The Jedi faith..is the force with you?

palefrost

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Jedi “Religion” Sees Dramatic Growth
(we’re not kidding)
by Jon M. Sweeney

What is startling about the George Lucas-inspired Star Wars phenomenon is not the advent of another movie, but the real ways in which people around the world appear to be forming a religion out of the Zen-like, Tao-like words and actions of the characters.

The Anglican Digest reported in its Lent 2005 issue that the first school to teach Jedi was recently opened in Romania. “Courses at the Star Wars Academy include the correct use of light saber swords, and lessons on how to speak Wookiee, the language of violent furry creatures in the films. The academy’s founder, Adrian Pavel, said he decided to open the school in response to requests from fans,” wrote The Anglican Digest editors.

The BBC reported three years ago, timed with the release of the last film in the Star Wars series, that at least 70,000 people in Australia declared themselves as followers of the Jedi “faith” in the last Australian census. They wrote-in “Jedi” as their response under the category of religion on the census form. Hard-core fans of the films have been trying to have Jedi declared an official religion around the English-speaking world for years now.

The same situation occurred in New Zealand in their census taking of 2001. Similarly, more than 390,000 people in England declared themselves Jedi in their census of the same year—a shocking number when you consider that only 260,000 people in England declared themselves to be Jewish. There are various Internet campaigns going on now that encourage voters in the U.S. to petition for Jedi as an official religion on the next U.S. census form.

Is the force with you? :banana:
 
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I do like the premise behind it. In a way i do believe in the force as god. If you really want to have this conversation that is.
 
I think the force is a good way of interpreting each and every faith in the world conglomerated, however I think people who are actually following a "faith" as outlined in a fictional movie series are a little bit batty.
:twocents:
 
I think the force is a good way of interpreting each and every faith in the world conglomerated, however I think people who are actually following a "faith" as outlined in a fictional movie series are a little bit batty.
:twocents:


HAHA yeah i would love to check out a church of the jedi though just to have a laugh though. I think its pretty cool to mock religion openly so i see the humor in it.
 
well the funny (or not so funny thing is) that these people are not joking... I've met people who think all of this is real.
 
well the funny (or not so funny thing is) that these people are not joking... I've met people who think all of this is real.

Most religious people have no sense of humor....how silly it is a eat a piece of bread and call it god/christ body? Drink some wine and call it god/christs blood? Now get on your knees say a hail mary and repent your sin..yeah thats normal...
 
Most religious people have no sense of humor....how silly it is a eat a piece of bread and call it god/christ body? Drink some wine and call it god/christs blood? Now get on your knees say a hail mary and repent your sin..yeah thats normal...
It is normal to the people who have faith in it... I wouldn't go so far as to be so disrespectful of any faith, but some people just do need a sense of humor.
 
I'm not Catholic, but from what I understand the whole bread and whine thing is supposed to be a miracle from God, where the bread and whine are transformed. So yeah, faith can seem a little silly if you don't understand what it's based on...but I would rather believe in a miracle than a movie.
 
Easy way to explain: symbolism. Rituals and symbolic components of religion are important for common grounding for many people (and therefore also a great potentiator of much trouble).
 
Okay a little wonky, definetly not for me, but to each his own.

I can see why people are interested in it though it's a religion on their terms, that they can relate to and it's got light sabers! A lot of them are probably just having fun with it but as for the ones who think it's real......
 
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Semi-facetious: Were Jedi to become institutionalised as a religion, one could retrospectively link it to certain tenets of buddhist doctrine. Abandonment of the dark side and embracing of the way of the light side is fairly analogous to certain schools of buddhist thought...as far as I understand.

And really, I can appreciate how becoming more at peace will aid my focus and thus aid my martial art pursuits :P
 
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