We can make all the jokes we want about how many real people list “Jedi” as their religion on government census forms, but… well, what exactly does that mean? Can the Jedi Code be counted as a religious doctrine? What does it mean if it can? It’s an odd question to pose perhaps, but one that might demand a revisitation as a renewal of Star Wars Fever is already underway…
A note before we begin: In this piece, I will be referring to various religious texts as mythology. This is because I personally adhere to no specific faith, and am not comfortable suggesting that one particular religion is “true” above all others. It is not meant as a disrespect toward anyone’s beliefs, or judgement against any person’s religious leanings.
The easiest way to have this discussion, I suppose, is a simply matter of compare and contrast with religions across the world. Where do they meet with this fictional society, and where do they part ways? What tenants do they share?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, religion is typically defined in these three ways:
- The belief in a god or a group of gods
- An organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods
- An interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person of group
Here are words from Lucas himself in the Phantom Menace Scrapbook:
I wanted a concept of religion based on the premise that there is a God, and there is good and evil. I began to distill the essence of all religions into what I thought was a basic idea common to all religions and common to primitive thinking. I wanted to develop something that was nondenominational but still had a kind of religious reality.
As we all know, there’s intent in creating something, and then what grows from that intent. So how does the Force play in the Star Wars universe on religious terms?
Looking back at the creation of the Jedi by George Lucas, there are plenty of religious filters one might apply. Lucas admitted to mining aspects of Taoism and Buddhism in the construction of Jedi philosophy—which is more pronounced in the prequels when considering their condemnation of attachments. There are connections to be made with Zoroastrianism when considering the separation of the Force into “sides” alongside the duality of Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. You can also find shades of the Force in the concept of yin and yang, Brahman in Hinduism—and these are honestly just a fraction of what we might infer. The result in the films is an order of warrior monks who forgo most material possessions save their primary weapon, and devote their lives to the service of others. (Provided politics don’t get in the way, that is.)
The life of the Jedi revolves around the energy binding the galaxy, which they call the Force. Their ability to manipulate this energy is what grants them access to the Jedi Order. One cannot become a Jedi without this ability. There are many religions that have similar prerequisites or familial considerations, at least. On the other hand, most religions allow those outside the faith the option of conversion, at various levels of difficulty. There is no such ability among the Jedi. You either “have” the Force, or you do not.
Are there people who worship the Force outside of the ability to use it? There are cultures shown to do this within the Star Wars canon, and the Expanded Universe (now referred to as the Legends canon) also showed occasions where non-Force users might invoke the Force in exclamation rather than a god, i.e. “By the Force!” For beings in the Star Wars galaxy who do fold the Force into their religious beliefs, the Jedi might seem a step above the rest for their connection. Or conversely, they might seem blasphemous for attempting to access the primary powers of the universe. “Meddling in powers they cannot possibly comprehend,” as Marcus Brody would say.
It’s particularly ironic that Lucas claimed he wanted the Force to be “nondenominational” because one glance at both canon and Legends sources show a slew of denominations surrounding it, all with vastly different ideas about how the Force operates and how living beings are meant to connect with it. There is no sense in preventing these denominations from existing; one of the most constant aspects of religion is how many perspectives exist in any given sect or school.
But the faith element to religion, for both the Force-sensitive and everyone else, is harder to peg in the Star Wars universe for a very simple reason—the Force is proven real. Perhaps it is not understood as well as the Jedi or anyone else might think, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Force is an actual something that can be manipulated, its output catalogued. Faith in the Force has nothing to do with belief in its existence, but rather with belief in its affecting the galaxy for an array of reasons. The idea that the Force has a balance to maintain, that the future has a vague shape that can be sensed through the Force, that it guides the universe to any end (let alone a positive one) is pure belief. In that, the Jedi—and even their natural opponents, the Sith—are adhering to some form of seemingly religious doctrine.
