So it seems Jediism is real, and growing

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**sarpedons-right-hand**

When the 2001 Census came around, I did put Jedi as my religion. Mostly because I'm an atheist and wanted a laugh to break up the monotony of ticking boxes. But it seems I was onto something after all

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

For the work blocked

Spoiler:

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."

"Feel the force" has become a rather tired cliche. But behind it is a New Age mysticism similar to many of the "holistic" ideas that emerged in the 1960s and 70s. "The Force is what gives a Jedi his power," says Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Alec Guinness, who initiates young men into Jedi tradition. "It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together."

The Jedi belief system is a patchwork quilt of Taoism, Buddhism, Catholicism and Samurai, says Singler. Often the ideas offer a simple dualism of good and evil, light and dark. "Fear is the path to the dark side," Kenobi tells Anakin Skywalker. "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you."

Star Wars creator George Lucas never intended to start a "religion", she says. "Most Jedis don't see him as a guru in the same way that L Ron Hubbard is in Scientology."

Many Jedis have moved away from the Star Wars stories. The Temple of the Jedi Order in the US has three tenets - focus, knowledge and wisdom. "The philosophical and theological considerations of Jediism are not so much from Star Wars as from the inspirations behind Star Wars," says "Akkarin" aka Michael Kitchen, of the Temple of the Jedi Order, a spokesman for the Temple. Star Wars was based on the mythological ideas put forward by the writer Joseph Campbell, who in turn was influenced by thinkers such as Carl Jung, Alan Watts, and Jiddu Krishnamurti. "None of them is given any sort of reverential treatment as saints," Kitchen says. "We study only their ideas, not the person themselves."

Patrick Day-Childs, a 21-year-old video games journalist in Southampton, is a council member of the UK's Church of Jediism. The Church has 200,000 people around the world who are active online, he says, although not all are necessarily believers. Day-Childs first joined when he was 14 for a joke but he says the more he looked into it, the more it made sense. "I use it every single day of my life," he says. It is both calming and inspiring.

Jediism permits people to have more than one religion. But Day-Childs having spent time looking at other faiths found Jediism was the only one that fitted him. "It's an actual religion, not just about fandom. At its absolute core it's about helping people." Unlike many older faiths, there is no divine being. He feels that the ancient religions are losing relevance. But because Jediism embraces technology and science it appeals to a new audience. The Church's founder, Daniel Jones, has written scriptures that go beyond Star Wars, instead dealing with how a Jedi should live. The doctrine has occasionally proved controversial. In 2009 Jones was thrown out of a Tesco store for refusing to remove his Jedi hood. He said he felt humiliated. At that time the hood was required in public places.

But Jedi doctrine has since changed so that children can no longer demand it's their right to wear the hood at school. Education is too important to Jedis for that, Day-Childs says. However the hood can still be useful for young Jedis who are anxious in public, he says.
People who join must learn key tenets of the faith. The Church has a code made up of five statements, one of which reads: "There is no Passion there is Serenity - We can like things but we must not become materialistic and obsessed by them."

There are no physical Jedi temples. So why join what is essentially a big online forum? George D Chryssides, author of The Study of Religion, compares it to the reason why people join different political parties. In the end it comes down to community.

For Mark Vernon, a former priest, psychotherapist and writer, says the Jedi story has real power. "The reason it's so powerful and universal is that we have to find ourselves. It's by losing ourselves and identifying with something greater like the Jedi myth that we find a fuller life."

The Anglican Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend David Walker, says Jediism is another way that people look to give meaning to their lives. Unlike the metaphysical religions, which have an element of God "and speak to something beyond" others look to a code for living, like Jediism. Like a lot of codes for living, he suspects that Jediism aims for people to live happier, more fulfilling lives - and also contain an element of altruism.

One of the central questions is, at what point does a belief system of philosophy becomes a religion? For Bishop Walker it is a "very difficult question" but he puts forward a few hunches. It has to be about bettering society and altruism, he says. There needs to be a significant number of adherents, and, crucially, it will need to have been around for a long time. "We'd want to look at the Jedi for quite some decades before accepting them, [as a religion]" he says. But he admits that there are no hard-and-fast rules.

