Religious fervor in this country and in others has led an interesting minority of people who, fed up with It All, have decided to make a mockery of faith, belief, and anybody claiming to have The One True Faith. These people have done this with resounding philosophical success by doing what The Daily Show has done to news: they've satirized it. Like The Daily Show, satirical religious groups force us to think about the nature of religion and belief in a wholly new way.

The nature of a satirical religion is primarily democratic - anyone can make up any belief, and, if taken seriously enough by enough people, is indistinguishable from an actual religion. Take the case of The Church of the SubGenius as a true life example of this. There are currently, according to official church sources, tens of thousands of SubGenius ministers scattered throughout the world. The only problem with this is that this SubGenius Church is completely a satire - the main organ of this church itself is, in fact, a for-profit corporation that shamelessly peddles and hocks "Salvation $1!", and its supposed leader is a trademarked halftone clipart image of a fictional grinning man smoking a pipe named "Bob".

How, really, is this different from, say, the Holy Roman Catholic Church or Scientology? It is more honest, yet it is more godless. Just like The Daily Show, the SubGeniuses expose and satirize greed in religion, while making a decent living for themselves by exploiting this satire.

Another popular satirical church is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. This came into existence by making fun of and exploiting the philosophical weaknesses of Creation Science. In an open letter written to the Kansas School Board, the Church fo the Flying Spaghetti Monster demands that teachers teach "3-Day Creation" in which the world was created by the Spaghetti Monster's "Noodly Appendages".

Again, this is not much different - in terms of scientific sense - that an invisible flying man created the earth in six days. In fact, with the development of string theory, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster landed some unexpected credence. The only difference between this satirical church and a "real" one is intent, and intent is a capriciously powerful thing. Sometimes satire cults can end up spawning actual religious fervor in people, such as the endlessly puzzling Kerry Thornely.

Kerry Thornely was a co-founder of the amusing religion ("disguised as a joke") Discordianism. After being harangued by the Warren Commission and accused of being part of a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy, Thornely wisely decided to Flip Out. Since Discordianism encourages paranoia as part of its "litter-gee", Thornely became a true follower of Discordia, Goddess of Chaos and Confusion, and suspected many of his friends and relatives of plotting against him. Discordianism was a religion founded to confound people out of their beliefs.

In sum, satiric cults are an important part of America's social structure. They emphasize and distort flaws in religion to make them apparent to everyone who has critical thinking skills. Also, they're quite a lot of fun to take part in. So if you're someone who doesn't like the flavor of organized religion, have a good sense of humor, and don't take yourself too seriously, do some research on satirical cults for yourself, or, just make your own.

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