Can the Force be called a god of any sort? Insofar as it has a “will,” the answer would seem to be in the affirmative. Whether or not the Force is considered a being in its own right, the idea of this “energy” having plans that it guides others to execute indicates belief that the Force has the designs of a deity. Whether those designs work toward achieving balance or the triumph of good over evil is all in the mind of the beholder. What the Jedi and Sith all operate on is faith, pure and simple. The same is true of any group that looks to the Force for power or guidance, from the Nightsisters down to the Bendu.
In that capacity, Star Wars adheres to most mythology that the human race has put forth throughout history. Countless cultures create tales of heroes who survive their trials because they are beloved by gods, who have their devotion and strength tested by gods. That is exactly what happens in Star Wars. That is why the Jedi are central to the narrative—because theirs is a story humanity takes comfort in. The Jedi looking to do the bidding of the Force is exactly the same as a lost hero looking to the sky and asking to be shown the way to victory. The only difference is that the Jedi are further validated because the Force is a fact in their universe. Han Solo can roll his eyes all he wants, it doesn’t change the fact that Yoda can pull a starfighter out of a swamp by using his mind to manipulate permeating galactic energy juice. Whether or not the Force is bidding him to do it is another story entirely, but it’s hard to remind yourself of that when you’re watching him do it.
When you pull back on the Star Wars narrative, this becomes even more relevant. As a single story encompassed in the first two trilogies, Star Wars is a mythological arc about one family that essentially fixes what’s wrong with the universe via the mystical Force. It’s all pat and compact and works out great. But when you take the long view of their galaxy? This essentially happens all the time. The Jedi and Sith have done battle for millennia (according to the Legends canon, and probably the official canon as well before long). They will continue to do so down the line. There will always be a prophecy, or some vision of the future, or a Force ghost giving you flack about your destiny. There will always be old men raving about midichlorian counts and arguing over the “correct” manner of accessing the Force.
By that token, the Force has plenty in common with a religion. It has disciples, factions, followers and zealots, and philosophical discourse. It means a great deal to many beings, but not to all of them. It can be used for great good or evil. But what does that mean about Star Wars? Should someone be writing a treatise on the prequels as the culmination of a religious war? Are Jedi holy beings? Does the Force truly have designs? And if it does, is it then granted the status of a god? What about sentience?
More importantly, how does this contribute to the Star Wars experience? Fans have dissected the tale under a variety of lenses, from the mythical to the political. There are conspiracy theories about how stormtroopers can shoot straight (but choose not to), how no one can read, or perhaps they’re all bees. Does Star Wars have anything to gain from consideration under this lens?
I’d argue that it does. If the Force can be viewed as a religion, then Star Wars has some very interesting things to say about faith. About its manifestation in culture, about how it can be abused by the powerful, about its role in giving people hope for their future. It also informs our perspective on characters and objects in different ways. Han is a skeptic, Yoda is a guru, Obi-Wan a protector of the traditions that comprise Force-immersed culture. Luke is their newest conversion. Holocrons are the equivalent of gospels, set down by various masters. Lightsabers are considered so highly by their Jedi wielders because they are holy weapons that only they are meant to use.
Considering these parts of the myth also goes far in explaining why Star Wars endures in pop culture to the point where some fans are comfortable writing in “Jedi” as a religion on a census form. It fulfills a need for a certain kind of story, for certain types of heroes. But next time you say “May the Force Be With You” to a friend, you might want to ask… what exactly are you wishing for them?
Presumably, you want them to be able to change a tire without touching a carjack. But there are still other things to consider.
Emmet Asher-Perrin has spent an unhealthy amount of time trying to move objects with her mind, and it’s all Yoda’s fault. You can bug her on Twitter and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
You only relate to these other texts by name, or as a group in the article as “mythology” so why not just call it religion and be done with it. Instead you claim you aren’t trying to upset people, but purposefully use a term that religious would seesee as hurtful. It’s obviously a poor choice of wording and does not show a “nutral” stance on any matter.
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Philosophy strikes me as the appropriate designation for the realtionship between the Jedi/Sith and the Force. We don’t really have the precise vocabulary to talk about a religion than can manifest real magic, since we have no experience with it in our world.