Naysayers should perhaps pause for thought: "If you strike me down," Obi Kenobi tells Darth Vader, "I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

**purplefood**

The Bishop had a good point.
It's better than that Indigo child bollocks anyway.

**Jihadin**

Warrior monks (Buddhism) is the closest thing I can think to come close the Jedism

**purplefood**

Jihadin wrote:
Warrior monks (Buddhism) is the closest thing I can think to come close the Jedism

Article wrote:The Jedi belief system is a patchwork quilt of Taoism, Buddhism, Catholicism and Samurai,

How intensely insightful of you.
XD

**Jihadin**

Didn't read the article for I remember quite few (and I mean quite few YEARS) years back of the word "Jedi" being entered into the Webster dictionary and the discussion of why, substance, and that it actually had quite following of fans living that concept.

**Ahtman**

Jihadin wrote:
Didn't read the article

You aren't really missing out.

**purplefood**

Jihadin wrote:
Didn't read the article for I remember quite few (and I mean quite few YEARS) years back of the word "Jedi" being entered into the Webster dictionary and the discussion of why, substance, and that it actually had quite following of fans living that concept.

Yeah the article doesn't seem to say anything particularly new.

**Deadshot**

Well that was dissappointing. I came here expecting an insightful and interesting report on the real life Jedi order and a more comprehensive guide to understanding. Instead I am greeting with half a dozen quotes from A New Hope which only gives it a mocking tone. Its not helped by the claim in every paragraph "Its not just a fandom!"
I can practically hear the writer sniggering in the background.

**Shadow Captain Edithae**

Deadshot wrote:
[...] I can practically hear the writer sniggering in the background.

I'm sorry. Was a snigger not the appropriate reaction?

I must be doing it wrong.

**Deadshot**

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Deadshot wrote:
[...] I can practically hear the writer sniggering in the background.

I'm sorry. Was a snigger not the appropriate reaction?

I must be doing it wrong.

You can do as you please. The journalist or blogger or monkey with a typewriter who wrote that piece should have shown professionalism and courtesy, particularly with the topic being religion. If that were an article on Islam or Hindi any hint of mocking or "sniggering" would have picked up immediately and shot down like Black Hawk Down. If it were about Jews you'd have everyone scream "Nazi!" And if it were about a new sect of Christianity every Bible thumper from here to Timbuctoo would be up in arms. I really don't care for any religion but if people demand respect for one religion then I demand it for all of them.

**Jimsolo**

Jediism is a perfectly valid religious choice. It sounds like people are getting healthy spiritual fulfillment out of it, so I'm not seeing any problem. They don't believe Star Wars characters are real or saints or anything, they just take spiritual guidance from the ideals behind the Jedi, and I can definitely think of worse places to take lessons from.

**Jihadin**

They be screaming with pure orgasmic joy if a light saber gets created. You know it. I know it. They know it.

**Rainbow Dash**

I made my own religion, largely taken from things from other religions I liked and tossing out stuff I didn't want in there.

And then there was the whole Church of Doll-Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, that was a joke to more or less rustle jimmies and be weird

**Jihadin**

Bacchus
Bacchus my peons

**Gitzbitah**

Rainbow Dash wrote:
I made my own religion, largely taken from things from other religions I liked and tossing out stuff I didn't want in there.

Essentially, that is what neo-paganism is. Chose your favorite aspects of several millenia of various religious practices and modify it to suit your desires.

It is neat.

**TheDraconicLord**

Jihadin wrote:
They be screaming with pure orgasmic joy if a light saber gets created. You know it. I know it. They know it.

Uh, I think any fan of the Star Wars universe would scream with pure orgasmic joy if a true light saber was created.

I sure as hell would.

Not as much as if Zakus became a reality, though ... now THAT would be true orgasmic joy.

**Rainbow Dash**

Gitzbitah wrote:
Rainbow Dash wrote:
I made my own religion, largely taken from things from other religions I liked and tossing out stuff I didn't want in there.

