Parody religion

A parody religion or mock religion is a belief system that challenges spiritual convictions of others, often through humor, satire, or burlesque (literary ridicule). Often created to achieve a specific purpose related to another belief system, a parody religion can be a parody of several religions, sects, gurus, cults, or new religious movements at the same time or even a parody of no particular religion, instead parodying the concept of religious belief itself. In some parody religions, emphasis is on having fun and being a convenient excuse for pleasant social interaction among the like-minded (e.g., the Church of the SubGenius). Other parody religions target a specific religion, sect, cult, or new religious movement.

One approach to parody religion aims to highlight deficiencies in particular pro-religious arguments — the thinking being that if a given argument can also be used to support a clear parody, then the original argument is clearly flawed. An example of this is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which parodies the equal time argument employed by intelligent design and Creationism.