Does any Star Wars book mention the name of the first person to notice the Force, and/or the name of the founder of the Jedi religion?
Zephram Cochrane (sp?)
i found that funny.
sigh.
what is essential is invisible to the eye -the fox
I don’t know what the answer to that question is, but I’m afraid I know the people who do… go to one or both of these links - they’ll tell ya the stuff 
www.outer-rim.net
The question is up in the air!
Chronoligically, ‘The Phantom Menace’ dates well before the trilogy. In TPM they(Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan) search for the force as though it were a science rather than a religion; looking for(forgive me if I’m wrong)metachlorion levels within the blood of potentials. To do this they needed hand held ‘Tricorders’ to determine the Metachlorion count in their subject. Technology coupled with belief suggests of a science rather than dogma.
In Episode four(A New Hope) an unfortunate officer remarks to Darth Vader that “Your sad devotion to this ancient religion has not given you the clairvoyance to conjure up the stolen plans…” (as Vader pinces his fingers together and gives him the classic force grip.)
Do you think that the Force truly was a science to begin with and with time and lack of understanding eventually transitioned into “a sad religion”.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it! 
I think the religion reference in SW is with regards to two things:
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Jedi are very rare. Most people have never seen one (10-25 thousand in a galaxy!). All they now is that they seek guidance from something called “The Force” that nobody else can sense and supposedly are rather superhuman. Imagine how that must sound to non-Jedi?
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Darth Vader is a Sith lord. The Sith were a Force religion. I think it is primarily this that the officer makes reference to. I am not sure why he is so suicidal as to call the Sith religion “sad”. Perhaps the officer misunderstands that all Jedi were Sith (see above on how the Jedi must appear to outsiders) and hence is referencing “sad” religion with regards to all Jedi.
In any event, I don’t think the founder of the Jedi has ever been identified.
It aint the religion that’s sad, it’s Vader’s “devotion” to it. The religion is “ancient.”
Seems to me that the Force was FIRST a religion, and that at the time of TPM, they tried to make it a science. Han talks to Obi-Wan (in what is now episode 4, the original STAR WARS) as though the Force were a religion or superstition as well.
Here’s a question for you (I don’t remember who raised this, it’s not original with me):
in STAR WARS (NEW HOPE), in the final confrontation between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan, Obi wan says: “You can’t win, Darth.” At the time, we thought “Darth” was his first name, and his old teacher Obi-wan was addressing him on a first-name basis. Now it turns out that “Darth” is a title for the dark lords of the Sith: as in Darth Maul.
And the implication of that is…?
Eh, it’s no different from saying, “You lose, Sheriff.”
As for the technology/religion thing - it appeared to me that the technology to detect midichlorians was kind of a ‘secret’. Note that only Qui-Gon, Obi Wan, and that blasted kid are privy to talk of the little beasties. So, persons outside the Jedi “religion” may not know that there’s a technological basis for Jedi mysticism.
And, since supposedly lots of technology gets lost during the Clone Wars (thus explaining why all the ‘old’ ships and droids look so cool in Ep I compared to those in Part IV), the technology to detect midichloreans may have been lost as well. Blammo, you got yourself an ancient religion with no scientific basis, wink wink.
Hijacking the topic slightly, I ask:
It’s obvious that Lucas’ conceptions have evolved (from the original creation, that is) which is fine and understandable and unfortunate for the prequels, all at the same time. So: years from now, would anyone consider showing their kids or grandkids the whole shootin’ match in fictive chronological order (that is, 1-6)? Or would you figure that that’d have to be too confusing, trying to explain the inconsistencies, and just show 'em 4-6, 1-3 - perhaps along with a stupid little speech about art and the creative process and the nature of time (or something)?
personally, i would go in all chronological order, and if they didn;t understand?! TOO BAD!!! lol
I would make them watch it over, and over, and over until they finally got it, and turn them into star wars junkies!
think about it.
to us outsiders, those scientologists are part of a zany religion.
to them, that is not so.
notice all your examples of religion references are quoted from those that are not jedi?
uh huh.
what is essential is invisible to the eye -the fox
I believe the founding of the Jedi, and of the Sith, was extensively covered in the comics. I never read them, so I can’t say anything for certain, but one of them was Exaar Kuun.
Anyway, you’re not askling about the origins of the Jedi, you’re asking about who discovered the Force. And that, I believe, is not known, in Star Wars canon anyway.
