parody religion

A recent parody religion, Pastafarianism was created in 2005 to protest a decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution.

A parody religion or mock religion is either a parody of a religion, sect or cult, or a relatively unserious religion that many people may take as being too esoteric to be classified as a "real" religion. One parody religion can be a parody of several religions, sects, gurus and cults at the same time.

In some parody religions the emphasis is on making fun and being a convenient excuse for pleasant social interaction among like-minded, e.g. the Church of the SubGenius.

Other parody religions target a specific religion, sect, cult, or new religious movement. With some parody religions only ex-members of the specific group may understand it or are interested in it.

Other parody religions are aimed at highlighting deficiencies in particular pro-religious arguments — the thinking being that if a given argument can also be used to support a clear parody, then the original argument is clearly flawed (an example of this is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which parodies the equal time argument deployed by Intelligent Design Creationism^[1]).

An example of a parody religion movie is Monty Python's Life of Brian.

In 2001 following an Internet campaign, the fictional Star Wars "religion" Jedi became a parody religion as 0.7% of the UK population were persuaded to state their religion as Jedi in the official census^[2] (see Jedi census). Similar campaigns in other countries also took place.

Several religions that are classified as parody religions have a number of relatively serious followers who embrace the perceived absurdity of these religions as spiritually significant, a decidedly post-modern approach to religion. The most notable of these religions may be Discordianism. With Discordianism, it may be hard to tell if even these "serious" followers are not just taking part in an even bigger joke. This joke, in turn, may be part of a greater path to enlightenment, and so on ad infinitum.

Parody religions are almost never recognised by existing organized religions.

Notable parody religions

Parodies of particular beliefs

The following were created as parodies of particular religious beliefs:

• Church of the Holy Donut, sermons by talk radio host Bernie Ward parodying the religious right in the US.
• The Ewok Church, a parody merging Christianity and Star Wars Ewoks
• Eventualism, a subtle parody of Scientology.
• Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, also known as Pastafarianism, a parody of intelligent design ^[3]. (Some followers of this faith assert that it is a parody religion because their deity chooses it to be so)
• Invisible Pink Unicorn, a parody of theist definitions of God. It also purports to highlight the arbitrary and unfalsifiable nature of religious belief, in a similar way to Russell's teapot.
• Kibology, a humorous Usenet-based satire of religion, partly parodying Scientology.
• Landover Baptist Church, a parody of Evangelical Christianity.
• Last Thursdayism, a joke version of omphalism, again demonstrating problems with unfalsifiable beliefs.
• OBJECTIVE: Ministries, parody of Christian fundamentalism.
• The Great Pumpkin, a Santa Claus–like being in the comic strip Peanuts, interpreted as a parody of Christian evangelism by some critics.
• The Church of Google, A parody religion that states that there is more evidence for Google being a god than there is for the existence of the gods of other religions.
• The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism, the Christian denomination attended by most residents of Springfield in the animated TV series The Simpsons. It has been used to parody many religious beliefs and activities, though its absurdly long, qualifier-filled name is a parody of Protestant denominations in particular, as is the history of its founding: centuries ago, Presbylutherans split from the Catholic Church during the "Schism of Lourdes" to defend their "god-given right to come to church with wet hair," a right the Presbylutheran church later abolished.

Post-modern or otherwise odd religions

The following are post-modern religions that may be seen as elaborate parodies of 'real' religions:

• Bokononism, a fictional religion from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle, where one major point is that human happiness is more important than truth, even scientific truth. Another is that Bokononism freely acknowledges that all its tenets are false.
• The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent, another Vonnegut creation, the foundation of which forms the basis of The Sirens of Titan. This religion gives thanks to God for his utter lack of interest in humanity, and the freedom that gives his creation.
• Campus Crusade for Cthulhu
• Church of Emacs
• Church of the SubGenius, often regarded as a parody of religion in general, with elements of fundamentalist Christianity, Scientology, new-age cults, pop-psychology, and motivational sales techniques amongst others, has become a notable movement in its own right, inspiring several books, art exhibits, rock albums, conventions, and novelty items.
• Discordianism
• Frisbeetarianism
• Haruhiism, the fandom of anime series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
• Iglesia Maradoniana ("Church of Maradona"), an Argentinian group of fans of the top association football player Diego Armando Maradona.
• MOOism
• The Process (collective)
• Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth

Notable usage by atheist commentators

Many atheists, most notably Richard Dawkins, use parody religions such as those of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Invisible Pink Unicorn — as well as ancient gods like Zeus and Thor — as modern versions of Russell's teapot to argue that the burden of proof is on the believer, not the atheist.

Dawkins also creates a parody of the criticism of atheism, coining the term athorism, or the firm belief that the Norse deity Thor does not exist. The intention is to emphasize the fact that atheism is not a form of religious creed, but merely a sane denial of implausible beliefs.^[5] A common challenge against atheism is the claim that atheism is itself a form of "faith", a belief without proof. The theist might say "No one can prove that God doesn't exist, therefore an atheist is exercising faith by asserting that there is no God." Dawkins argues that by replacing the word "God" with "Thor" one should see that the assertion is fallacious. The burden of proof, he says, rests upon the believer in the supernatural, not upon the non-believer who considers such things unlikely. Athorism is an attempt to illustrate through absurdity that there is no logical difference between disbelieving any particular religion.

See also

• Approaches to distinguishing religion from non-religion
• New religious movement
• Religious satire

References

External links

• Betty Bowers Parody of Christianity
• Scientology Losing Ground To New Fictionology An Onion article parodying religion
• The Ultimate Comment, a self-proclaimed "psychedelic cult" trying to find the secret of the universe.

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