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Jedi religion

JediConsularAD

By JediConsularAD
in The Cantina

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Snafu7 Newbie

Snafu7

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well apparently it is in the UK

 

 

In the UK it was reported that Jedi had actually become an official religion.This was because the Statistics Office released a list of religions found on census forms. Says The Register (theregister.co.uk) - "Coming very near the bottom of an official list of religions put out by the Statistics Office, Jedi Knight is known by the code 896. Heathen comes in at 897. Followed by Atheist at 898 and lastly None with 899. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement though since the 800s come after every other religion, no matter how obscure, and 700 is used for all "other religions". The Statistics Office was keen to point out to the public that the inclusion of Jedi meant nothing...it was not a list of official religions, but simply a list of what people had entered on their census.
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Xavier2 Newbie

Xavier2

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I have seen a documentary of Phantom Menace where Ewan McGregor complains about the geek factor of SW fan base. He was approached by a group of young man in England who, according to him, said:

 

"Hey Ewan! may the force be with you!"

 

He found that a so stupid thing to say he never stoped making fun of SW movies up till this last one where he actually changed his tone and stated in the end he was proud to be a part of the saga.

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Kurgan Newbie

Kurgan

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The "Jedi Religion" is a complete joke, a hoax, a protest, a prank. It's not legally recognized anymore than a religion I would make up right now is, called "Highlanderism." (copyright, 2005, me).

 

Some people in Australia and the UK decided that they didn't want to put their religion on the census, and to goof things up they put "Jedi" and started a grassroots campaign to get others to do the same. The census people created a new category to organize the records supposedly, but the "Jedi" ones were thrown out just like people who put other joke or illegible responses. This doesn't make your religion legally legit, it's akin to putting "Mickey Mouse" on the ballot for president (and every election "Mickey Mouse" gets a few thousand votes). Some may see this as a very silly thing to do, a waste, but their's a certain logic behind it for those who do it, and so it gets done a lot.

 

That said, there is a forum with a few dozen people on it (last I checked) dedicated to "Jediism" that purports to really be a religion (ie: they're serious, not just Star Wars fans or census protestors). But essentially they're just mixing Buddhism and Taoism. They don't believe they really can do the Force or that anything in Star Wars is real, I think they're just using Star Wars as a source to support their philosophy (I wonder what they thought of the prequels?).

 

Honestly, the Force in Star Wars is a metaphor for faith itself, it's not a religion. If anything the Jedi's "religion" is their dedicated to public service while bridling their passions. The Sith's religion is to seek power using their "negative" emotions. If the Jedi/Sith were real, they could have any religion they wanted, because the Force is just science to them, it's not based on faith. You can't choose to ignore the Force anymore than you can choose to disbelieve gravity or electricity. Sure in Star Wars you have people like Admiral Motti and Han Solo who doubt the Force, but they're supposed to be living in a time when the Jedi legacy is surrounded by legends and their "fire has gone out of the universe." There aren't any Jedi thought to be around so people have forgotten their powers (though Admiral Motti should be young enough he remembers them, but that's a prequels timeline gaffe, oh well).

 

So, sorry, no tax free Star Wars merchandise, no "Jedi Masters" performing weddings, etc that I know of. I'd be highly skeptical of anybody claiming that without proof.

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Kurgan Newbie

Kurgan

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Uh ok, I guess he was asking everyone. Well Raëlians have nothing to do with Star Wars.

 

It was a religion (properly termed a cult since it is a new religious movment surrounding a central prophet) started in 1973ish amounting to a synthesis of various Eastern Religions and Biblical Mysticism reinterpreted through the lense of UFO's, ET's and hippy-esque sexual libertinism. All else being equal, it's more 'Legit' in terms of a religion than this "Jediism" which apparently started, at best, 6 years ago (I'm guessing during the SW:Episode I hype... or possibly getting a boost from the 2000-2001 census pranks).

 

By contrast in terms of "legitimacy as an established religion" Scientology has all those groups beat by about 20 years. That's not to say that "older = more truthful or real" but that there's the concept of originality (the newer groups can simply borrow ideas from the older ones).

 

The Raëlians seem to be about publicity. A lot of their public stuff seems designed to draw attention to themselves and is almost tongue in cheek. Their project to clone a child for example and have the child delivered from a "virgin mother" for example. Otherwise it's a commune for hippies who happen to like UFOs and have a personality thing with Claude Vorilhon (the still-living founder, who changed his name to Raël after his alleged revelations from aliens).

 

I'm not an expert in these faiths by any means. Most of what I know of them comes either from their own press releases or from the internet. For those interested, the "Church of the Subgenius" is another well-known UFO cult... though in reality it's merely a satiracle "protest religion" started in 1980 to make fun of cults and religion in general.

 

I guess the issue that these groups have in common is their reliance on pseudoscience to advance their teachings (not that no mainstream religions are guilty of doing this at times as well of course, "creation science" comes to mind). The Jediists (?) though I guess simply believe in their philosophy. They don't honestly believe that midichlorians exist in our bloodstream or that we are capable of using telekinesis or Force Powers if we just try hard enough. It's just a mixture of Buddhism and Taoism, using their interpretation of Star Wars mythos as a "teaching tool."

 

Sort of like if I created a cult called 'Highlanderism' (idea copyright by me, 2005) wherein I taught that the key to being a complete human being was to practice swordsmanship and study history, using the Highlander movies as inspiration for my students.

 

There's other kinds of UFO cults out there... the ill-fated Heaven's Gate being one of the more famous examples. I was surprised to read several years back that there is precedent in the Nation of Islam's teachings for UFO cult type stuff. For example the belief that spaceships will one day come to earth and annhilate the white man (who was created by "grafting" by a big-headed mad scientist named Yakub countless centuries ago). Though the NOI is old enough that the term "cult" may not be applicable (again using the term to refer to "new religious movements").

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