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Essay on Star Wars and Religion

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Star Wars and Religion

Methodology

In conducting my research on Star Wars, I wanted to make sure that I kind of found a variety of sources. I decided to do my field report on Star Wars originally because I was aware that I needed to include an interview component in this report. I immediately thought of my R.A., who just happens to be an incredibly huge Star Wars fan. I knew that I would have to investigate some element of the movies and religion has always been a very controversial topic within the Star Wars "universe". To research the topic I went through the IU Libraries Database and retrieved articles about Lucas and his beliefs about religion and about pop culture spirituality and the movies in general. I also held an …show more content…

Lucas is not longer in control of the form that it takes on and the ideals that it expresses, whether those ideals were meant to be expressed or not. His ideals expressed consciously or not through his movies have been called everything from "new religion" (Johnson) to "spirituality" (Moyers).

Analysis

"A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." (Lloyd) is the infamous beginning of one of the biggest, if not the biggest pop culture phenomenon of our time. Star Wars is a famous trilogy well known for it's action-packed scenes and technological achievement. The movies center around the all-powerful, all-controlling "Force". With all that we have come to know about Star Wars, we have yet to discover the true meaning of "The force" and if it is really a representation of some thing much bigger and much closer to us than we think.

The "new religion" that Star Wars is said to provide what has been called a "bland, generic spirituality" as one philosophy professor called it (Johnson). Those who argue that pop culture is our "new religion" say that it allows for society to be able to call themselves "spiritual" without saying that they are also "religious" (Johnson). Advocates claim that though Lucas might provide "an impression of spirituality", "You get lost in the noise and images" as one priest states. Some prefer to say that this turn to pop culture for religious fulfillment is because of "a spiritual vacuum created by

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