The Force is a metaphor for Christianity

i just recently realized this. it seems George Lucas created the force to be a metaphor for christianity. here are some points that make me thing this.

1. Palpatine represents satan. he cares about nothing and no one, and only wants power. in Return of the Jedi he is constantly telling Luke to give in to his anger and hatred much like the devil is always trying to tell us to give in to temptation and such. the rest of the sith lords i would say represent demons and such.

2. Yoda probably represents god. he is the most powerful jedi, and he is a truly good being. and jedi represent mainly the christians. they are told to avoid anger and hate and fear and such, much like god tells christians that we aren't allowed to hate other people and stuff. they also only keep the peace, and never really attack. sorta like the christian phylosophy, we are always told that we're not supposed to get in fights with other people and such.

3. Anakin and Luke together represent Jesus Christ. Anakin is the chosen one, and came to bring balance to the force, much like jesus came to pay for our sins and save us. however, he DID turn all evil and had much hatred and stuff, therefore i say Luke represents the part of jesus that is supposed to be a really pure person.

did anyone else notice this metaphor besides me? i think this is really cool.

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Yes and no...


The Force is metaphor for RELIGION...it combines aspects of most of the major religions. Especially Taoism, and Buddhism

 

What he said. It's definitely not intended to be that direct a parallel. In fact, many faiths--not just Christianity--use Star Wars as a teaching tool to represent facets of their own beliefs.

I think the Force is more a stand-in for spirituality in general, definitely not any specific belief structure. But if that's what you take from it, then there you go. I think that's the point.

 

i agree with the follow-up posts here in the saying that the force and the jedi emulate many characteristics found in many religions, rather than one. but, the other day i started thinking:

okay, so, you've got jesus right? he's the son of God, and i'm not trying to step on any toes here, but just hold all the holy stuff for a minute and just reel.

basically, jesus was a pretty normal guy with generally valiant tendancies. he wore a brown robe, and went on to instruct 12 other "disciples" to do the same thing. now, this could be considered to be a sort of primitive (or who knows? possibly advanced) jedi order. the whole idea after that was to spread the teachings and pass on the wisdom. but then of course the roman "empire" gets ahold of the teachings and corrupts it to the darkside, yada yada yada.

now that was fun huh?

but there's more. i'm not saying that i believe this, but i know i'm not the only one who's thought about this:

maybe jesus was a crash-landed jedi master who found some disciples who had a particularly high midichlorian count. his lightsaber broke, or shorted out, or fell in some water and so it never got written about in the bible. plus there wasn't the technology available or abundant enough on the planet earth to make a new one.
so that lead jesus to just go on teaching the disciples the ways of the force and to help people in need.

to believe this of course would take somebody who is willing to believe in star wars before all else, and frankly, that's not me. not yet at least. but this seemed like a decent enough thread to spill this into without starting my own and looking like a complete jackass.

party on ted!

 

Jesus as a Jedi. Interesting. well i believe in christ but i believe that there is no relation between the two. The Force is probably a metaphor for Religion in general.

 

Star Wars is based on many religions.
Religions have have many things in common. Most especially the struggle between good and evil. Anakin can be compared to Jesus to an extent (virgin birth) however Yoda is far from God and Sidious is far from Satan.

-Seldon

 

Yoda = Buddha

 

The Force = Ki / Chi / Qi

 

I've always thought that the Force is religion at its purest, most simplified terms. Lucas removed all human notions of deities and made a supreme being that is simply energy. Its the simplest religion and I think it could be applied to any existing religion.

 

I agree with that, Spike.
The force is a metaphor for Christianity from your point of view, FF. That's important to remember. Your focus determines your reality.



Star Wars is a universal myth
/LM

 

The Force is metaphor for RELIGION...it combines aspects of most of the major religions. Especially Taoism, and Buddhism

Those two are not religions as the term is understood in the usual senes.

 

I agree with the poster, however SW metaphors Christanity very differently from which the poster explains.

1. The force is the metaphor for God. And Anakin is the metaphor for Christ. This is extremely obvious just in the fact that Anakin was imaculately concieved in a woman by the Force. And was sacrificed (in a way)... the fact that Anakin turns to Evil is a little hard to swallow, but its not a direct representation of Christ, so...

2. The Jedis (and thier "TEMPLE") are like the Jews in the New Testament. Set in their ways, not paying enough attention to the 'living force' (in christianity, compassion, love), paying only attention to the code (scriptures) and almost forcing 'the force' (God) to make the imaculate conception to change things.

3. Qui-Gon's discovery of the after life kind-of makes the Christ metaphor into a 3-character metaphor... Luke, Anakin, and Qui-Gon. Qui-gon is trying to teach these 'newer' ways of having a relationship with the force that concentrates on love rather than obedience and control. This is so much like the path of Christ, and it just so happens that the path to Christ is to lead to 'eternal life' as well.

