As just as staunch an atheist, I think you're rather missing the point. It's fiction, more to the point it's fantasy, and the Force is one of the most archetypal fantasy elements in there. It loses a LOT of its character if you reduce it to some technobabble that doesn't actually explain anything. Either explain how these midichlorians enable telekinesis, telepathy, precognition and what-have-you, which would take a whole movie in itself, or don't try to handwave it away and instead embrace its fantastic nature.