Star Wars apologetic

I've been a big fan of Star Wars ever since I can remember. I loved it before I even saw the movies. Hey, give me a break, I was four years old when I first heard of it. I recall seeing photos of it in magazines, and I just knew that I had to see it.

And what drew me to it? Well, it was the fact that I opened my heart to The Force, and the movie spoke its truth to me. Now, I know that there are a lot of nonbelievers out there who think that they're just movies. I'll even admit, during my twenties, I thought that The Force wasn't real either. I used to say, "Aw, I don't believe in that!" or "It's just a ripoff of Zen Buddhism that an inspired hack put in his B-movie sci-fi films!" When people would say, "May the Force be with you," I'd say, "And may The Shwartz be with you!" That's right. I gave more credence to Spaceballs than Star Wars.

I realize now it's because I was lured by the Dark Side of The Force. I didn't like working hard, and as Yoda said, the Dark Side is "quicker, easier, more seductive". My non-Jedi lifestyle couldn't make room for all the peaceful contemplation that The Force requires. I was more interested in mind tricks, force chokes, and lightning coming from my hands than I was in accepting the truth of the Star Wars movies.

Finally, one day I decided that I'd re-examine belief in The Force. I decided that I was going to research it like an intellectual and consider the evidence the same way that I would anything else. I consulted experts ranging from Comic-Con attendees to Wondercon attendees so I could get as wide a variety of scholarly insight that I possibly could. I then went ahead and took on all the objections one by one.

#1. The technology in Star Wars couldn't have possibly existed "a long time ago".

I'll admit it; I was pretty hung up on this one. Then I realized that the next line was "in a galaxy far, far away". That just shoots that objection right out of the park, doesn't it? After all, not every society today has achieved the same technological level of sophistication, have they? Why should we hold a different standard when we're talking about a different galaxy?

#2. The Death Star couldn't possibly be real. There's no way to make a space station that big, and there's no way to create a laser that destroy a planet.

This seems to be a pretty good point. However, you'd have to be pretty credulous to accept it as an explanation. After all, if they couldn't build a Death Star in the first place, then why would they have ever started construction on a new one? A more powerful one nonetheless! Not only that, but how do you account for all of the eye witnesses who saw it themselves? Think about all of those rebels who watched the second one explode from the moon of Endor. Think about it. Seriously. Think about it.

Are you going to try and tell me that it's all some big conspiracy? That all of these rebels banded together to destroy something that didn't even exist in the first place?

#3. All this stuff about Anakin Skywalker being "the chosen one" is just a legend!

This was the last thing that I got hung up on. After all, legends are formed all the time. Somebody could have just said that Anakin was the chosen one, and then by word of mouth people would have eventually believed it!

But there's something that I had overlooked. There's one piece of irrefutable evidence that completely throws that notion out the window. In The Phantom Menace, Anakin is called "the chosen one". By the last episode, Return of the Jedi, Anakin restores balance to The Force by defeating Emperor Palpatine. In other words, he fulfilled the prophecy! What more evidence do you need?