Funny Religions of the World List

This is my first post for this site, so I thought I'd start by discussing one of the two topics you're never supposed to discuss–religion. (Tomorrow I might write about politics).

To many people, any religion that they don't adhere to is weird. But some religions are even weirder than that. Some are cults, some are jokes, and some just include odd practices or beliefs.

Please do leave a comment or two if you have a story to share about any of the 10 weirdest religions I've listed below. Also, if you have a story about a weird religion I didn't list, I'd like to hear about that in the comments, too.

1. Jediism

Even if you've never seenStar Wars, you're aware of something called a "Jedi". It's a fictional order of mystical knights who wield light sabers a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But for some people, it's a belief system that makes sense.

Jediism espouses the following: "We believe in Peace, Justice, Love, Learning and Benevolence: It is unlikely that the Jedi way conflicts with other beliefs and traditions."

They also believe in the Force and that all life has value. They believe that people are sacred. They're opposed to torture, any kind of cruel and unusual punishment, and the death penalty.

Reason and compassion should be the guiding principles for government.

Discrimination is bad. Morality is relative. Spiritual growth is good for the individual and society as a whole. The government should keep religion and state separate. Freedom of speech is a good idea, too.

In terms of beliefs, the Jedi religion isn't that weird at all, really. It resembles Unitarian Universalism, in fact. (Of course, some of my more devout Christian friends think UU is pretty weird, too.)

Jediism isn't the only religion based on a work of fiction or even on a movie, though.

2. Dudeism

Dudeism is a religion inspired by the character "The Dude" in the movie The Big Lebowski. Most of the beliefs are inspired by Chinese Taoism, but the religion couches most of its teachings in the form of quotes from the movie.

The Dude is seen as enlightened because of his laid-back attitude. For the most part, he just goes with the flow, and that works well for him. The church offers some of the following individuals as examples of "Dudes":

• Buddha
• Jennifer Lawrence
• Jerry Garcia
• Jesus
• John Lennon
• Snoopy

You can find a more complete list along with the reasoning for inclusion at the official site on the "Great Dudes in History" page.

You can find multiple books that relate closely to Dudeism. Some of these include:

• The Abide Guide – This is as close to an official text as the religion has.
• The Dude and the Zen Master –This has no official relationship with the religion. It's mostly just Jeff Bridges rapping with a Zen master.
• The Tao of the Dude –A rewrite ofThe Tao Te Ching using imagery from the movie.
• The Tao Te Ching – The spiritual ancestor of Dudeism is Taoism. This is its central book.

None of Dudeism's beliefs are especially controversial. It's mostly just silly, although some practitioners take it more seriously than others.

3. Scientology

It's impossible to talk about weird religions without mentioning Scientology. When I was in college we had loads of fun calling the toll free number for Dianetics and asking the operator questions like, "If Dianetics is so great, why is L. Ron Hubbard dead?"

L. Ron Hubbard is the science fiction author who started this religion. Most of the Church of Scientology's teachings at the lay member level are innocuous enough. It's mostly self-help stuff–some of it better than others. As members become more indoctrinated, they eventually become exposed to the bizarre belief system at the heart of the Church:

Xenu is an alien who rules The Galactic Confederacy. Millions of years ago he brought Thetans (and people) to the planet Earth. Volcanoes are important imagery to the church because of their association with the Thetans.

It gets weirder.

But it's also the richest per capita church in the world. And they have a bizarre number of celebrities who are members (or former members). Some of these include:

• Kirstie Alley
• Beck
• Tom Cruise
• Jenna Elfman
• John Travolta

You can find an exhaustive list of celebrities associated with Scientology here on Gawker. You can also find plenty of criticism of their strangeness on some of the following sites: Operation Clambake, Reason.com, and Scientology Lies.

4. Discordianism

Discordianism is a parody religion inspired byThe Illuminatus Trilogy, which focuses largely on conspiracies. (It was also the inspiration for the wonderful Steve Jackson Games card game, Illuminati.)

I've also seen this religion described as either a joke masquerading as a religion, or a religion masquerading as a joke. The belief system is an almost random mash-up of Dadaism, Surrealism, and Zen. Reality is a hodge podge. Don't eat hot dog buns. The number five is significant and comes up all the time for various reasons.

I don't know any practicing Discordians. Maybe some will chime in here in the comments section.

5. Satanism

Don't bring up Satanism around my fundamentalist Christian friends. They don't appreciate the absurdity of it. It's easy to get the wrong idea about this religion, too–that's probably intentional on their part. (They did pick the name "Satanism" for their religion, after all.)

You can actually find multiple religions based on Satan. Some of these are atheistic belief systems that have taken Satan as a character to represent some of their beliefs. Others are theistic and think of Satan as a deity himself. The atheistic Satanists seem more common.

All Satanist religions share certain beliefs and traits, though. All consider being "Satanic" a positive, rather than a negative, description. All emphasize the importance of individualism. They also embrace values that mainstream Christianity might consider sinful (or at least frown on). Examples include pride and non-conformity.

Practicing Satanists tend to be young males. The Satanic Temple is one example of a branch of Satanism.

6. Pastafarianism

You've probably heard of Pastafarianism by its other name–The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It's a parody religion that claims to believe that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is responsible for all creation. The reason behind this religion?

It's a response to the teaching of Creationism and Intelligent Design in public school systems. The idea is that if one absurd religious creation story can be taught in science classes, any absurd religious creation story should be taught.

7. The Church of the Subgenius

Do you smoke marijuana? Are you a college student?

Then The Church of the Subgenius might be for you.

It's another parody religion. Adherents claim that J.R. "Bob" Dobbs (the world's greatest salesman) founded the religion in the 1950s.

The attainment of "Slack" is the highest goal. Slack encompasses concepts like liberty, independence, and unique ideas.

Even though it's a parody religion, many of its adherents take its belief system seriously.

8. Rastafarianism

You've probably heard of Rastafarianism. They smoke marijuana and wear dreadlocks. That's the extent of most people's knowledge of the religion.

But they do have a belief system. They believe in King Haile Selassie, an Ethiopian they consider to be God. Rastafarianism is a religion that encourages its members to take pride in being of African descent. They also eschew materialism.

Bob Marley is the most famous adherent.

I like reggae, but I don't smoke marijuana, so I'm not sure it's a good fit for me. I can see why it's popular, though.

9. Frisbeetarianism

Another parody religion, this one was inspired by George Carlin. In one of his schticks, he said that when you die, your soul gets stuck on the roof for eternity. Carlin, of course, was a notorious cynic and atheist.

10. The Church of Ed Wood

If you've been paying attention, you've probably noticed that I have a clear bias toward parody religions based on the world of film. Ed Wood was the Orson Welles of bad movies. He'd be tickled to know that he has a religion devoted to him.

Believers consider him a savior–not THE savior, but A savior. They even have their own website, where they point out immediately that yes, they are serious.

You can learn more about Ed Wood by watching the Tim Burton movie starring Johnny Depp–Ed Wood. You should also check out his most famous film,Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Finally

It's not my intention to mock anyone's religious beliefs. Whatever floats your boat is all right with me.

But don't take yourself so seriously, all right?

hodgestheance.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.listgrokker.com/the-10-weirdest-religions-you-or-we-have-ever-heard-of/

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