Was Jesus' crucifixion all part of God's plan?

Further, early hominids were in balance with nature before we escaped our animal instincts and moved towards higher sentience, which lead to our corruption and power. Such is the path to the Dark Side.

You'd have to hold on with one hand and shovel with the other.

According to some dogma, Gods plan was to allow humanity to choose...which brought separation and death. Critics(you among them) would argue that were God loving and responsible He would have never allowed the sneaky snake to tempt newly created innocent creatures.Quite frankly that makes sense. The issue is what exactly has happened to humanity.Has humanity lost the ability to be good? You say that you would prefer that God(if God exists) or Jesus to simply leave you alone and let you freely choose to be responsible, giving spare change to every down-on-their-luck Canadian in your town whom you come upon. Thus, you seem to assume that there is no Original Sin...like jar, you believe that the gift given to humanity was no curse...it was an awareness and charge to be responsible---helping others whenever and however possible.If what you believe is true, perhaps you additionally believe that Jesus need not shepherd you through life...you can find your own way, thank you very much. jar is similar. I guess some of us feel that we have been given the ability to freely choose to believe in ourselves---and that, at our best---we create our own grace. We need no gifts with conditions attached. Am I close? In other words, we save ourselves(or redeem ourselves) entirely through our own actions? Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

Seems plausible. But still off somewhat to me, though. This seems to imply that before the Dark Side rose up... there was no Light Side (good side)... did everyone just walk around in states of neutrality?However, it does seem to be backed up by this entry: And further confirmed with this entry: Which seems to state that before the Jedi (Light Side) were created to remove the Sith (Dark Side)... there was already the first order of force-users... The Je'daii who balanced things between the Light Side and the Dark Side. So... there were regular users of light and dark first.This idea seems to make sense:Light and Dark side users exist and work in balance.
Then "Super Dark Side" users rise up (Sith) and cause some havoc.
So, then "Super Light Side" users rise up (Jedi) to remove them.If the Jedi's plan is to wipe out the Sith, and then dissolve themselves... regardless of the existence of other non-super dark-side users and non-super light-side users... it can make sense.But this isn't apparent from the movies.
The movies seem to imply that the Jedi are there to battle any and all dark forces.
They seem to rejoice when the dark side is utterly defeated... and then continue on as Jedi themselves.
(...which springs forth my comment that makes sense when you're ignorant of the Wookiepedia.)In contrast to how Jesus's crucifixion was all part of God's plan, the movies make it seem like keeping balance is not all part of the Jedi's plan.

You seem to paint a tightly controlled dichotomy.Either someone chooses to let Jesus guide their life, exactly the way Phat thinks it should be done...
Or someone rejects Jesus, refuses all external gifts and focuses only on what they can create themselves.It seems to me like there are plenty of other options:

• Choosing to let Jesus guide your life in a way that Phat does not approve of, but actually comes straight from Jesus
• Rejecting the "gift from God" when it is described in a nonsensical way, but willing to accept such a gift if it did make sense
• Questioning the existence of grace in the first place instead of thinking you could create such a thing yourself
• various degrees and combinations of the above

I do not think things are the way you so tightly believe them to be.
With nothing to actually base our ideas on, I find it highly unlikely that any person who claims to "be inspired by God" actually has it right.That doesn't mean I want to grind your ideas into dust.
It just means what it says... I don't think you have it all right. Who knows? Maybe you do. I just don't think so. If you are required to save or redeem yourself... then yes, you will have to do it through your own actions.
Someone else saving or redeeming you wouldn't be "saving ourselves."Personally, I don't even think we need saving or redeeming unless we actually do something evil that requires saving or redeeming ourselves.

While we are alive? Yes. Of course. Who else could do it?

What is interesting, from a Star Wars canon standpoint, is that interpretations of the light side and dark side differ. Some consider both to be two separate energy sources, with distinct properties. Others consider there to be one ubiquitous 'Force' and how one manifests their power ultimately denotes whether they are 'touched' by the light or dark side.
It somewhat reminds me of how individuals harness the powers provided by scientific discovery. Electromagnetic forces for example can be used to create motors, power homes over great distances, etc. They can also be used to electrocute someone. It comes down to the old 'power corrupts' archetype.Edited by Diomedes, : Fixed typo

Yea but the sith code is more natural then the Jedi codePeace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.In nature peace erodes us conflict straightens us. Apart from a few wars that actually provide the most advancement in human knowledge, humans dont know conflict like animals do, while every decision a wolf makes could mean life or death for him and possibly his family gene pool, we mostly sit on our couches eating food brought to our homes. We are fat and lazy they are killing machines.There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.While the jedi code offers peace almost in the form of apathy. and without the second line it would lead back to hunter gatherer societies.

when Jesus saves us, we dont get the credit nor the power...so we hate it.When the force frees you, you get the power...thus you like it.Plus the force never demands obedience...only respect.Conclusion: People would like Jesus better if He gave them the power.

What the hell does that even mean?

Well shoot dang. 5 years later you guys are still goin at it Edited by Raphael, : No reason given.

But that is not entirely correct. As per Christian dogma, when you are 'saved' by Jesus, your reward is eternal salvation and immortality alongside god. That is most definitely an increase in 'power'. Once saved, your soul will eternally be in paradise, free from disease, violence, hatred, etc. If that isn't power, I don't know what is.

Power is to hold the galaxy by the throat.

well, at least this "once evil" character has the humility to reflect on her bad choices in the past....what is she on the good side now?

And you good sir are reppin the good side quite respectfully. (For those here who don't know Raphael as I do, he was a camp counselor over the summer and hopefully inspired a few young minds to contemplate their destiny and help humanity somewhat. ) Any advice for we secular intellectuals? Im sure that you have grown a bit and seen the college intelligentsia at work!