The Jedi have a set of beliefs about the appropriate use of their Force powers and rules about how they should serve the peoples of the universe, but they seem to lack rituals of devotion and worship. They seem to lack an internal mythology, making them more akin to an order of scholar monks than a religious sect.
Very interesting article, I enjoyed the read! Personally I think it is nice that you tried to warn sensitive readers that you’d be referring to religions in what you hoped was a NEUTRAL way, however I also could’ve predicted that the word would be deemed unsatisfactory to those like JohnJay. It’s always best policy to just say religion even if you think said religion is mythology (which I also do). With that said, man do I wish there was a religion out there where one could join up and then have Jedi powers.
Asking if the Force is a religion also seems like asking if the Sun is a religion. Both are/were objects of worship for some people, but they’re also natural phenomena that aren’t inherently religious themselves. People have anthropomorphized both through their stories in an attempt to better understand how they work and to explain humanity’s place in existence.
Ms. Asher-Perrin explained and then used the term “mythology” in a perfectly appropriate manner. My Ancient History professor at a religious institution used the term exactly the same way, defining Myth as the means by which a culture transmits its values to future generations, including our own. Historians do not assign a value of truth or falsehood to myths, despite the misunderstanding of lay persons. Some people would take offense at such a discussion no matter how sensitive the author may be. In other words, “haters gonna hate.”
Having said that, I do think we “have the precise vocabulary to talk about a religion than can manifest real magic.” We call it miracles and prophecy. Whether miracles actually occur in our world may be debatable, but there is no denying they occupy a large part of our religious texts.
However, as Star Wars is “modern myth,” we should not construe the events we see in the movies as historical (fictitious or otherwise). It does not occur to average moviegoers to question what they see on the screen due to willing suspension of disbelief. But just as we know there no Jedi in our world, we need not accept their factual existence in that galaxy far, far away any more than we do the gods of ancient Greece or Mesopotamia. After all, we are explicitly told it all happened a long time ago, just like the events of the Iliad, the Poetic Edda, the Pentateuch or the Epic of Gilgamesh.
That was me in that last, btw.
I’d agree with @2 that, overall, the Force is in effect closer to a practical philosophy than a religion. (Not surprising, since arguably a comparative religionist could say the same about some forms of Buddhism–not an insult, just a scholarly debate about terminology.)
However, I think the real problem here is canon. GL WANTED the Force to be religious/numinous in nature, as the quote indicated (and, frankly, this is in line with Joseph Campbell’s personal desires for the monomyth in modern people’s lives and–I know, flamebait risk–perhaps his reason for creating it out of less-than-great source criticism). However, it’s questionable whether it really functions as a religion even in canon, and in whatever “Legends” is now (ex-canon? deuterocanonical? who knows?), the majority of good Star Wars novelists have wanted to do something more nuanced, and often more sci-fi compatible, with the Force than Lucas would have wanted. So, exactly which Force are we talking about?
Honestly, I suspect strongly that the whole “decanonization” could have been motivated by GL wanting to bring the Force back in line with his original vision and get rid of complexities introduced by EU authors that he’d been tolerating at best.
@5 rowanblaze
There’s nothing inherently offensive about using “myth” in the context that you’ve defined it above. It’s always useful to be able to take a step back and look at cultural inheritance through that kind of lens, even if it’s your own beliefs.
When I was talking about precise language in my first comment, I meant language expressing how people access and wield supernatural force on their own. Miracles and prophecy are a different matter, since they’re usually expressed as outside interventions by deities into the human world. Even then, they’re nebulous and easily disuputed.
What’s different about a person wielding supernatural power is that there are often precise, expected manifestations of it. A Force user can be expected to use her abilities for telekinesis, creating shockwaves, or creating lightning. These abilities can be repeated on demand within certain limits and observers can agree on the source and nature of the powers if they’re understood well enough to be taught in a school or a master-apprentice environment. Their users are walking evidence for the truth of their belief system.
