DuracellEnergizer said:

NeverarGreat said:

Vader routinely says "The Force is with _", a practically meaningless statement considering that according to the PT, the Force is simply a certain concentration of organisms in a person's blood.

When Qui-Gon commented on the midi-chlorians, he said this

Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. They continually speak to us, telling us the will of the Force.

Notice that he says that without midi-chlorians, life would not exist and there would be no knowledge of the Force, not that the Force itself wouldn't exist. It clearly makes the case that the midi-chlorians are meant to be conduits to the Force, not the source of it.

I'm not saying midi-chlorians are a good idea - I have my own reasons for disliking them - but it's not a good idea to use a flawed argument to make a case against them.

By stating that life could not exist without the midichlorians, Qui-gon is implying that the Force is one of life itself, animating matter in the universe. While I don't particularly have a problem with this idea, the implication is that the more midichlorians a person has, the more power they have with the Force, regardless of the "will" of the Force. For all intents and purposes in the Star Wars movies, the will of the Force is nil after the number of midichlorians in a person's blood has been determined.

I should have stated the inconsistency as:

Vader says "the Force is with _", a practically meaningless statement considering that according to the PT, the number of midichlorians in a person's blood determines how strong they are in the Force.

The inconsistency in my opinion is that Vader viewed the Force like a spiritual gift or blessing, something that could imparted or revoked at any moment. This is why Obi-wan states twice to Luke that the Force will be with him always. The PT does away with this aspect of the Force in my interpretation.