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Welcome to Parody and Invented Religions
Welcome to Parody and Invented Religions, the lightest course in the catalog, and one of the most thought-provoking.
In 2005, a young man wrote to the Kansas State Board of Education demanding that, if schools taught intelligent design, they also teach that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. Millions laughed, and some joined. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has since won the right to perform legal weddings in New Zealand. Hundreds of thousands of people have listed their religion as Jedi on national censuses, and hundreds of thousands more have been ordained online as ministers of Dudeism, a faith inspired by the film The Big Lebowski.
Are these religions? Jokes? Protests? Sometimes all three. This course studies parody and invented religions with the scholar Carole Cusack as guide, asking what they reveal about how religions begin, what the law counts as a religion, how satire protects freedom, and why human beings take play so seriously. Expect to laugh, and to think.
How This Course Works
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite | None. Titles and degrees begin with ordination through the Ordination Orientation. |
| Pace | Self-paced. Most students finish in four to six weeks, studying about four to five hours a week. There are no deadlines. |
| Structure | Eight modules. Each module has a lesson, a reading assignment, and a ten-question quiz. |
| Book report | Read one of the books offered, pass its ten-question quiz, and write a one-paragraph summary, after Module 8. |
| Final exam | Fifteen multiple-choice questions and one essay of 1,500 to 2,000 words, taken after Module 8. |
| Credit | 3 credit hours toward further titles and degrees. |
Grading
| Part | To pass |
|---|---|
| Module quizzes (8) | Pass each with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report quiz (10 questions) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report summary (one paragraph) | Approved by the school |
| Final exam, Part 1 (multiple choice) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Final exam, Part 2 (one essay, 1,500 to 2,000 words) | Approved by the school |
Required texts
- The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Bobby Henderson
- Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith, Carole M. Cusack
- Principia Discordia, Malaclypse the Younger (free online)
Many of these books are available from public libraries, used bookstores, and as ebooks.
What you will study
Module 1: What Makes a Religion? Module 2: Discordianism: Hail Eris Module 3: The Church of the SubGenius Module 4: The Flying Spaghetti Monster Module 5: Jediism and Fiction-Based Religions Module 6: Dudeism, Satanists, and Online Ordination Module 7: Satire, Blasphemy, and Free Speech Module 8: What Play Teaches About Faith
Book report choices
Invented Religions, Carole M. Cusack; The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Bobby Henderson
Academic honesty
All written work must be your own. You may quote and discuss the course readings and other sources, but you must say where the words and ideas came from. Submitting work written by someone else, including work generated entirely by AI tools, is not permitted.