Small but important point regarding Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Skywalker gets the credit for using The Force to destroy the Death Star, turning off his targeting computer while flying down the Death Star’s trench and relying on this all-powerful, unseen power to guide his hand in making the most difficult of shots.
But here’s the thing:
Luke didn’t use The Force because he had accepted this all-encompassing, quasi-religious power in his heart.
A ghost told him to do it.
Luke’s friend, Obi Wan Kenobi, existing at the time as something known as a Force Ghost, entered Luke’s mind and specifically told him to use The Force. Not only was Obi Wan Kenobi a ghost, but just hours before, Luke has watched his friend and mentor get struck down by Darth Vader in the hanger of the same Death Star he was trying to destroy. But when Kenobi dies, no physical body is left behind. He dematerializes, leaving only his desert robes behind.
Of course Luke turns off his targeting computer! Of course he uses The Force. His friend, magically and mystically defeated before his eyes, speaks to him and tells him what to do.
This is not impressive. This is simply following directions.
Don’t get me wrong. It was a good shot. Luke saved the day.
But I’ll also point out that Han Solo appears in the nick of time to save Luke and makes the shot possible, and he didn’t have any ghost in his head, telling him what to do. Solo risks his life for a cause that he is questionable about at best. He manages to shoot the elusive Darth Vader’s ship, and allows the ghostly directed Luke to make the winning shot.
Whose the real hero here? The kid being directed by a ghost or the guy with a bounty hunter on his ass, flying his cargo ship into a war to help some kid he met two days before?
I feel the same way about characters from The Bible like Moses and Noah. Both were big believers in God.
Big deal. Back in Biblical times, God was constantly making appearances on the scene. He spoke to Moses via a burning bush and handed him actual tablet to take down the mountain. He parted an entire sea for the guy at just the right moment.
Noah received the must ridiculous and unlikely weather forecast in all of human history, and then it came true! Not only did it come true, but two of every animal from all over the planet also conveniently arrived at the ark and climbed aboard, no questions asked.
Show me an orderly parade of reptiles and mammals, and I’ll show you a believer.
Of course these Biblical guys had faith in the Lord. If God was speaking to me on a regular basis, or one of his ghosts or angels were telling me exactly what to do when the chips were down, maybe I wouldn’t be trapped in the midst of a struggle for faith that I cannot seem to find.
What I’m trying to say is that if God or The Force or any other higher power is talking to you – giving you advice, directing your decisions, and appearing before you – I’m not impressed nor surprised about your faith.
It makes sense. It’s logical. In fact, it isn’t even faith at that point. It’s simply belief in the things standing right in front of you. It amounts to little more than my belief in the existence of trees or sky or rocks.
Luke Skywalker, Moses, and Noah didn’t need faith because they had direct and immediate access to a spiritual realm.
That’s called empiricism.
I’m not impressed.
