Is this Nietzsche all over again? The Nazi-helmet shape in spit-polish black shows up as a symbol of evil for the latest fiction in the classic hegemony story. Ubermensch is the on the loose again. He was persuaded to become the sole (or should it be the soul?) apprentice. In this day when so much is justified by DNA, it is surprising that any convincing was necessary. He was simply born that way. Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader.

Hitler and his wicked SS bunch were very much taken up with evil. Occultism was their apprenticeship and practice. Theirs was the conversion into a Nazi. This is the process whereby a garden-variety sinner is transformed into a super sinner, the unfortunate consequence of an Ubermensch, the "overman" or superman. Is Anakin a Nazi? Or was his conversion to evil not real? In the last episode of the Star Wars' series, "The Return of the Jedi," he converts back to the good side in the end. Real Nazis were so by choice and commitment. When condemned during the Nuremberg War Crime Trials as Nazi war criminals they confessed "Heil Hitler!" just before they hung on the gallows.

It is the Force that is confused in the series. It is the chaotic blend of good mixed with evil in the Force that the story line depends. There are elements of ancient classic dualism found in the Force, but rather than being divided into separate autonomous existences, good and evil are embodied in the one Force. Perhaps this accounts for Anakin's unreal conversions. You can't have a tabula rasa or "clean slate" idea for human practice and being while at the same time there is a much more powerful Force that doesn't possess such a condition. If the big fish is a mixture, so are the little fish. You can't have a clean human and an unclean god. The major problem with the story is that it posits evil in God.

Evil is an inherent part of creation by this story. There are two interpretations for our beginning. The first is an Inherent beginning, that is, we are what we are because God or nature made us that way. The second is a Moralistic beginning, that is, we are what we are because of a moral choice by someone in the past. An Inherent beginning requires either a dualism that separates good and evil into autonomous existences or must place both in God or nature. The Moralistic view presumes a good God, who created a good creation, but because of a departure or fall from God, a moral choice, evil was brought into the universe. Satan fell first, then Adam. We are sinners by birth and by nature according to this view. We need no persuasion and no conversion. It is not determined by DNA either. DNA as cause suggests an inherent cause traceable to before the Fall and hence a creation of God. Also genetic engineering has the potential to remove sin, if the locus of sin was in DNA.

Our problem is not Sith, but sin. No one needs to join the sin club. We are automatically members the moment we are born. We do have to be converted. We have to be converted to the Good. The old theologians used to talk about the "total depravity of man," referring to humanity's incapability to do anything that would merit heaven. It doesn't mean that humans are incapable of doing any good, but that all relative good is tainted by sin. Sin is as much as a condition as it is a choice. We sin because we are sinners. "So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned " (Romans 5:12 NET). That doesn't excuse us, because as humans made in the image of God we are required to perform absolute righteousness. Our Luke Skywalker is anyone or anything that points us to Jesus. He is the Mediator between a fallen humanity and a holy God. He fulfilled all righteousness by His perfect life. He was judged and died for our sins. He is the only One who can save us from our sins, because of the cross.

Click here: How to be saved.