Outside of the Normal

by Stella

Most of us have heard about Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism, but many modern religions are less well-known. Parody religions have become popular during the last fifty years. These are religions or groups of people that mock or parody an established belief system. They might make fun of one specific religion, or the entire concept of religious belief. Some of the more popular ones are The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Discordianism.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Pastafarianism, was formed when a “concerned citizen” named Bobby Henderson sent a letter to the Kansas school board in protest of the teaching of Intelligent Design Creationism in schools. He argued that in order for this to be fair, the schools would also have to teach the theory that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. He went on to say that if creationism cannot be disproved, then neither can Pastafarianism. According to the principles of Pastafarianism, its teachers must dress in full pirate regalia. A graph attributes the rise in global temperature to the decline of pirate populations.

Discordianism is based on chaos in the world, and is closely related to the second law of thermodynamics. It’s difficult to say whether Discordianism is a parody religion or whether its adherents are true believers. Either way, there is definitely a feeling of confusion and nonsense in the Principia Discordia, the official doctrine written by Malaclypse the Younger. The beliefs of Discordianism are based on the Greek story of The Original Snub, in which the goddess Eris, is not invited to a wedding and angrily throws an apple inscribed with “to the prettiest one” into the wedding. Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera fight over which of them is the rightful owner, and it is left up to Paris of Troy to decide. This eventually leads to the Trojan War. Afterwards, Eris enjoys a hot dog. Discordians also ascribe to law of fives, which states that everything is directly or indirectly related to the number five, and the Pentabarf, which is a list of “commandments” that Discordians must follow – some of which prohibit them from eating hot dogs and from believing what they read.

Some other established parody religions include The Invisible Pink Unicorn, which, as a paradox, has become a symbol for atheism, and The Church of the SubGenius, in which believers worship Bob. There are many parody religions too esoteric to understand but anyone can see that they excite many people and have numerous dedicated followers.

Works Cited
Cedestra. "10 Post-Modern Religions." Top 10 Lists - Listverse. 12 Apr. 2008. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. http://listverse.com/2008/04/12/10-post-modern-religions/

Henderson, Bobby. Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. http://www.venganza.org/

Malaclypse the Younger. "The Principia Discordia." Principia Discordia the Book of Chaos, Discord and Confusion Web. 23 Nov. 2010. http://principiadiscordia.com/book/