There is a Star Wars Encycopaedia, compiled by Steve Sansweet. It’ll be in there, if anywhere. I know people who know him, maybe they can ask him ;).
And one last point: The midichlorians are not the Force. They are the Jedi’s conduit to the Force. The Force itself is still an energy field that surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together. A midichlorian count is merely an indicator of Force potential.
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Shadow of the Pigeon -
Weirdo of the Night
<< And, since supposedly lots of technology gets lost during the Clone Wars
(thus explaining why all the ‘old’ ships and droids look so cool in Ep I
compared to those in Part IV), the technology to detect midichloreans
may have been lost as well. Blammo, you got yourself an ancient religion
with no scientific basis, wink wink. >>
Well… but in Episode 1, Obi-Wan is a kid, and Episode 4, he’s an old man. So all this happened during his lifetime. It’s not as if the technology was lost in the clone wars centuries ago – just within a generation.
The Sherlock Holmes stories have generated innumerable essays, clubs, books, etc of people trying to reconcile the bits and pieces (about which Conan Doyle obviously didn’t care tuppence.) Lucas (and most writers since, having seen what the Holmes folks did) is trying to be a little more consistent, but …
Yeah, but do they say how long Jedis live?
Yeah, but 20-year-old Luke’s mom was alive in Episode I, too. How old do you think she was when Vader knocked her up? I’m figuring that the clone wars couldn’t have been longer than, say 40 years.
God, I feel like a geek.
According to the timeline in the newest paperback novel (awkwardly titled Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Dark Tide I: Onslaught), The Phantom Menace takes place 32 years before A New Hope (the retroactivel official title for the original movie).
The books, comics, etc. have been generally considered semi-official by Lucasfilm (i.e., they’re canon until and unless something in a subsequent movie contradicts them), so this can be taken as a reasonable timeline.
So, Obi-Wan is only about 50 to 55 by A New Hope, not particularly old at all. And there’s enough time for Palpatine to sieze power, conquer whatever he can, kill all the Jedi and generally wreak havok in the galaxy. I don’t think the question of technological levels has ever been clearly defined – all the starships look zippy and they all shoot colorful loud energy thingys at each other, so it’s hard to say which are better than which. (I’m deliberately not going into the next office to dig out the file copy of The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, and I hope you’ll all thank me for that.)
For those who care, the next two movies are listed on the timeline as 22 and 20 years before A New Hope. (Which means, I guess, that either Luke Skywalker was a bit older then the 18 or so I’ve always pegged him at, or he won’t even be born in the current movie trilogy.)
On a side point, it’s been made pretty clear that the Jedi were officially outlawed and hunted down by Palpatine. I imagine they were pretty thoroughly demonzied in the process, so the fact that the young officer thinks of Jedi stuff as an old, discredited religion is understandable – that’s been the official party line for most of his life.
…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
I’m not sure the title was retroactive. I have a copy of The Art of Star Wars which I got about the time of the original movie. (Certainly before The Empire Strikes Back was released.) Along with a lot of pre-production art the book contains the entire script for the first movie, including scenes which didn’t appear in the final film (such as a meeting between Luke and Biggs on Tatooine and Han’s meeting with Jabba (which did appear in the special edition but Jabba was a human in the original script)).
In the book, the script is identified as Star Wars: A New Hope so it looks like that was part of the title from the beginning.
The book also identifies SW:ANH as “Episode IV of The Journal of the Whils”.
What’s a Whil?
“It turns out it isn’t so much a law of physics as it is a local ordinance.”
Take it from an old fart who hasn’t gone senile yet. The movie released in 1977 was called Star Wars, period! A New Hope wasn’t tacked on until it was rereleased around the same time The Empire Strikes Back came out.
Not only am I a geek. I’m an old geek.
Yes, the title was simply “Star Wars,” but I believe the movie opened with explanatory text that began “Chapter IV: A New Hope.” So the idea that the movie’s “real” title was “A New Hope” has been around since the beginning.
Up, up and away!
Wrong! If it had said Chapter IV, we would have all said, “Huh? What happened to the first three chapters?”
The only people that make this claim, Clark, are people who didn’t see it in it’s original 1977 release. I was 14 and saw it about 15 times. Believe me! There was no Chapter IV anywhere in the openning text. In fact, I don’t remember “A New Hope” either. The opening scroll began with “A long, long time ago…”