Scientology has Tom Cruise, Kabbalah has Madonna and Conservative Christians have Pat Robertson, but the latest celebrity/prophet is an unexpected one: George Lucas.
It seems Lucas has been behind a religious revolution for years, creating a new belief system is finally gaining legitimacy with last week's start of the intelligent design trial. Lucas' believers instituted a policy in Dover, Penn., schools where teachers, also known as Jedi Masters, are required to mention intelligent design when they teach students, or padwans, about biological history, supposedly balancing against Darwinian evolution, or the Dark Side.
Critics claim the idea of ID is a cover for injecting Christian Creationism into school curricula, claiming the "unknown force" that "designed" all life is merely a euphemism for a Christian God. These critics have the right idea, but the wrong deity.
That "unknown force" is no cover. It's right out there in the open. It's The Force.
The Force of Lucas' teachings is an unknown power that has existed for all time, "its energy surrounds us and binds us." (Book of Yoda, Episode V)
The same idea surrounds the unknown force of ID. That force is intelligent, both creating and connecting life. According to ID, life was created by this all-encompassing force, a power that is beyond human comprehension and cannot be explained. Lucas' force is equally unexplainable. In fact, when Lucas tried to introduce a scientific explanation (the ill-fated midi-chlorians) in "Episode I," he was met with such outrage and disgust from critics and audiences that he never mentioned it again. This reaction is similar to creationists' hysterical reaction to scientific statements that humans evolved from apes.
Some might ask, "Our president said ID should be taught in schools, does that mean George W. Bush is a Jedi Knight?"
No, Dubya hasn't earned his lightsaber yet (he's more of a Han Solo, space cowboy type), but similar connections are all out there in the open. Lucas first brought the Force into public consciousness back in 1977, predating the genesis of ID by almost 20 years, and the terminology has been in the pop-culture lexicon ever since. Nerds and geeks alike have studied the stories, well, religiously, creating fan fiction and a market for scores of Star Wars books that continue the Star Wars mythology, movies that incite heated debate (like 1985's "The Ewok Adventure") and devotees quote scripture verbatim such as "No. No try. Do or do not. There is no try."
Intelligent Designers are limited in their accepted literature to spread the word of the Force, as the authoritative ID text is a 168-page children's textbook written in 1989. Some question its legitimacy, as it has only two authors, one of which is a professor at a Florida community college and does not hold a Ph.D., but IDers have an even more powerful and far-reaching tool: the most watched science fiction movies of all time. In this age of visual media and total time crunch, no one really reads anymore. Movies now have more impact and verisimilitude than newspapers and books. Even more effective is when TNT broadcasts the entire Star Wars trilogy over Thanksgiving, both infiltrating peoples' homes and giving people one more reason to be thankful.
Star Wars' biggest contribution to ID might be its contribution of connecting the greatest story ever told (in space) with their ideology. Scientology will never succeed, mainly because Tom Cruise is crazy and "Battlefield Earth" was a terrible movie. ID and the Force will never have that problem because it already has a track record of success: a huge movie star in Harrison Ford (a practicing Jedi), transcendent special effects, and a villain even more terrifying and sympathetic than Christianity's Satan in Darth Vader, who isn't even all evil at the end. Its only weakness are Lucas' later prequel movies, but almost everyone can agree, even messiahs make mistakes.
No matter what happens in the Pennsylvania trial, the Force will triumph in the end, as Obi-Wan said, "If strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could ever imagine."
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