Essentially, that is what neo-paganism is. Chose your favorite aspects of several millenia of various religious practices and modify it to suit your desires.

It is neat.

Well mine's better

**Shadow Captain Edithae**

Rainbow Dash wrote:
Gitzbitah wrote:
Rainbow Dash wrote:
I made my own religion, largely taken from things from other religions I liked and tossing out stuff I didn't want in there.

Essentially, that is what neo-paganism is. Chose your favorite aspects of several millenia of various religious practices and modify it to suit your desires.

It is neat.

Well mine's better

Are you the central deity? Do you demand all mortals bow down and worship you?

**Rainbow Dash**

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Rainbow Dash wrote:
Gitzbitah wrote:
Rainbow Dash wrote:
I made my own religion, largely taken from things from other religions I liked and tossing out stuff I didn't want in there.

Essentially, that is what neo-paganism is. Chose your favorite aspects of several millenia of various religious practices and modify it to suit your desires.

It is neat.

Well mine's better

Are you the central deity? Do you demand all mortals bow down and worship you?

Nope there's 4
One, who is the shapeless, voiceless everything, and it's three avatars
Kaunis the Lord and Lady of Life and Creation, Yokoshima the Lord and Lady of Death and Destruction and Lokasenna the Lord and Lady of Preservation and Balance...

Their names are irrelevant, it's what they do and what they'll do to you if pissed off
Every dream Lord Yokoshima has graced me with her presence in she has brutally murdered me.

**Shadow Captain Edithae**

Wooooah, man. Thats deep. Is that like a vision?

**chaos0xomega**

Who wants to startba Sith temple with me?

**Rainbow Dash**

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Wooooah, man. Thats deep. Is that like a vision?

No it was just dreaming while I sleep.

Yeah none to kind the God/Goddess (they have no gender so to speak) of death and destruction.
But then again if dreams are anything to go by (and unanswered prayers) none of them are "kind' and work in a way we don't understand, so praying for a car or to get laid is pointless, they'll do it if they feel like it and if they don't too bad for you, they got cosmos stuff to worry about.

**Jehan-reznor**

So the Jedi speak Jedish or Yodash?

Is there a sith variant, because the dark side appeals more to me

**Gitzbitah**

Jehan-reznor wrote:
So the Jedi speak Jedish or Yodash?
Is there a sith variant, because the dark side appeals more to me

Indeed, but it is only slightly less exclusive than Highlanderism. You must find the Sith Master and convince them to take you as their apprentice.

**Aesop the God Awful**

Is their leader muppet-Yoda or CGI-Yoda? That's the deal breaker for me, whether or not they should be accepted as a real religion.

**gorgon**

chaos0xomega wrote:
Who wants to startba Sith temple with me?

Sorry man, I'm already a member of the Temple of Stretch Armstrong, Scientist.

KNEEL BEFORE YOUR ELONGATABLE GOD.

It's totes a genuine belief system that deserves to be treated like a real religion, and not something that I didn't make up right now.

We have an evil deity and everything.

**Paradigm**

Gitzbitah wrote:
Jehan-reznor wrote:
So the Jedi speak Jedish or Yodash?
Is there a sith variant, because the dark side appeals more to me

Indeed, but it is only slightly less exclusive than Highlanderism. You must find the Sith Master and convince them to take you as their apprentice.

And the first and only reality of the Sith; There can only be two, a Master and an Apprentice, so it never really took off!

**Jihadin**

Benjamins! $$$$$

You all just don't know it yet

**chaos0xomega**

Paradigm wrote:
Gitzbitah wrote:
Jehan-reznor wrote:
So the Jedi speak Jedish or Yodash?
Is there a sith variant, because the dark side appeals more to me

Indeed, but it is only slightly less exclusive than Highlanderism. You must find the Sith Master and convince them to take you as their apprentice.

And the first and only reality of the Sith; There can only be two, a Master and an Apprentice, so it never really took off!

No way man, thats the Reformed Sith Temple of Darth Bane