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 such as Eckankar. Usually only ex-members of the specific group can understand it and are interested in it.

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.

Notable parody religions

Some of the bigger or more notable parody religions include:

• Betty Bowers, a fictional character who parodies conservative Christianity.
• Bokononism
• Church of the Holy Donut
• Church of Emacs
• Campus Crusade for Cthulhu
• Discordianism, a religion which embraces silliness as salvation.
• Eventualism
• Church of Maradona, an Argentinian group of fans of the top football player Diego Armando Maradona.
• Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, also known as Pastafarianism, a parody of Intelligent Design.
• Frisbeetarianism
• Invisible Pink Unicorn, a parody that purports to show the uselessness of belief through faith
• Kibology
• Landover Baptist Church
• Last Thursdayism
• MOOism
• 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.

See also

• Pseudoreligion
• Approaches to distinguishing religion from non-religion

External links

• Landover Baptist Church Parody of Christianity
• 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.
• Flying Spaghetti Monster Flying Spaghetti Monster entry at the Uncyclopedia

Joke religions

Paròdia de religió | Parodia de religión | Parodie de religion | Vallásparódia | Religie fikcyjne