Comic belief?: The effectiveness of parody religions

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3279309

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Religious Studies (MA)

Mol, Roelie (2022)

Comic belief? The effectiveness of parody religions

Master thesis | Religious Studies (MA)

The Church of the SubGenius is one of many invented parody religions that have popped up around the turn of the century. These distinct religions, often with catchy and humorous names such as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the United Church of Bacon, confuse people who expect religion to be primarily concerned with spirituality or communication with the divine. If not about those things, what are these religions about? Why are they created, and how have these religions gained such popularity and so many loyal followers who are willing to engage with their subject matter for decades? This thesis aims to answer these questions through an adaptation of theories of minimal counterintuitiveness (MCI) and bizarreness.

minimal counterintuitiveness

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Pastafarianism

Church of the SubGenius