George Lucas is the creator of the
Star Wars franchise and is one of the richest men on the earth today. In one interview he was asked about the religious overtones in the
Star Wars series. He expressed an intelligent yet agnostic response
"I put the Force into the movie in order to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people - more a belief in god than a belief in any particular religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin asking questions about the mystery. Not having enough interest in the mysteries of life to ask the question, 'Is there a God or is there not a God?' - that is for me the worst thing that can happen. I think you should have an opinion about that. Or you should saying, 'I'm looking. I'm very curious about this, and I am going to continue to look until I can find an answer, and if I can't find an answer, Then I'll die trying.' I think it's important to have a belief system and to have faith."
If you look at what the Jedi's believe in the movies, this pretty much sums it up. Thankfully the interviewer did pointedly ask Lucas "Do you have an
opinion, or are you looking?" Lucas answered:
"I think that there is a God. No question. What that God is or what we know about that God, I'm not sure."
I really, really like
George Lucas. I've got to admit that his movies and imagination have influenced me a great deal. I am pleased that he is a theist. Believing in God's existence is a fundamental intellectual step to maintaining sanity. The Bible tells us that the created order should be enough to convince us of God's existence. We have no excuse for coming at least that far if we are honest with ourselves
and what we can see, hear, measure, and feel.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. - Roman 1: 18-20
As for the second part of his answer about who God is and what know about him, this only comes by cultivating a relationship with him. Such a relationship must include spending time in God's revealed scriptures and
philosophies. Considering that there are many competing texts and ideas that contradict each other only one of them must be from the creator or none of them. I find it hard to
believe that if a person seeks God with all of his/her own heart that God will not make it plain to them what His purposes are.
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' - Acts 17: 24-28
On the Apologetics 315 blog, there is a lecture by Stephen Meyer. Meyer is talking about the digital code embedded in the DNA of living cells. Meyer does a great job. No one disputes that the way information is encoded in our DNA is nothing short of astonishing. In some ways it is more efficient than our best information systems. Our computers are based on binary codes. DNA is based on twice as many bases. Binary is based on 0 and 1 but DNA has 4 bases. This means that much more information can be encoded. Meyer argues that everyone agrees that information can only be assembled and encoded by intelligence not material processes. I agree. No one picks up a book and assumes that the words and information contained in it shows up out of no where by chance. We automatically know that someone wrote it. Or when we run computer software we know that someone wrote it. Why would we assume DNA was different. Meyer did a great Job. Take a listen.
