Irrational Planet - a blog with an eccentric orbit
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Lalla Skub Python Spaghetti Pope
Recently I've been listening to the audio book version of The God Delusion, read by author Richard Dawkins and his wife(and former time traveler), Lalla Ward. Generally I agree with it and don't consider it unfair, though he does dwell overly long on some topics that seem gratuitous to me, like nitpicking the Bible. Might as well shoot fish in the theological barrel. I've seen the skub over religion enough times on the web that it's old hat. Just post a link to Skeptic's Annotated Bible and move on.
The internet has provided some lovely trojan horses against religion such as the invisible pink unicorn and the flying spaghetti monster; most venerable of these is Discordianism, which might as well be the official religion of the internet. Discordianism is the true true religion; it is also the old new religion, predating upstarts like the Church of the Subgenius. To some extent they all have their roots in H.P. Lovecraft, for whom atheism was overwhelmingly the optimistic view.
Occasionally on the internet you may encounter the overeager convert to Discordianism. I was such a netizen once, many years ago. To a certain kind of person - someone who quotes The Life of Brian a lot, say - it is a thrilling discovery, an ontological moebius strip that allows and encourages you to be a cult of one and speak in tongues all you want, secure in the knowledge that it only has to make sense to you.
Discordianism is still my favorite answer to the question "What religion are you?" I tend not to say it, because cool people tend not to be the ones asking, and besides the explanation is too long and too much of an in-joke for such conversations.
It is impossible to otherwise respond without a series of parentheticals; I'm agnostic(practically atheist(but with a spiritual side(and an interest in myth, which I see as a key to the human psyche(See? The word "psyche" is a mythological reference)))). Discordianism gives me a more satisfying answer, one that says in one word, "I'm aware it's all a game, but that won't stop me from having fun."
This is the great thing about Discordianism and the reason it's more than just a parody; all the old enlightenment-centered religions encourage you to go into seclusion and deep meditation and throw away all the parts of your personality that are insane, but they don't give you the tools to assemble a functioning human being from the parts that are left over. The missing tool is the Discordian mantra, "You are a Pope."
Anyways, it seems oddly appropriate to be reading/hearing Dawkins's book now, because I've been delving deep into myth-space for my new project, which, if all goes well, will be a concept album of mythological mash-ups. One of my artistic principles is to include a dark heart of Yin in the midst of Yang.
The internet has provided some lovely trojan horses against religion such as the invisible pink unicorn and the flying spaghetti monster; most venerable of these is Discordianism, which might as well be the official religion of the internet. Discordianism is the true true religion; it is also the old new religion, predating upstarts like the Church of the Subgenius. To some extent they all have their roots in H.P. Lovecraft, for whom atheism was overwhelmingly the optimistic view.
Occasionally on the internet you may encounter the overeager convert to Discordianism. I was such a netizen once, many years ago. To a certain kind of person - someone who quotes The Life of Brian a lot, say - it is a thrilling discovery, an ontological moebius strip that allows and encourages you to be a cult of one and speak in tongues all you want, secure in the knowledge that it only has to make sense to you.
Discordianism is still my favorite answer to the question "What religion are you?" I tend not to say it, because cool people tend not to be the ones asking, and besides the explanation is too long and too much of an in-joke for such conversations.
It is impossible to otherwise respond without a series of parentheticals; I'm agnostic(practically atheist(but with a spiritual side(and an interest in myth, which I see as a key to the human psyche(See? The word "psyche" is a mythological reference)))). Discordianism gives me a more satisfying answer, one that says in one word, "I'm aware it's all a game, but that won't stop me from having fun."
This is the great thing about Discordianism and the reason it's more than just a parody; all the old enlightenment-centered religions encourage you to go into seclusion and deep meditation and throw away all the parts of your personality that are insane, but they don't give you the tools to assemble a functioning human being from the parts that are left over. The missing tool is the Discordian mantra, "You are a Pope."
Anyways, it seems oddly appropriate to be reading/hearing Dawkins's book now, because I've been delving deep into myth-space for my new project, which, if all goes well, will be a concept album of mythological mash-ups. One of my artistic principles is to include a dark heart of Yin in the midst of Yang.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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