georgec said:

I'm guessing that to most people in the SW universe regard the Force and its followers as many on Earth regard Scientology.

This is how I've always thought of it, but in the prequels it seems like Jedi were everywhere and running the show. Trusted and believed by the average anybody. Which makes Han's disbelief seem really stupid. 15 years before, Jedi were trusted with major political decisions and their powers and antics were known far and wide. Then suddenly monster-faced Palpatine says that the Jedi are bad and everyone goes "well, I guess they are. Why would this evil looking monster-faced guy with an obvious agenda lie to us? Let's act like we never believed in the first place!" So, Han Solo at age 30 (guessing age here) no longer believes in things that were obviously factual when he was 15. That's like saying "I don't believe that music was ever distributed in cassette tape format. I haven't seen one in over 10 years and haven't used one in over 15. The record shop sells vinyl records and CDs, so I believe there were no other formats in between."

Also, if the Scientologists could prove the truth behind their beliefs the same way the Jedi could prove their powers, we would all look at Scientologists in a very different way. So why, if there were so many Jedi around doing amazing things, would there be any unbelievers?

Also again, what are we talking about? I've been drinking quite a bit but I hope this rant at least comes close to the original subject!