The reality of the powers makes the conflict between Light and Dark sides of the Force into an argument over how the power should be used, instead of whose take on the Force is true and what it tells us about the divine.
This is the opposite of religions that invoke faith, mystery, and symbolism to convey the presence of the supernatural in the world. In our world, we can’t get to the conversation about what a verifiable divine reality/power means because we are busy disagreeing on whose conception of it is real.
The Force as religion argument died the second Lucas introduced midichlorians in SW1. Use of the Force now required no belief in a higher anything; it only required that you have some number of doodads in your blood.
The Jedi Order is a philosophic order, not a religious one.
I loved the article! Thanks for writing it!
I personally think of religion (when I’m just relaxing and not trying go all academic on it) as a fantasy that brings comfort and can offer ethical guidance. In that (very broad) sense, I sometimes think the fantasy of Star Wars is my religion. It has brought me a great deal of comfort in my life in some very hard times, and actually helped me to think about how I want to live. Of course, when I discuss this with my Christain, Jewish, Muslim, etc. acquaintances, some of them grow very offended, because they see the clear implication: I think they have a favorite fantasy as well. It does not help when I tell them I respect their fantasy life (unless it involves the ethical real world implications of restricting my life!!) I understand that they don’t think their religion is a fantasy (which is why I never bring it up. Only if asked do I ever elaborate).
Why excuse yourself, religion needs to be offended more than ever.
It seems silly to remain bent out of shape about midichlorians in 2014, and the existence of that idea doesn’t invalidate the concept of the Jedi as a religious order. Lots of religious attempt to incorporate scientific rationales into their beliefs and practices.
For me the main argument for the Jedi as religious is that they act like a religious order. They’re clearly mendicants. And one of the more interesting theological aspects to Star Wars, which I don’t recall seeing noted often, is that while the Jedi are obviously ascetic, the Sith are almost always theocratic. And this really seems like a matter of dogma–most of the Sith we see are trying to implement a Sith-run government. Not many are content to pursue some other path of Sithyness.
And it’s hard to tell whether this split came before or after their more philosophical differences, although it seems to me there’s a bit of evidence to suggest that this divide between asceticism and theocracy came first, and the specific tenets of Jedi and Sith religions developed in response to that.
I am going to try and post this without reading the comments first, so I don’t get too much to say. I’ll probably already say too much.
My perspective is that a)I’m a big Star Wars fanatic and enjoy the Force/Jedi/hero aspects more than the military/ships/adventure aspects, and b)I’m a practicing Catholic. So, when people say ‘religion’, typically to me a religion requires some believe in a supernatural, creating being or force. Possibly personal, but not necessarily. Other people may not share this definition. But, in the sense that Jedi-ism defines a specific set of beliefs/philosophy about the Force, how to correctly relate to it and its nature/will, I’d say it qualifies.
I have actually spent a lot of time thinking about this kind of thing :) I have whole ‘essays’ written in my private journals back when I had the spare time to really think abou this sort of thing.
I’ll start by saying that it actually makes me a little uncomfortable when people try to co-opt Star Wars into Christian/Catholic thinking as a direct analogy. This is not at all to say that I don’t find many ‘Truths’ that resonate with me and are compatible with my beliefs. In fact, George Lucas succeeded in what he set out to do according to his words in the Making of Return of the Jedi, which was to create a spritually uplifting film that left you feeling good about life. For that he will always have my respect and gratitude. When I first saw Star Wars at 14, I was isolated and depressed and tended to glory in very macabre, grim stories. I did still identify as Christian at the time (and that’s part of what kept me from going even further off the deep end than I already was). Something about Star Wars clicked with me in a way nothing else had though – it really was the first ‘wholesome’ thing I really latched on to (I was only a casual Lord of the Rings fan at the time). Without writing a whole essay, I’ll just say Star Wars legit changed the outlook and maybe even the direction of my life for the better, in a very real and significant way (not just, oh, shiny new fandom to have fun with/meet new people through – which is of course also legitimate, but in this case Star Wars was more than that). And I defintely find many things that jive with my beliefs and worldview and inspire me. In fact, one of my very favorite lines is from Attack of the Clones (otherwise a very awkward movie) when Anakin describes forgoeing attachments as basically having the freedom to love everybody and being encouraged to love, not forbidden from it. Too bad he didn’t quite take that to heart because it’s the most mature thing he’s ever said, but I love that idea of what things like chastity and detachment TRULY mean in a positive sense, not just a negative, ‘thou shalt not’ sense. It jives with the writings of many Christian/Catholic mystics on the subject.