 

This may be a little off topic, but I think that people in the GFFA believe in God. Why? Well, even the Force isn't something to worship. It's just an energy field. I've always thought it represents the Holy Spirit. It's in all of us, and it gives us strength. Therofre, the same logic of God applies. That being, look at what has been created, and how we have conciousness and souls. Combine that with the fact that there is an all-powerful force, and you know that there's a higher power that created this and ultimately controls everything, like fate. In that respect, I do really think that the Force truly is an extention of God in the people of the GFFA. The Holy Spirit. Not just a metaphor for it, but the actual holy spirit in the characters. It may represent itself through a scientific energy field, but it's the conciousness of the Holy Spirit in The Force that the Jedi believe in, and that captivates us all.

Just my 2 cents.

Slimy!

 

Jedi Master makes an interesting, albeit very arguable, point without resorting to good-evil dualism, which I believe is essential. If you're looking to make a comparison between Christianity and Star Wars, you're treading on weak ground when you make said comparison by looking at the contrast between good and evil. This is a major theme of many world religions and mythologies and is certainly not specific to Christianity.

Going even further, that relationship is one you won't find in Christian doctrinal theology today. Looking at anything by St. Augustine clarifies this. It was clear that even by the 300s A.D., the dualistic (good-evil) approach to Christianity, as taught by the Manichees and Gnostics among others, was already out of favor within the Christian Church. Yes, this is a long-winded way of saying I think the first approach is wrong, but I really do think it's a theologically dangerous way of explaining Christianity, and a (mostly) inaccurate reading of Star Wars.

 

it is not meant to represent christianity lucas tried to create a mythological/religious system of his own but the fact of the matter is that all mythologies and religions have more in common than they have differences if you really study religion and mythology you will find that they are fundamentally all the same

and Quiet_Mandalorian Taoism and Buddhism are relgions don't know what your def. of a religion is

 

while i dont interpret the star wars movies as being DEEPLY religious, it is obvious that GL borrowed themes and ideas from many religions to form the basic idea of the force. but in every instance, the force would be a metaphor for the higher spiritual power, not the religion. in the case of christianity, i would that surmise that the force is a metaphor for God. while christianity, and thus chirstians, are represented by the jedi order. they are the practitioners of the religion, they believe in its teachings and traditions, and as a result are made seperate from the masses. and since yoda is the leader of the jedi, he is more like the Pope.

and while i initailly reasoned that anakin must represent Christ, ive since concluded that anakin's character is more closely associated with adam. who, in a broader sense, represents humanity in general. he is a being who starts out innocent, is seduced by evil, falls from grace, and is ultimately redeemed by his offspring.

 

What do you think of this Faking It: Star Wars article on http://www.dose.ca/starwars ????

Their also asking people to vote if EPIII is going to Rock or Suck and it's at a 50/50 split right now

 

He doesn't represent adam or christ he is a tragic hero of mythology and has traits that adam and christ also happen have

 

and its not like christianity is the only religion/mythology that has these traits anakin is also like hercules and oedipus and there are also american indian tails of virgin birth and every mythology has the theme of humanity falling from grace you could even say that he represents pandora in this way and even if you still like compairing it to christianity heres a hero that not many people have thought closely resembles anakin but does: samson his hair gives him strength but when he loses it he loses his strength just like living flesh gives anakin his power but when he loses it he loses his power so anakin or the force or anything in star wars is not a symbol of anyother religion or mythology he just has traits many other mythological figures also happen to have

 

also even mythology as modern as lord of the rings has these traits too, the elves fall form valinor due to their arrogance just as anakin and the republic fall and, gollum falls form grace too just like anakin,it is also like budhism where the republic is like enlightenment, perfect peace, and the empire is like samsara, the world which is suffering that we choose to live in just as the senate chose to live under the control of emporer just more evidence to support my point

 

and even the matrix movies are full of these mythological themes, humams instead of joining with the machines to make peace choose to fight, just like the Jedi didn't join with the force by accepting anakin as the chosen one but instead out of fear chose to fight his destiny by finding excuses thus they fell from grace or the republic, into the empire just as humans fell form the real world into the matrix, and then there is the theme of choice neo time and time again choices to stay in the matix because of his love for trinity just as anakin choses to turnto the darkside to save padme

 

He doesn't represent adam or christ he is a tragic hero of mythology and has traits that adam and christ also happen have

i understand that. im not saying that the star wars movies are a retelling of bibical stories. im saying that GL borrowed themes from many religions and traditions. and one of these themes is that of redemption/reconciliation. a theme that is very much christian-based. anakin is redeemed and reconciled with the force, thru his offspring, luke. while adam is also redeemed and reconciled with God thru his offspring, Jesus. and i think these parallels are deliberate, on the part of GL. giving the character of anakin some resonance. because anyone familiar with the bibical tale of adam would imediately identify with adam(the father of humanity), and understand that anakin is meant to represent each and every one of us, humanity.

 

i guess my point is that you are comparing it to christianity as if christianity were the original founder of these themes when in fact there were countless mythologies and religions before it that christianity based its themes off of

 

I think its a metaphor for spirituality and not any religion at all.

 

yea thats the simple way to put it ^ but then if what i say is true then we could also say that spirituality is a metaphore for star wars, but now i'm rambling into pointless philosophy!