And here I leave you

Well friends, we have come, as all things must, to the end. We’ve had some fun (at least I hope so) and learned lots of interesting things.

So how to conclude my blog?

Well, my Communications Studies lecturer used to say the way to write an academic paper was to tell your audience what you’re going tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them. So what have we learnt?

Well, that parody religions come in all shapes and sizes, that they wouldn’t exist without the internet and that on the whole they are little rays of silly sunshine in the over serious world of religion.

And what might the future might hold for the wonderfully weird world of parody religions? I like to think that maybe, in hundreds of years, when, as a particularly bleak folk-song has it “all our bones are blackened, and our faces are no more” that futuristic archeologists (River Song perhaps) will find records of Discordianism and the FSM and Jediism and maybe even Linus and his great Pumpkin (see what I did there?) and think that their anscestors where a little bit odd, but really, rather wonderful.

Don't these people have anything better to do?

So why does anyone ever join a parody religion? Sure we’ve all had a few laughs at their antics, but most of us haven’t rushed out and bought a copy of the Principia Discordia, or covered our cars in FSM stickers. But there are some who actually do. So why?

Well that’s where the term parody religion becomes problematic, because people join different parody religions for different reasons – stands to reason when there are so many of them and they’re all so different. And of course most of what I’m going to say in this post is simple logical deduction. There really isn’t much info out there about the whys and wherefores of parody religions – it’s mostly just pictures of people in silly costumes. But here’s my uninformed opinion anyway. People's reasons for joining parody religions depend entirely on the parody religion they choose to join.

Members of the Church of the Blind Chihuahua for example, are practising and believing Christians, in search of a place where they can meet like-minded Christians and find a new and friendlier way of worshipping Christ.

Pastafarians on the other hand may join the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster for a variety of reasons. Those within the USA may join because they agree with the original point Bobby Henderson was trying to make, about the unconstitutional encroachment of Christian beliefs into state funded education. In this country though they mostly join because they think it’s cool. The teaching of ‘creation science’ has never been a big issue over here – I seem to remember my biology teacher briefly mentioning that some people belief that a deity of some kind created the world and that frankly that created a lot more questions than it answered and that was that.

Ultimately though, I think parody religionists are simply looking for a reasonably polite and socially acceptable way of flicking the Vs to the establishment and societies' norms. They’re too sociable to become hermits and too peace loving and generally sensible to become violent extremists, so they dress up as pirates or give people business cards telling them they’re Pope. And good luck to them.

But what's so great about them anyway?

You’ve probably noticed by now (that is, assuming anyone’s reading this – it can be very lonely out here in cyberspace) that I like parody religions. I think they’re a good thing. But why?

There has been a bit of an anti-religious uprising in recent years, most especially in the USA, where Christianity is still the accepted norm and a big part of many people’s every day lives. I don’t object to aethiests, or their protesting about the separation of church and state – that is afterall a legal more than a moral question – but even the most committed atheists among my (possibly imaginary) readers will have to admit that, most of the time, atheists just aren’t doing themselves (or anyone else) any favours. The way they present themselves, and the way they treat people of faith, can all too often mean that compared to them the Pope looks tolerant and Nick Griffin looks open minded. Not that we can blame them – take a look at these unbelievable quotes from Christian Forums.

What many parody religions are doing is saying all the things the atheists are trying to say, but saying them in a way that is far gentler, far less confrontational and far less offensive, than many atheists can manage. Take this guy for example – the amazing atheist – his idea of a protest in favour of free speech and human decency is to destroy 40,000 copies of the Qu’ran (depressingly this guy has 198,462followers on youtube). And they wonder why atheists are so unpopular!

And then compare it to this strange but wonderful little man, with his home made charts. I think we’d all agree that the latter is much more pleasant, and frankly more logical!.

The theology of silliness

The church of the blind Chihuahua is an interesting subject for this blog because really one could argue that it is not a parody. In fact I’d argue that it’s not a parody. But it is innately silly and therefore I feel worth a mention.

Just reading the introduction you find an inherently likeable church that is using Cyber-religion the way it’s meant to be used – creating a religious community free from racism, sexual prejudice, homophobia, ageism etc. (If you want to keep on liking it don’t read their political section – the liberals among you will be disgusted by the Americaness of it, and the more right wing will be disgusted by its liberalness).

The point of the CotBC, its raison d’etre, is to create a church where people are friendly, free from prejudice and most importantly, not afraid to have a bit of a laugh. Rich Hall said on a recent episode of Stand up for the week that the big difference between Brits and Americans is that Americans have the ability to laugh, but Brits have a sense of humour. What he meant was that Brits have something very important that a great many Americans seem to lack – the ability to laugh about and at thing that we take very seriously, like religion. So you could say the the CotBC is an attempt to make an American church more British.

As I’ve said the CotBC isn’t really a parody. Its members are believing and practising Christians and they are in no way attempting to belittle Christianity. In fact the sermons and bible study parts of the their website are perfectly serious. The only real difference between them and most real world churches is the self proclaimed lack of fear in ‘appearing silly before the Lord’.

