Jediism - Is It For You?

[agchristie]

Religion often takes much criticism on here but although many will have heard of Jediism, who actually knows what their beliefs are?

In an online world and community forums, could this religion expand?

Use the force!

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

[Slapshot]

Type Your Answer Here...It's as real and any of the other bunkum out there, christianity, judaism, islam you name it, a faith in all the living things around me.... I could cope with that. Bring back the pagans

We'll be questioning Humma Kavula and the Coming of the Great White Handkerchief next!!

[agchristie]

Slappy, this one is different in that there is no divine worship and wouldn't it be great if a code was followed whereby everyone fulfilled a more enriching life?

Must dash, my flight from cloud cuckoo land is set to depart!

[naomi24]

Beliefs:

http://www.jedichurch.org/jedi-doctrine.html

[douglas9401]

In as much as it seems to permit the slicing up of baddies with light sabres without passing them by a panel of experts to do risk and impact assessments then yes, why not.

[mikey4444]

This is just another made-up religion, just like all the other made-up religions
that we already have in the world. All religions are the irrational belief in illogical circumstances...this one is no different.

To paraphrase John Lydon, "Religion is a black hole, ready for ignorant people to fall into"

[Baldric]

"May the Farce be with you!"

[agchristie]

Naomi - thanks for the link! Will take a look later!

Douglas - I hope I don't pass you in the street with your light saber ;-)

Mikey - Did you read my link in full? You will note that Tesco ejected a follower who had his hood up in the store!

[agchristie]

Baldric - I wonder if there are any followers on AB! It could ignite the debate!

I didn't want breakfast today and I had to be force fed!

[mikey4444]

agchristie...for the same reason I suppose that shops like people to remove their motorcycle crash-helmets I suppose.

There is a line from "Annie Hall" that sums all up all this new religion nonsense much better than I can. Woody Allen is leaving a Rock concert with Shelley Duvall and she tells him that she is a Rosicrucian. He replies ::

"I can't get with any religion that advertises in Popular Mechanics")

Priceless !

[agchristie]

Mikey, I like it ;-)

Was that the same film starring Rosy Cross!

Don't answer that!

[mikey4444]

I have been trying to find a Youtube clip of that line for the last 30 mins, but haven't managed it.

"Annie Hall" has to be one of my most favourite films of all time, by any Director, and "Manhattan" follows close behind. So many of Allen's lines are eminently quotable ::

"Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go it's up there with the best"

"I don't believe in the afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear"

"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon"

So many more but so little time !

[agchristie]

Perhaps Mikey you could draft up some quotes for the Jedi's! Might double the membership!

[mikey4444]

I think they and all the other daft religions have enough Members already, without me encouraging any more !

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/datablog/interactive/2012/dec/11/census-religion

[Canary42]

Karl Marx got it right "Religion is the opium of the people"

Or to put it into context, the full translation is :-

"The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself. "

Courtesy of Wiki.

[agchristie]

Your link suggests that it should be 'Reverse of the Jedi'

[agchristie]

Naomi - have read your link. At least the Jedi's will not brainwash anybody and that people can 'come and go as they please' (this may explain the fluctuation in numbers) but does this come across as little more than a fad?

Also, how does one 'listen to forces' in order to follow the 'light' path?

All rather shallow and confusing to me and so by not heading to Cambridge this weekend I don't think I'm missing much...

[atalanta]

I follow Bertrand Russell and the Order of the Celestial Flying Teapot. You just have to know the Teapot is not there and yet believe that it is. Just the sort of paradox all religions need.

[agchristie]

Atalanta - I know the feeling well. When I drop hints for a cuppa, my friend knows of the existence of a teapot, but no brew is forthcoming :-(

[agchristie]

I've been trying to apply telekinesis but there doesn't appear to be any forces :-(

[douglas9401]

You might want to try Tetleykinesis then, ag.