Parody religion

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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 being parodied may understand it or be 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 employed by Intelligent design Creationism^[1]).

An example of a movie that parodies religion 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 organised religions.

[edit] Notable parody religions

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[edit] Parodies of particular beliefs

The following were created as parodies of particular religious beliefs:

• 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.
• 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 proves that there is more evidence for Google being a god than there is for the existence of the gods of other religions.
• Eastboro Baptist Church, a parody of the Westboro Baptist Church hate group.
• 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.
• Trotskysucksism is a new parody religion, parodying what it calls "The hateful nature of religions" and "The weak minds of members of cults", picking a person who does not like Trotsky's theories as their god.

[edit] 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.
• Basil Baxter, a fictional cult promoting killing in new and inventive ways. [1]
• Campus Crusade for Cthulhu
• Cthulhianism, Russian youth fictional religion
• 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
• Jedi Religion see Jedi census phenomenon.
• Iglesia Maradoniana ("Church of Maradona"), an Argentinian group of fans of the top association football player Diego Armando Maradona.
• Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth
• Pornsaints, both a fictional cult and an art collective, promoting who attains sanctity through pornography.
• Goofyism, a Goofy religion that tries to teach non-judgmentalism and not taking life or religion too seriously.
• Church of Spherical Horse In Void Space, Russian fictional cult based on inversed science (mainly physics) ideas
• The Church of the Immortal Robot Reagan, a movement preaching about the eventual return of Ronald Reagan, which bills itself as "a more honest version of Scientology".

[edit] 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.^[5]

Dawkins also created 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 claim that atheism is not a form of religious creed, but instead merely denial of beliefs.^[6] A common challenge against atheism is the fact 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 claims, 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.

[edit] Parodies and fundamentalism

Westboro Baptist Church member protesting Pope Benedictus XVI outside the United Nations in New York City (2008).

The difficulty or impossibility of parodying religious fundamentalism is expressed in "Poe's Law". In particular, it addresses the difficulty of an independent observer being able to distinguish fundamentalism from parodies of fundamentalism.^[7]

In its original formulation:

[edit] See also

• New religious movement
• Religious satire
• Syncretism
• Discordianism
• Church of the SubGenius

[edit] References

[edit] 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.