The incidentally came from a dog that the founder knew, who was going blind and would bark sideways at things he could only dimly perceive. Likewise, he says, all humans are barking sideways at God, because we cannot truly perceive him.

The silliness is strong in this one...

I’m sure, my dear readers, that you all know about the Church of Jedi. A lot of very silly people decided to muck up their national census office’s statistics by putting their religion as Jedi. What started as a few nerds in New Zealand soon grew into an international phenomenon. There are officially more Jedi’s than Sikhs in the UK!

The big question than people ask (especially middle-aged women like my mum who don’t even know that Vader is Luke’s father) is why?

There are many answers. Some people were protesting against the inclusion of what they saw as an unnecessary and overly-personal question in a government document. Some I’m sure felt they were striking a blow against religion (this is an unpardonable generalisation I know but at the moment it seems that as soon as they reach about 14 teenage boys suddenly hate religion and all it stands for. It seems to wear of after a few years though fortunately...). But there are a few, just a brave few, who really believe it.

You’re scoffing I know. But when you get right down to it, Jediism is actually a pretty sensible belief system. They believe in the force, which connects all living beings together. If you know how you can shape the force to your own designs, use the energies to your advantage (chi, by any other name...). There is a dark side and a light side, and we must strive to be on the light side, by doing good deeds etc. If we do we will be able to perform miracles and live to extraordinary ages. It’s basically a mishmash of all George Lucas’ favourite bits of Eastern mysticism and belief. There’s bits of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, (and the obvious parallels between Luke Skywalker and Jesus) all mixed together with a side-order of robots (sorry, sorry... I did mean 'droids, honestly).

Ultimately though, most people who identify as Jedi don’t believe in it. They just thought it was funny, which, as Sir Terry Pratchett put it, just goes to show.

Quantum physics would agree that deep down, we’re all the Pope

Discordianism is based on a book, the Principia Discordia by the incredibly named Malaclypse the Younger, “Wherein Is Explained Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing About Absolutely Anything”. The opening to an online edition of the Principia Discordia describes the author as “a time-travelling anthropologist from the 23rd Century, currently passing among us as a computer specialist, bon vivant and philosopher named Gregory Hill. He has also translated several volumes of Etruscan erotic poetry, under another pen-name, and in the 18th Century was the mysterious Man in Black who gave Jefferson the design for the Great Seal of the United States. Whenever I question him about this, he grows very evasive and attempts to persuade me that he is actually just another 20th Century Earthman.” I know it’s not really good form to post big quotes like that in a blog, but that just amused me.

They worship (sort of, though they don’t believe in prayer) the Greco-Roman goddess of discord and disharmony, Eris (as in the one who threw the golden apple that started the Trojan war). The Principia and their subsequent writings reference many historical figures, but undoubtedly the most interesting is the Emperor Norton I of San Francisco, a self-declared ruler who proclaimed himself sole dictator of the United States in the 19^th century. So widely accepted was Norton as the town eccentric that, when he began to print his own money, a great many shops accepted it as legal tender! In this way, Norton embodies many of the principles of Discordianism – he did own thing, went his own way and was unafraid of looking ridiculous in public.

Essentially, Discordians dedicate themselves to seeing the funny side of life, the innate ridiculousness of all things and above all, to making people think for themselves. The fifth of the five laws of Discordianism is that you shouldn’t believe anything you read (presumably including the laws of Discordianism). They are also free from the militant anti-something or other feelings that pervade so many parody religions. They’re not anti-anything, just pro-silliness.

You may have noticed by now, dear readers of my blog, that I have a soft spot for parody religions, the sillier the better. Discordianism has a special place in my heart because quite frankly, they don’t come any sillier than this! It encourages a world where a crazy man can declare himself a king and print his own money, and instead of arresting him for treason or forgery people accept him, are proud of him and give him free food. That’s the world I want to live in.

I'm taking my oysters for walkies...

As I have mentioned before, many parody religions are actually trying to make a serious point and of none if this more true than of God Hates Shrimp. Yes really.

Now you may or may not have heard of the Westboro Baptist Church - pleasant little group led by the rev. Fred Phelps (and populated almost entirely by his relatives) - who spend their time picketing civil partnerships and the funerals of gay service men and women under the name 'God Hates Fags'(you may well have seen them on Louis Theroux’s programme, ‘the most Hated Family in America’). Not nice people. Groups like this can really makes us liberal lefties begin to despair of America and especially American Christianity.

But wait! There's a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is God Hates Shrimp. The group was founded as a protest against groups like God Hates Fags, by pointing out that there are hundreds of rules in Leviticus and Dueteronomy, and no where does it says that Homosexuality is more sinful that eating shellfish (or moles - also forbidden for reasons now lost to the mists of time).

Now there are an awful lot of parody religions which are dedicated to pointing out the flaws in Christianity, and to me this has always seemed a little unfair. It's not like Christianity is any more silly or dangerous than any other religion. But this time I am firmly on the side of the Parodists as they strike a blow for common sense, decency and shell-fish allergy sufferers everywhere.