empression that it isn't anthropomorphic, i.e. not endowed with personality that might qualify it as a diety, it's a moral guide or philosophy.

Lonely_Road_Of_Faith

Eh, personally I'd say it's entertainment and it doesn't matter much weather there are gods or not in science fiction, the geek in me must reply to this thread.

While I'd say the closest thing to a concept of divinity that we see regularly in the movies would be the Force...though there is Jar Jar's comment to Qui-Gon in Ep 1 about his life debt being demanded by 'da gods.' In various books and whatnot it's occasionally mentioned that some cultures worship gods and some don't. Seems like in the SW galaxy, most theistic cultures are somewhat less technologically advanced (ewoks, dark force witches of dathomir, gungans, sand people, etc.) Hmmmmmmm, maybe they're trying to say something there? I don't know.

On the other hand...also in Ep. 1, Yoda's speech to Anakin about how fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering, is pretty much taken from some buddhist scripture or other, just add "desire leads to fear" in the beginning, and the quote is relatively accurate. I don't remember what exactly it comes from, but I remember a buddhist explained it to me once.

So maybe theism isn't a big deal in star wars, but there does seem to be a spiritual element to it on occasion.

Autonemesis

A mark.

JEST2ASK

A Trekkie some one who spends thousand of dollars to go to a Sci-Fi convention ... plans all year on what they will wear ... belongs to several fan sites ... has spent countless hours reading both the Physics of Star Trek and The Meta-Physics of Star Trek ... knows multiple Vulcan , and Kligon pharses .. has Star Trek items on their desk at work ... wears their costume home from the convention so everyone will know, they have made their pilgrimage

A Trekker : Takes of the costume once the convention is over

So a SW fan who is a Jedi Knight would be a trekkie or treker type ...



:wave: :Cheeky: :devil3:

Tao of Pooh

You've just described my boss!

rickym

i forgot about those, i'm used to god being monotheistic and omnimax like the one in christianity.

so considering the definition of theist. if one believes in several gods with none of them being omnimax, each having his own specialty, that would still make him a theist?

couldn't the force be considered deist since it may be considered an impersonal god like the yin and yang of taoism?

Trout

I read about people dressed as Klingons driving around and beating up people dressed as Jedi's during the films. Got a huge laugh out of that.

Seriously though, I also heard about a movement in Canada to have Jedi (ism?) listed as an official religion. Beats the heck out of more Baptists I guess.