Alright, some action in this thread! So, I’m sorry to have to say this to my buddy, but, Warb, I’m firmly in the camp of “Why in the world do you have a problem with this to the point that you’re seriously questioning whether lightning comes from clouds?!”
You being of the Christian faith, Warb, it surprises me you haven’t considered the old adage “God works in mysterious ways.” Why did this person die in a car crash? Why is Donald Trump President? Why is there disease and famine in the world? We really don’t know. But there are some things that are accepted through faith. That is a huge tenant of most spiritual doctrine, and Star Wars has never been any different in that regard. And since fiction writers, like all of us, are never really up and up on all the mysteries of the cosmos, works of spiritualism and faith tend to wade in the waters of ambiguity.
The afterlife of Star Wars is not something we know much about. It’s not something we’ve ever known much about. And while I enjoy consistency as much as the next rabid nerd, explaining everything about what is essentially magic would rob it of its, well, magic. As such, the writer has a balancing act between having things make consistent, logical sense and forcing him/herself to completely chart the unknowable.
I know you brought it up to compare canon, but I think your comparing Star Trek to Star Wars in that sense is a problem, since those two franchises explicitly handle canon in different ways. But I think it also illuminates that you might be looking at Star Wars through too much of a Star Trek lens in other ways. Star Trek, while often fantastical, is at least rooted in the ideas and principles of science. Phenomena can be observed and explained. Star Wars is not even remotely based in science. There’s nothing fun or interesting in a romantic space swashbuckling film about the logistical sense of the actions of ghosts.
I’m not saying that should give them free reign to literally have them do anything, but I don’t think “lightning comes from clouds,” when we see the lightning come from the clouds, is too much a stretch to make, nor does it require an explanation.