I didn't like the allusions to Jesus either, in regards to Anakin.
Explaining how the Force works, when it was already done in ESB was pretty bad.
You had Yoda and this elegant explanation of, "It surrounds us...luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."
It seems like Lucas wanted to add more of a SF angle to his story by adding symbiotes, and midichlorine counts. The Force went from this cool mystical thing to a video game power up bar.