[thechat] Jedi Knight now an official religion in the UK...

[Erika Meyer]

yeah, "religion" is a sketchy word.
http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=religion

Jedi Knight is more of a yin/yang thing.  Working with the force.  It 
reminds me of Taoism, and also of certain elements of Native American 
religions (which are often very Tao...)

It's a nature/warrior spirituality....  A Jedi Knight tunes into 
universal energy (aka 'the force') and uses it... hopefully on a 
spiritually sound path... hopefully to help and not hurt other people.

When you start using "the force" to hurt people, you're moving toward 
witchcraft.  ("witch" being used here in a very specific context: 
someone who uses magic/the force/prayer/magic etc to harm another 
person or people).

Of course, there is that complexity of good vs. evil that seemed so 
easy to define in the Star Wars films.  It was necessary, of course, 
to justify all the war and shooting and explosions, etc.  I don't 
find that dichotomy so obvious in real life.

Erika

>Aside: Jedi Knight is more of an occupation than a religion, but 
>then Atheism, by definition, is certainly not a religion and they 
>list that (code 335).
>
>Cheers,
>Bruce

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