But. The Force is not God (in the Judeo Christian sense). It’s impersonal, for one thing, and there is certainly no concept of self-sacrifice, atonement/redepmtion (on the part of the Force taking a personal role that others benefit from, I mean – I know Vader’s redemption is a HUGE part of the story and part of why I love it), etc (although possibly you could say there IS a personal incarnation depending on how literally you take Anakin’s midicholrian spawned existance and how much Darth Plageus had to do with it – I haven’t read all of that lore yet). So, trying to shoehorn it in and make it totally compatible is just not going to happen.
Still, one of the things that always sat more and more ill with me was the idea of the Dark Side being something inherent to the Force. I don’t get the impression that the Force is truly a sentient being or will, and so how can something that is natural be inherently dark/evil? That was a little too Mainchaeist for me.
So in the end I think I concluded that the Light Side/Dark Side was a function of the person’s moral state and motivations. If I recall, I did a lot of these musings before things like NJO and Legacy of the Force came out, and in some ways they paralleled my thoughts, but in others did not. I was never totally comfortable with denying the Dark Side entirely (and in fact, many of Palpatine’s words to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith trying to side step the matter gave me chills. The Mon Calimari opera scene is one of the most superbly acted and written scenes in the series, I think). I think what I ended up deciding on in my own personal headcanon was that there may have been different, detectable ‘flavors’ of the Force – perhaps a destructive side and a constructive side – but that they didn’t necessarily translate into light and dark, it was more about how you used them, and about finding balance between the two. After all, life unchecked is cancer. And weren’t Anakin’s biggest flaws in some ways his inability to accept death and loss? In this way, it jives pretty closely with some of Tolkien’s views on the subject.
While there might be some plausible explanation for this (such as all the midicholorians being part of a hive mind), I never considered the Force truly sentient or with any real ‘will’ – it’s more of a morally neutral tool or ability. Thus, I’m actually not totally sure what ‘the will of the Force’ means, aside from maybe a tendency towards balance, which maybe also comes from my background in science. But I never really envisioned it as having a will that was ‘good’ or ‘evil’, since, who decides that? Is the Force also an arbiter of good and evil? I suppose I view balance as a good, but what is balance and is it always morally preferable? I’m going to stop now.
By the way, I don’t see the term ‘mythology’ as hurtful at all. I think Tolkien would be totally okay with it, as would Pope JP II ;) The word ‘myth’ is used even in Catholic writings (for example, you will sometimes see reference to ‘The Creation Myth’) but not in a way to denote something that is untrue, but something that is REALLY true on a deep level.
I’m definitely interested to see what the new movies bring to the table in this regard,.
Okay, one comment for the comments:
“The Force as religion argument died the second Lucas introduced midichlorians in SW1. Use of the Force now required no belief in a higher anything; it only required that you have some number of doodads in your blood.” – I strongly disagree with this for a few reasons.
1)Even before the midichlorians, you couldn’t just believe your way into having Force abilities
2)I don’t personally view the Force as divine in the sense that it comes from a God, but even if I did, the midichlorians wouldn’t disprove that, they would just show that God can work through the material, rational world.
But, I do like the comments above me that view the Jedi as more of a philosophy than a religion – I agree, they don’t seem to really worship the Force and I’m not aware of any creation type myths associated with it; instead it’s more a set of beliefs as to how the Force should be used. But of course that’s all influenced by my view on what ‘religion’ means to me.
