WHAT IS THE TAOIST (OR, DAOIST) BRANCH OF BUDDHISM ALL ABOUT? [2 of 6] Never being technically unified into an overall religion, Taoism (or Daoism) can be divided into three categories: philosophical, religionist, and Chinese-folk beliefs. The Bible has nothing good to say about the last one involving ancestor worship—the practice of communicating with dead people. God calls that the abomination of necromancy, and He is deeply offended by it. In fact, Judaism’s first monarch, King Saul, went too far one day when he practiced necromancy through help from a witch. That led to God’s immediate judgement on Saul, having him die in battle the next day—along with every one of his many sons; within twenty-four hours, Saul and all his heirs to the throne were dead. Because of the division of practices in Taoism, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what they believe, but generally speaking we see Taoist themes in many movies, like the previously mentioned Star Wars franchise. Roughly stated, Taoism teaches a “flow of the universe,” or “force,” that supposedly keeps everything balanced in a natural order, and is said to be the source of both existence and nonexistence. Some Eastern mystic religions like Taoism refer to this as the “yin and yang” principle, which can express itself through equal forces of good and evil opposing each other. What does that sound like? It is exactly the religion of Star Wars. And the movie series even decided to build more doctrine into that false faith, the idea that a nifty machine can be placed close to a being, and in that way, it takes a blood sample that measures “midi-chlorians.” The more the gage rises, the better that life form is said to be able to manipulate the “force." While Star Wars films are popular because the stories are well written and produced, unfortunately, they have greatly increased the popularity of Buddhist Taoism around the world.