In the human search for meanings and answers in a complex world, could The Force be

considered a viable religious faith? Explain your answer.

The Force itself cannot be considered a religion as it lacks many of the qualities a religion must have.
Furthermore, the Force is a binding, metaphysical, and ubiquitous power and as such, The Force is a power
that connects us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as
causes, and they come back to us as effects (Herman Melville). Moreover, The Force in itself lacks many of
the qualities a religion has, such as rituals, stories, emotions, adherents, ethics, philosophy and materials.
The Force, as stated by Herman Melville, is a power that connects and binds people together. Additionally it
does not provide any answers to the great questions of human life. However, when the Force is applied to a
New Age Relgion such as Jedism, it becomes part of that religion, but it does not become the religion itself.

Each and every religion present in the world has some sort of rituals which adherents can participate in.
Rituals and ceremonies are ways to celebrate and reinforce the central belief system and structures for that
tradition. Public rituals is a formal activity with clearly defined structures, timing and content. On the other
hand, private rituals are performed in a manner which an adherent finds comfortable. Public rituals are often
based upon rituals found within sacred texts, for example, the communion service in Christianity. They also
reflect the actions and words of an important event or person in their religious history, for example, the that
surround the Jewish festival of passover. The Force, however, does not have any sort of ritual which a
community of believers can express its common belief. This is mainly due to the fact that The Force is based
around the purpose of connecting us with our fellow men and showing that the action of one person,
affects everyone else. As such, The Force cannot be considered a religion as it lacks in the ritualistic aspect
that all others religions have. Another characteristic of religions if the possession of sacred texts and
writings. These sacred texts may be in written form or may be made into images and are regarded as
particularly important, for they have been given to humans in the form of a revelation from God. An example
of this is the Quran in Islam and the Christian Bible in Christianity. Nevertheless, the Force does not have
these sacred texts as it is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power and as such, would not have
sacred texts and writings due to its nature of being metaphysical.

The central paradigm of a tradition is often summerised within great epic stories found in sacred texts.
These stories work on several levels and sometimes, stories fit together into a fairly complete and systematic
interpretation of the universe and human place in it. An example of this is the Exodus of the Jews from
slavery in Egypt and the death and resurrection of Jesus in Christianity. These stories help believers come to
an understanding of the essential teaching of their respective religious traditions. The Force, does not have
stories due to the fact that it does not have any traditions to convey or teach. Thus, the Force cannot be
considered a religion due to the fact that it has no stories to convey or teach its traditions. As stated
previously, the Force is simply a binding, metaphysical power that connects us fellow men to one
another. Furthermore, a religion must have ethical teaching in order to teach its adherents between right
and wrong. is the practical application of belief. If believers hold the beliefs of their religious tradition as the
most important means of understanding the universe and their place in it, their behaviour will reect this
fact. In other words, ethics puts into practice the beliefs of an adherent. For example, the Torah in Judaism
sets out in detail what a Jew must do. The same is applied for the Tripitaka in Buddhism which presents the
Five Precepts that all lay Buddhists must observe. The Force does not have any sort of moral code or ethical
teaching that tells believers the difference between right and wrong. The Force is simply seen as something
that binds and connects all things together. It does not give any moral outlines to guide any believers.

Every religion has a series of doctrines or teachings that explain what members of a religion are expected to
believe. This Dimension incorporates simply the systematic formulation of religious teachings in an
intellectually coherent form. Doctrines are related in complex ways to the practices of people who belong to
that religion. Religious beliefs usually refer to beliefs about a divine being or beings, beliefs about the world,
and beliefs about the meaning and purpose of life. Some example include, the Buddhistava in Buddhism and
the Trinity in Christianity. The Force, however does not have these sort of doctrines as its primary function is
to connect us with our fellow men. As such, the Force in itself cannot be considered a religion as it does
not provide any doctrines for adherents to follow. Experience incorporates the entire involvement of a
person in a religious group. It can refer to experiences of a special kind that influenced the founders and
reformers of a particular religion and similar, though lesser experiences among later adherents. It can also
include mystical or highly charged experiences of ecstasy, wonder or fascination recorded by religious
people. It can be any or all feelings of dread, guilt, awe, mystery, devotion, liberation, ecstasy, inner peace or
bliss. In contrast, the Force does not allow adherents to feel these emotions. It simply connect us with our
fellow men.

The Force also lacks materials or places that symbolise the supernatural. In every religion, it is expected that
there will be objects or places that represent the supernatural or belief systems that the religion and its
people worships. In Christianity, for example, the Christian adherents will praise a piece of bread that is
known as the Blessed Sacrament because they believe that it has been transformed into the body of Christ.
This is a link to their principal belief in that there is one God who is split into the Trinity of The Father, The
Son and The Holy Spirit. It also shows that Christian believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and
that he still watches over the world and is a guide to how Christians act. Similarly, Judaism have symbols like
the Star of David which reaffirm their beliefs in one God, and that the Torah holds his teachings. However,
the Force does not pertain symbolic objects or places which grant access to the supernatural, rather it is
innate power that some can utilise. The only object found with the Force is the lightsaber, which is not
symbolic for any belief system or supernatural power, establishing further that The Force is not a religion.

So, in summation, the Force cannot be perceived as a religion as it does not adhere to the different
dimensions of Ninian Smarts Taxonomy. This is evident by how it lacks many of the qualities a religion has,
such as rituals, stories, emotions, adherents, ethics, philosophy and materials, and how recognised religions
like Judaism and Christianity actually have these qualities. Hence The Force cannot be considered a religion.