In 2001 my wife and I opened the door to the national census taker, and after many other questions, gave our religion as ‘Jedi’.
IIRC, in that year, over 50,000 people in Australia gave their religion as ‘Jedi’. Because of this, ‘Jedi’ was actually an official religion in the census for Australia of that year.
So say what you want, JEDI IS A RELIGION IN AUSTRALIA.
Just another reason that Australia is awesome.
Also, and before I forget, may the Force be with You.
The Force is fictional, and makes no pretense that it is a real thing that works in the real world. It is an analogy that shines a light on the real world, and our real beliefs. And we all see something different from that analogy.
As I understand it no governments recognise the Jedi religion. Those who put it have their answer lumped in a general “religious” group and the more people in that group the more money a government allocates towards religion and such. Basically anyone who thought of it as a joke or a spoilt answer are basically funding religious organisations.
@8 Halien
I guess I was not precise in my own language either. :) When I refer to miracles as magic, I am thinking of very much about individuals performing them: Elijah calling fire out of the clear sky; Moses parting the Red Sea; the miracles performed by Jesus, etc. No one in the stories questioned the reality of those miracles they witnessed. Even the religion I grew up in has stories of relatively recent miracles and divine interactions that don’t seem repeated in modern times. That we don’t see such blatant “magic” in 2014 is part of my point about Star Wars itself. Something happened long ago and far away from us, in a place and time where individuals wielded the power of gods.
If we look at the Jedi as characters in a myth (rather than at Star Wars as some sort of pseudo-documentary), then the miracles of levitation and fighting prowess they perform are not really different than those miracles of other myths. Instead of calling upon an anthropomorphic deity, Jedi (and Sith) are calling upon the Force, which bears a vague resemblance to the concept of deity in several Earthbound religions and philosophies.
Also, much like Greek myths (as told by Homer, for instance) don’t necessarily deal with the daily worship of those gods in ancient Greece, we don’t really know what religious rituals and ceremonies may be conducted in the culture of that Galaxy far, far away. That the Jedi (the Chosen) could perform miracles through the Force (something the unwashed masses could not hope to do) is not as relevant as what their stories mean to us. Whether there were worshippers of the Force or the Jedi is also not relevant to the myth, though it might be germane to this discussion of the Force as a religion.
I do think that prequels, with their trade disputes and political maneuverings, muddied the waters of the Star Wars myth and made it more resemble that documentary I am claiming it is not. I look forward to Ep. 7, to see what Abrams and crew can do for the ongoing myth.
Epicurism is a philosophy. It tries to tell what is right from wrong, what should be moral, etc. So do other moral philosophies, like utilitarism, stoicism, etc. The difference between a religion and a philosophy, IMO, is that religion tries to answer questions about the existence of people and their relation to the universe. One thing the Jedi don’t seem to do is ask the question about why there are Jedi and non-Jedi, why there are midichlorians. They ask questions and have answers about the way they should use their powers, who should be trained, how much possessions they should have, etc, but not why they exist.
I don’t know much about the Sith, they haven’t been explored much in the movies. They do have a different set of moral beliefs compared to the Jedi (and other people in the galaxy), but do they answer those questions about why they exist?
The way I see it, religions have mythologies, but religions are not only their mythologies. Religion is as much about practice and application as it is about the stories behind those acts.
As such, to some, the Jedi beliefs and practice are a religion. The Force, however, is only one aspect of those beliefs.
The Force, as such, is not a religion.
The Jedi, the Sith, the Nightsisters, etc., are religions, in a sort of combined philosophical/naturalistic sense (they take something that they observe and assign moral values, will, intent, etc., to it, and they construct modes of behavior and ways of life based on philosophical principles derived from those assignments).
