But Jediism still views the world in terms of good and evil, and those who practice it individually align with a light side, dark side, or somewhere in between. This is all innocent enough right now, but if ever it became a serious contender on the world religious stage (with serious money to play with), what would really prevent the true believers from acting out their favourite movie (which is at heart a war movie), for real?
That's the problem as far as I can see. The religion doesn't discriminate racially, you're free to come and go as you please, etc. Sounds O.k. But it's still based on a dualism that plays out as a war. With very big weapons.
Better to make fun of it now before it all gets out of hand
I agree, that's why I am a much bigger fan of the religion of Power Rangers, since no one is ever killed in Power Rangers, they are simply "destroyed" in a firework display and can almost certainly be brought back from some rock statues.
And although insanely powerful robots were used in battles, the fights are brief and base on my constant observation, never were a part of cities permanently damage. You can see the same city full intact among different episode, or even series of Power Rangers.
Power Rangers are also strongly against racist/gender discrimination, as every line up is made as politically correct as possible.
Well the religion itself appears to completely lack the concept of guidance and replaces it with the concept that "you know what you should do". It shifts the emphasis away from the religion making decisions for you and onto the individual, which is quite a unique stand point as it lines up more with aetheism than it does with any existing religious doctrine, conceptually, the religion itself does not decide what is right or wrong, it simply teaches that there is a right and a wrong and you are capable of either, so you have a choice.
Well it doesnt try to answer the question of how/why we are all here, which to me I consider to be the greatest flaw of the traditional religions: It's arrogant to assume to know something that you do not.
Having said all this in defence of the Jedi religion, the fact that the guy who runs the Anglesey church has a 10 minute video on you tube where he reviews a child star wars toy that allows the player to "use the force" and the fact that he takes the task of reviewing it quite seriously does somewhat cloud a positive conclusion from the experience of having looked into it.
That's much more in line with some of the Eastern religions, especially Taoism and Zen, which don't have any hard and fast rules about things and which downplay scripture and theoretical knowledge. As an example you can see that in the story of the disciple who approaches his master for guidance, and the master responds by kicking a ball or slapping the disciple across the face.
I think really, Jediism could be seen as an amalgamation of traditional Eastern religions and the dualism of Western spiritual alignment/salvation. It says there is a right and wrong, that those who align to the dark side are lost ("he is more machine now than man", "lost to the dark side is he"), but it also leaves it up to the individual to sort him/herself out.
It's a hard issue to sort out, really... how far society should go in allowing religious groups the freedom to act out their beliefs- no matter what those beliefs are? It raises the question- who should have the final say when beliefs and rules clash? Should Tescos be blamed for creating a rule that hoods are not allowed in store? It's their store after all (legally, their space), so who's to say that their 'beliefs' shouldn't be respected as well?
As an aside, the Jedi guy says it's part of his religious freedom to wear a hood, yet he obviously has the opposite freedom of being able to take his hood off in public (edit: actually, according to the Jedi handbook, he apparently doesn't). People of other faiths don't have the luxury of that freedom, so I think in this case he was perhaps being a little non-understanding, or not fair by invoking these other faiths to make his point about discrimination. He's operating under a different set of rules to people he's comparing himself with. Or is he really making a point that religious people should be able to do vaguely whatever they want according to their religion and their beliefs, simply because they're religious beliefs? That beliefs (religious) should trump rules (secular), every time?
Going back to my main point, which is- where should society (as a larger entity that includes all religions) draw the line as it were?
Here's a case where the freedoms of certain religious groups are being upheld by law, It seems a win for religious groups, but I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with the governments decision here. It seems pretty complex to me actually, I'm not a lawyer or an ethicist or a religious expert so I don't have anything profound to say on it but it is interesting (this Jedi thing's been bugging me the last couple of days), so I'll put it out there anyway.
edit: here's the Jedi Church's account of what happened in Tescos.
