From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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. Usually only ex-members of the specific group can understand it and 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).

A rare 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 (see Jedi census).

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 "ha ha only serious" religions may be Discordianism. (With Discordianism, however, 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.

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.
• Eventualism, a subtle parody of Scientology.
• Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, also known as Pastafarianism, a parody of intelligent design.
• 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 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.
• Campus Crusade for Cthulhu
• Church of Emacs
• Church of the SubGenius, started as a parody of Scientology, but now a parody of multiple religions, and even a notable movement in its own right.
• Frisbeetarianism
• Iglesia Maradoniana ("Church of Maradona"), an Argentinian group of fans of the top football player Diego Armando Maradona.
• MOOism
• Discordianism

• Pseudoreligion
• Approaches to distinguishing religion from non-religion
• Religious satire

• Betty Bowers Parody of Christianity
• The Force is a Tool of Satan - Episode III ALERT! Parody of Star Wars as a Religion
• St IGNUcius Richard Stallman's reaction to people accusing him of extremism
• Scientology Losing Ground To New Fictionology An Onion article parodying religion
• Vote Jedi Outlining the claims of the Jedi Religion, and the perceived unfairness of awarding privileges to any religious group
• The Church of MOO. Parody of mainstream religion.
• The Ultimate Comment, a self-proclaimed "psychedelic cult" trying to find the secret of the universe.
• The First Church of Sushi. A cool alternative to religions, diet crazes and designer fashions, for the Aquarian New Age - promoting the Big Tuna, self-improvement and healthy lifestyles for everyone, even nerds, geeks, models and surfers, via a traditional Japanese fish-based sushi diet plan, with cool videos from our founder, Reverend Nige! Holy Sushi, Praise the Big Tuna! Save Our Shoals! Webcasting to the world from a kitchen somewhere in cyberspace. Learn how to create culinary miracles from raw fish and a few bits of seaweed!