{"id":33268,"date":"2016-02-07T10:39:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-07T15:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=33268"},"modified":"2016-02-07T10:39:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-07T15:39:47","slug":"the-will-of-the-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/02\/the-will-of-the-force.html","title":{"rendered":"The Will of the Force"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I found myself reflecting recently on the language used in Star Wars of the \u201cwill of the Force.\u201d If the Force were anything like a theistic personal God, of the sort that it is natural to view as having a will, then the provision of power to the Sith over against the Jedi would seem hard to understand \u2013 although one can always speak of the Force moving in mysterious ways. But if the Force is an impersonal\u2026well, force, then in what sense can it have a will?<\/p>\n

What do Star Wars dynamilogians (the Force equivalent of theologians) think? Were the Jedi misguided to think that the Force has a will? Or is it in fact the will of the Force that Sith and Jedi exist? Or is the will of the Force something that isn't always accomplished, with the Force making its power available to people both good and evil, balanced and imbalanced, hoping that they will use it for good but unable to prevent them doing otherwise? Or is the Force just there, for those with the ability (a high midi-chlorian count) to tap into and use however they see fit?<\/p>\n

If the latter, perhaps the Jedi mistook their own will for the will of the Force \u2013 something that many have done with their ideas of God in our galaxy, too. Perhaps the Force is rather like the power of the island on LOST, something that people had different views and interpretations of,<\/a> and which some may have thought they had a handle on and understood, but that doesn't mean their convictions were correct.<\/p>\n

\"The_Force___Action_Figure____by_wildman10\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found myself reflecting recently on the language used in Star Wars of the \u201cwill of the Force.\u201d If the Force were anything like a theistic personal God, of the sort that it is natural to view as having a will, then the provision of power to the Sith over against the Jedi would seem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":19049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[3521,11822],"class_list":["post-33268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-star-wars-science-fiction","tag-force","tag-star-wars"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Will of the Force<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I found myself reflecting recently on the language used in Star Wars of the "will of the Force." 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