May What Or Who Be With You? Star Wars vs. Ten Commandments

george lucas, the creator of star wars, created the fictional “force.”

according to wikipedia, he …wanted to “awaken a certain kind of spirituality” in young audiences, suggesting a belief in god without endorsing any specific religion. he developed the force as a nondenominational religious concept, “distill[ed from] the essence of all religions”, premised on the existence of god and distinct ideas of good and evil.”

what?

george lucas’ views are confusing. the classic star wars line is “may the force be with you.” we know, however, from star wars, that there is a dark side of the force. thus, when you say “may the force be with you,” it could easily apply to the dark side. thus, you can argue that the star wars’ force is a continuum of good and bad.

the god of the ten commandments is the creator and master of the universe. we, as being created by him, have a connection to him. god created the world in entirety and declared it to be very good. thus, within all of us is the potential to be very good. this was the bar upon which the world was created. as god created humanity, with what transpired in the garden of eden, we are aware of good and evil. unfortunately, it is humanity, not god, that has the capacity to commit good and evil.

as of result of this dynamic, god acts as the moral authority of the universe to steer humanity toward the path of goodness. thus, we have rules. thus, we have the ten commandments.

the torah has its “may the force be with you” statements within it. one of them is the priestly blessing in numbers 12:24:

“may the lord bless you and watch over you. may the lord cause his countenance to shine to you and favor you. may the lord raise his countenance toward you and grant you peace.”

thus, the charge is made to the authority of goodness as opposed to a charge made to a source that can be either good or bad.

in sum, the force can be analogized to humanity which has good sides and dark sides. the force runs the spectrum and those within the fictional star wars galaxy are challenged to to go to either side. in the ten commandments’ universe, humanity looks toward god as the source goodness and morality. the intent to have a very good world as it was created.

be well!

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