Have Jedis created a new 'religion'?

Harpo

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29753530

Followers of Jediism are aiming to build a belief system that goes beyond the Star Wars films. But does it amount to a new religion?

It began as a joke at the expense of statisticians. In the UK's 2001 Census, 390,127 people - or 0.7% of the population - described themselves as Jedi. A question on religious belief had been asked for the first time in a census and Jedi - from the cloak-wearing, lightsaber swishing rebels in the Star Wars films - was a tongue-in-cheek response.

It was a post-modernist Star Wars joke by atheists. Or so many assumed. But for some the force was strong.

An ideas festival at Cambridge University this weekend will look at how new "religious movements", such as Jediism, the Indigo Children and Wicca, have expanded online. And in the case of Jedis, how they have developed ever-more complex doctrines and scriptures.

What might have started as an intellectual exercise by fans adding to the movies and filling in the gaps, has become an attempt to build a coherent religious code.

Beth Singler, a researcher in the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University, estimates that there are about 2,000 people in the UK who are "very genuine" about being Jedis. That's roughly the same number as the Church of Scientology, she says. Jediism is not a joke for them but an inspiration. They don't believe in "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...", says Singler quoting the opening text that fills the screen of Star Wars. "It's somewhere between metaphor and literal truth."
 
I think this might be an example of what I expect to be the future of spirituality in a rational age -- as a kind of imaginative "role-play" that takes place in a mental space deliberately kept separate from the self that that accepts the laws of physics and so on, a kind of poetic engagement with metaphor.

After all, the word "belief" originally came from "love" not from adherence to something as fact.
 
I stopped reading the EU some time ago and have heard bad things, but did it get "arguments about transubstantiation" level of bad?

Because I don't see how you can have a religion unless the details cause migraines.
 
I stopped reading the EU some time ago and have heard bad things, but did it get "arguments about transubstantiation" level of bad?

Because I don't see how you can have a religion unless the details cause migraines.

This would not be a universally held truth.

---- Jediism makes as much sense as paganism, so religion it could be.
 
Eh, pagan was just army slang, the equivalent of yokel. Not a religion or practice.

Still given the lack of written records from non Christian religions when such slang may apply,pretending some sort of simplicity is rather entertaining.
 
I was going more for the idea that there is spiritual presence in the natural surroundings, a pantheon of Gods who could be somewhat controlled by human attention. --- Which sounds a lot like the basis of the Jedi religion in the original Star Wars movie.
 
What are the tenets of Jediism? Does it have gods, or a god?

I never saw the later movies, but my understanding is that the Jedi's ability to manipulate the "Force" was supposedly due to something physical in their blood. It wasn't because of their spirituality

And does this mean that George Lucas will buy a yacht and live on it, everyone will call him "Commodore" and he will continue to make movies after he's dead? :)
 
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What are the tenets of Jediism? Does it have gods, or a god?

I never saw the later movies, but my understanding is that the Jedi's ability to manipulate the "Force" was supposedly due to something physical in their blood. It wasn't because of their spirituality

By "later movies", I'm assuming you are referring to the original trilogy. It is chronologically later than the prequels. "The Force" is portrayed quite differently in each set of movies.

In Luke Skywalker's time, the Force seemed very intuitive. It could be felt through listening and meditation. Luke learned to use the force as a young adult, leading viewers to believe people of any age could be "strong in the Force". An entire generation grew up idealizing Obi-wan, Yoda, and Luke for their mystical, yet learned, ability to fight evil.

But then the prequels came and George Lucas changed his perspective on the Force entirely. He took a fantastic science fantasy which influenced a generation, and tried to make it true science fiction. Now the "Force" was actually a blood particle detected at birth - you either had it or you didn't. This didn't sit well with many fans because it didn't just add to our understanding of the Force, it ruined it completely.

I think the folks who take this "Jedi religion" as seriously as they do are not young people who grew up with the prequels, but older people who love the original idea of the Force.
 

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