Jedi

The Jedi /ˈdʒɛˌdaɪ/ are the main protagonists in the fictional Star Wars universe. They are an ancient monastic, spiritual, and academic meritocratic organization whose origins dates back to circa 25,000 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin; the destruction of the first Death Star). The Jedi Order mostly consists of polymaths: teachers, philosophers, scientists, physicians, diplomats and warriors, who value knowledge and wisdom above nationality. By serving others, the Jedi give of themselves through acts of charity, citizenship, volunteerism, and good deeds. Their traditional weapon is the lightsaber, a device which generates a blade-like controlled plasma flow. The organization has inspired a new religious movement, Jediism.

Overview

As depicted in the canon, the Jedi study, serve and utilize a mystical power called the Force, in order to help and protect those in need. The Jedi members, known as Jedi Knights, respect all life by defending and protecting those who cannot do it for themselves, striving for peaceful and non-combative solutions to any altercations they encounter and fighting only in self-defense and for the defense of those they protect. Like their counterparts, the Sith, their main weapon is the lightsaber. By training the mind and the body the Jedi seek to improve themselves by gaining unfettered access to the Force while also seeking to improve those individuals and groups they come in contact with.

Jedi census phenomenon

The Jedi census phenomenon is a grassroots movement that was initiated in 2001 for residents of a number of English-speaking countries, urging them to record their religion as "Jedi" or "Jedi Knight" (after the quasi-religious order of Jedi Knights in the fictional Star Wars universe) on the national census.

Impact

Australia

In Australia more than 70,000 people (0.37%) declared themselves members of the Jedi order in the 2001 census. The Australian Bureau of Statistics issued an official press release in response to media interest on the subject. The ABS announced that any answers that were Jedi-related in the religion question were to be classified as 'not defined' and stressed the social impact of making misleading or false statements on the census. An ABS spokesperson said that "further analysis of census responses has been undertaken since the release of census data on June 17 to separately identify the number of Jedi-related responses". It is believed that there is no numerical value that determines a religion per definition of the ABS, but there would need to be a belief system or philosophy as well as some form of institutional or organisational structure in place.

Jediism

Jediism (or Jedism ), is a nontheistic religious movement mainly based on the depiction of the Jedi in Star Wars media. Jediism attracted public attention in 2001 when a number of people recorded their religion as "Jedi" on national censuses, although most such submissions were thought to be protests or jokes.

History

Jediism is inspired by elements of Star Wars, namely the fictional religion of the Jedi. The real-world Jediism movement has no founder or central structure.

Early websites dedicated to drawing a belief system from the Star Wars films were "The Jedi Religion" and "Jediism". These websites cited the Jedi code, consisting of 21 maxims, as the starting point for a "real Jedi" belief system.

Beliefs

Although followers of Jediism acknowledge the influence of Star Wars on their religion, by following the moral and spiritual codes demonstrated by the fictional Jedi, they also insist their path is different from that of the fictional characters and that Jediism does not focus on the myth and fiction found in Star Wars. The Jedi follow the "16 teachings", which are based on the presentation of the fictional Jedi, as well as "21 maxims".

Jedi (game engine)

Jedi is a game engine developed primarily by Ray Gresko for LucasArts. It is extremely similar to the Build engine used in Duke Nukem 3D. While not a true 3D engine, it supported a three-dimensional environment with no limitations in the 3rd dimension (Z). In Doom, environments or levels were limited to existing in the X-Y plane only — levels were laid out two-dimensionally: while floor and ceiling heights could differ, areas could not overlap vertically. The Jedi Engine had support for areas or rooms (called "sectors") on top of one another, a trait that it shared with the Build engine. In the Dark Forces revision of the engine, the renderer could not display two rooms situated on top of each other at the same time. This capability was added for Outlaws.

The Jedi Engine also included the ability to jump and crouch, the ability to look up and down, and atmospheric effects (achieved by careful manipulation of 256-color palette files). The engine is limited in its rendering capabilities, however, and used two-dimensional sprites (pre-rendered in different angles) for most of its object graphics.