One of the things I very much appreciate about the Bioware Old Republic game series is that your character is free to reject the religious trappings of the Jedi and the Sith, either outright or in favor of their own personal interpretations. Given the evils inherent to Sith beliefs, my characters reject their teachings, and given the evils inherent to Jedi beliefs, my characters reject their teachings as well. If anything, the cult-like Revanite sect that appears in the SWtOR MMO is the closest thing to an acceptible Force-inspired religion for characters that I’m running, and even that appears to be moving toward a schism between the light- and dark-side factions.
On another note, Han Solo’s famous quote that “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster” takes on new meaning in the light of Order 66, in which the “hokey religion” and its priests wielding “ancient weapons” proved to be no match for an army equipped with “good blasters.” I could easily see that viewpoint being a natural result of the fall of the Jedi, probably helped along by Imperial propoganda.
The Force is real in the SW universe, but I’m not sure how many people in the galaxy were actually aware of that. Maybe some people on Coruscant who lived near the Jedi Temple? But the Jedi were apparently not a common sight in the latter days of the Old Republic. A mere twenty years after Order 66, Palpatine had so thoroughly wiped out the Jedi Order, that Han Solo and Admiral Motti (the guy Vader Force-chokes in A New Hope) feel confident mocking the Force as an ancient, worthless religion.
The Jedi weren’t an ancient order that hasn’t been seen for centuries. They worked closely with the highest offices of the Galactic Republic, yet to most people they were a legend at best, and at worst, frauds. Even Watto in TPM mocks Qui-Gonn’s attempts at mind control as Jedi tomfoolery, and in RotJ, Jabba accepts that Luke commands the Force, but he’s also not remotely afraid of it.
I guess that’s the biggest indictment against the Force as a religion? Even people who acknowledge that it exist and works don’t respect it.
@9. Ragnarrebeard:
Post hoc fallacy. It’s never said in TPM that midichlorians are the source of the Force. Only that they are plentiful in the body of someone strong in the Force, and the more Force potential an individual has, the more midichlorians they have. If the former were true, surely gaining Force powers would be as easy as a blood transfusion or an injection of some kind.
Actually, I think Qui-Gon does say that they are symbionts and that without them, there would be no access to the Force. This doesn’t mean that they are the source of the Force (that’s all living things, of course) but they do seem to provide some kind of conduit.
Qui-Gon could be wrong, of course, but I don’t know that GL is that subtle about things. I think we’re intended to accept it as true.
Here’s the quote (I think actually from the novelization, but it’s close enough): “Symbionts. Life-forms living together for mutual advantage. Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. Our midi-chlorians continually speak to us, Annie, telling us the will of the Force.”
Interestingly, life itself is seen as dependent on them, which maybe implies (and is in line with what Yoda says in Empire Strikes Back) that ALL life forms are reliant on the Force in at least some degree, but perhaps only a certain few are able to control it, listen to it, etc. But at any rate, they do seem to be more than just a correlating variable. I’ve actually always wondered if a blood transfusion COULD make you a Jedi, haha.
Okay I will be a little bit of a pedant here regarding Qui-Gon. He was a proponent of the “Living Force” that is he believed that the Force was sentient and had will and a Jedi should listen to it. Many Jedi did not agree with him and there were material disagreements over it. And this was the reason Qui-Gon did not sit on the Council. So yes there were factions who believed different things about the Force.
To everyone talking about midichlorians, they don’t create the force. This is something everyone gets confused about for some reason. The midichlorians are organelles, which if you don’t remember are the smaller structures in eukaryotic cells (like the ones our body is made of). Lucas’ intention was that the force still is an energy field that permiates the universe, and that the midichlorians are simply what we squishy beings use to communicate with the force.
I actually think this was a neat idea, since it explained how biological beings were able to “feel” the force at all.
It has always seemed to me that the Jedi were once a religeous order but that aspect waned when they became a brance of Government. So they can use “May the Force be with you” as a traditional blessing but hapily use machines to detect midichlorians because they have no problem with scientific examination of the force.
Perhaps the Jedi/Sith split was a holy war that did a great deal of damage to the reputation of the Force Church. Perhaps the Force Church is still active in the SW universe but the Jedi as an organisation do not associate with it.