The purpose of parody religion

Via Episcopal Cafe, Stephen Prothero wrote “Is religion losing the millenials?” for February 4’s USA Today. He focuses on an exercise for his Boston University students taking an introduction to religious studies class: invent your own religion. By building up one’s own, the fundamental properties of what makes religions religious gets exposed.

The practice is not unlike assembling a computer, oil painting or knitting a sweater yourself. You not only learn the structures and principles but also gain appreciation for the time, expertise and wisdom that goes into their shape and development.

Students would name a new religion (e.g., Congregation of Wisdom), identify its sources of authority and truth (TV trivia game shows) and particular figures and saints to look to for guidance (Jeopardy!’s Ken Jennings). Also featured are Dessertism (the stomach is the path to the soul), Sertaism (salvation through a good night’s sleep) and Eudaimonism (following the teachings of Bob Marley’s music).

What is absent from these religions is the place of immutable traditions and dogma. While ethical teachings are in place (don’t smoke pot; don’t drink to excess), no rigid moral system is enforced. There are few concerns about a Deity or an afterlife that it offers.

One suggestion might be that dogma, morals and traditions are on the out with the up-and-coming generation. This is leaping without looking. Perhaps a closer suggestion would be that college students are shallow and faddish, unable to appreciate the depth of the Big Boy religions (like preferring nickel beer to a complex single-malt whisky). But, as Prothero concludes in the article,

Yes, the religions that students conjure up in my courses tend toward vagueness and relativism. Often they seek to entertain as much as to enlighten. But because they are invented rather than inherited, these religious creations provide a glimpse into the concerns and convictions, hopes and fears of young Americans, who are slouching not toward Bethlehem or even atheism, but toward new ways of being religious — innovative ways that ancient religions ignore at their peril.

To construct a religion ourselves, we express ourselves. This is true for all creative efforts. Building up a religion as an exercise, as a joke or as parody isn’t new. The Church of the Subgenius and Discordianism have been at it for years. More recently, Pastafarianism and the Flying Spaghetti Monster have attracted attention, alongside Landover Baptist Church.

What I see in the efforts at Boston University is the hallowing of common experiences for college students. Dessertism exposes the longing to transcend the institutional dining hall. Sertaism offers salvation through sleep to students pulling all-nighters in the lab. Pastafarianism enshrines basic skepticism. Eating and drinking, sleeping and watching TV, even smoking pot and drinking beer–daily and even prosaic events–find a holy place in these constructed religions.