SPECULATION the church of the force has no place in starwars

I disagree that it has any Christian overtones, and there's nothing about gods. It doesn't seem very odd to me that people in that galaxy who are not Force-sensitive would be fascinated.

That's just the way I take it, at least.

 

"You, my friend, are all that's left of their religion." - Tarkin to Vader

 

I remember reading that Lucas and Kasdan had a disagreement about what the Jedi were all about. After ANH, Lucas wanted to convey that Obi-wan wasn't a real Jedi master, that a real Jedi master had a mindset like Yoda. Kasdan called Lucas crazy! In his eyes, Obi-wan was everything the Jedi stood for. Unfortunately, from ESB on, the Jedi idea was allowed to move into a swashbuckling direction.

I simply believe that they are finally honouring Lucas' original take on the Jedi philosophy.

 

I wish they wouldn't go in this direction as well. Hopefully they won't mention that group in the films but leave it to the easily ignored new EU

EDIT: however my reason for feeling this way is likely not the same as the OP's and I will leave it at that

 

yeah, i'm confused by the OP.

Church of the Force: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Church_of_the_Force

and as @C3-Steve-O quoted: people refer to the old ways (Sith/Jedi) as a religion off-handedly.

and of course it's a religion (defined as "the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power"). why else would they say "May the Force be with You?"

is it just the word "church" that's so objectionable? the word "religion"? is this just a semantics problem?

 

let's not forget.. the church of the force was not addressed at all in the force awakens.. so i really don't understand what point you're trying to make here. the film was as fantastical and religion-free as possible..

 

I think I understand your fears and you could probably present a serious argument for this, but I respectfully disagree. Christopher Hitchen's once claimed "religion is the outcome of unresolved contradictions in the material world." A Church of The Force sounds like it's in the right place to me - that is wherever sentient beings and difficult to explain phenomena co-exist.

I also love that the Star Wars universe seems to be a melting pot that traverses and welcomes multiple religions and perspectives. It's broad spiritual and moral appeal not only attracted Alec Guiness to the franchise but allowed it to be introduced into many religious families who it might otherwise have been lost to [due to strict spiritual/magic censorship].

It's truly a Rorschach Test that can be enjoyed through almost any lens imaginable. These forums are testament to broad and conflicting perspectives often presenting Star Wars from personal bias and ideologies. Our posts betray us!! I think Star Wars and The Cantina may be richer for the diversity.

 

Eh, that is indeed the use of the word Church in real life, but in the Star Wars universe there is no such thing as a Christian Religion, therefore there is no reason to assume that it is rooted in such ideologies. I don't have a huge problem with it, outside of the fact that the word Church doesn't seem like something one would hear in the world of Star Wars. Then again, that's an issue I've been having with a lot of new canon material, bringing overly earthy sounding words into the world of Star Wars.

As for religions and god's in general, those things were already present in Star Wars outside of the Force, whether it be C-3PO being mistaken as a god by the Ewoks or Jar Jar referring to his gods in TPM. It only seems natural that when you have a galaxy full of quadrillions of beings that there will be a vast number of religions and faiths as well. It would be preferable if they found less earth-like sounding terms to convey that idea though.

 

I do indeed agree with you to a degree, but I still have no problems with various alien races having religions and gods. Just because the Force exists in this universe doesn't mean that everyone would view it in the way that groups like the Jedi and Sith view it. It seems perfectly logical that even if certain groups of people were aware of the Force that they still might attribute its power to be that of a deity or a group of deitys. If you know much about ancient religions, people made up gods to explain any number of things that they didn't understand, whether it be how crops grew or the changing of the seasons.

Another thing to consider is that even though the Jedi were a central religion in the Republic, they were still vastly smaller in number than the inhabitants of the galaxy. At its height the Jedi Order consisted of somewhere around 10,000 Jedi Knights, that is an incredibly tiny drop in the bucket compared to the population of the galaxy, and that fact also explains why the Empire was able to suppress information about them so easily. The Jedi were already legendary and mysterious figures in the galaxy prior to their purge at the end of the Clone Wars. Another thing to consider is that the Republic never represented the entire galaxy, just the central portion, a huge chunk of the galaxy was even represented by the Republic, which was the faction that the Jedi had sworn to protect.

When you take a more comprehensive look at the state of the galaxy, it seems highly likely that there would be plenty of people out there with no proper understanding of the force, and hence, they would have their own religions and gods.

I do agree that for the most part we should focus on the Force and its understanding as related through the Jedi and the Sith, but I have absolutely no problem with there being a multitude of religions in the SW Galaxy, I honestly think it would be a little odd if it were any different.

One other thing regarding the Church of the Force, even though I'm not crazy about the use of the word Church(for different reasons than you), if you look up the group in TFA Visual Dictionary, they are not a religion bound to any gods anyhow, they are just awaiting the return of the Jedi to set things right in the universe again.

 

Just that I think it sounds to much like an earth term. Nothing about the word church feels like it should be used in Star Wars universe to me, its kind of distracting. I compare its usage to the characters calling their vehicles cars rather than landspeeders, that kind of thing. You do have earth words in Star Wars of course, it is written in English after all , Han's ship is the Millennium Falcon for instance. But falcon is a general term used to designate a vast amount of birds that share similar traits, its vague enough that it doesn't bother me. If it were called the Millennium Eagle or the Millennium Osprey, that would be something completely different though.

For instance, in a recent issue of the Star Wars comic that is currently ongoing at Marvel, one of the characters refers to her ship as the Volt Cobra. That immediately felt off to me because a Cobra is an actual species of snake on earth, had they used a term like snake or serpent instead it wouldn't have bothered me, but actually using the names of earth species is distracting when we are supposed to be in a galaxy far far away. I feel the same way about the word church, its just to earthy sounding for my tastes, and as you brought up, brings to mind certain things and religions that don't exist in Star Wars, heck, Life Day was invented as a substitute for Christmas.

At the end of the day the use of the word church doesn't completely break anything for me, but I still find it annoying in the same way that I find characters referring to specific earth species of animals annoying. With a little more forethought it could be easily avoided.

 

Oh goodness. There has been Jedi Temples, "Religion" references in A New Hope, Jedi meditation/prayer, Jedi Afterlife/Angels/Ghosts... This fits perfectly and this is a lame anti-Christian, anti-God complaint, in my opinion. Go Star Wars.

 

Well with the newest Rebels Episode more religion went canon...

I think the word Church was the "best" way to describe this new movment...What other name could they have used?

And I personally see it as normal that about 30 years without a new Jedi Order taking the place in the aspect of an institut of the Force, groups like these happen to arise...

They may not be Jedi but they want to see the Jedi come back as Peace Keepers and people that can help them...

 

Is this serious? "Star Wars" should be kept free of religion? You do understand what Star Wars is about?

Face it. Star Wars is full of themes and symbolism derived from different world religions. Most of them are from Christianity and Buddhism, but there is also some Hinduism, Islam and New Age stuff in there.

 

then again Millennium Generic Bird of Prey wouldn't have quite the same ring to it eh?

 

"Then I'll see you in hell" - Solo.
"I do believe they think I am some kind of god." - Threepio
"You my friend are all that is left of that religion" - Tarkin

I could go on.

Of course there is religion in the Star Wars Universe. Of course there would be people that would follow the Jedi ideals without being Jedi.
It's relevant. It's interesting. It's Star Wars.