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Serious parody: Discordianism as liquid religion

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 14; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14755610.2013.841269

0143-8301

Essi Mäkelä, Johanna J.M. Petsche,

Religion and Society Interactions

Identified as the first 'invented religion' [Cusack, Carole M. 2010. Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate], Discordianism was founded in 1957 by college students Gregory Hill (1941–2000) and Kerry Wendell Thornley (1938–1998). According to the anarchic scripture Principia Discordia, Discordianism was the result of a revelation that Hill and Thornley had in an all-night bowling alley, in which the Greek goddess Eris spoke to them in the form of a chimpanzee. Over the decades, through a variety of media including underground publishing, science fiction fandom, role-playing game clubs and the Internet, Discordianism has evolved into a worldwide phenomenon. This paper argues that although Discordianism originated as an absurdist joke and is often dismissed as a 'parody religion', over time it has developed into a meaningful world-view for practitioners. To demonstrate this, there is an analysis of data obtained from interviews conducted with seven Finnish Discordians during the winter of 2010–2011. These findings are examined within Teemu Taira's theoretical framework of 'liquid religion' (2006). It will be argued that Discordianism not only represents a highly eclectic and 'liquid' world-view in itself, but that it also intentionally 'liquefies' the boundaries between the sacred and profane.