Approaching the Study of

Invented Religions
Carole M. Cusack
University of Sydney
 Structure of the Paper
• This paper has three purposes. First, it considers the effects
of secularizaBon, individualism and consumer culture in
Western society from the late nineteenth century to the
present, and explains how these changes directly affected
the varieBes of religion that exist today.
• Second, it examines the development of new religions from
the 1950s to the present in terms of the provision of niche
religious products in the so-called ‘spiritual supermarket’.
• Third, it situates the category of invented religions in the
context of definiBons of religion, and theories of the
meaning and funcBon of religion, with an emphasis on
those scholars who propose cogniBve and evoluBonary
explanaBons of religion.
 Discordianism
• The first invented religion of significance is Discordianism, founded by students Kerry Thornley
(1938-1998) and Greg Hill (1941-2000) in East Whi[er, California in 1957, and dedicated to Eris,
the goddess of discord. Discordianism began as a parody, and a deliberate mockery of religion.
Thornley and Hill took the names Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst and Malaclypse the Younger, and
created the Discordian Society, in which every member is a pope. The society had two facBons:
Paratheo-AnametamysBkhood of Eris Esoteric (POEE); and the Erisian LiberaBon Front (ELF).
• In 1965 Hill wrote the first version of the classic subcultural scripture, Principia Discordia, known as
the Magnum Opiate of Malaclypse the Younger, and subBtled How I Found Goddess and What I Did
to Her When I Found Her. This was an anarchic ’zine, illustrated by sketches, reproducBons of
‘found’ documents, mulBple typefaces, and a non-linear, surreal structure.
• First published in 1969, it has been freely available ever since due to the Discordian policy of
‘kopyled’. It is appropriate that the principal means of evangelism within Discordianism was the
incorporaBon of much of the Principia Discordia into the best-selling science ficBon trilogy
Illuminatus! (1975), authored by Robert Shea and the champion of alternaBve and suppressed
knowledge(s) and fringe religionist Robert Anton Wilson.
• Due to its popularity among subcultures (computer ‘geeks’ and comic-book fans) Discordianism
made a seamless transiBon to the Internet, and became (in a sense) the ‘parent’ tradiBon to other
eclecBc systems, including the Church of the SubGenius (founded 1979 by Philo Drummond and
Ivan Stang) and Chaos Magic, heralded by the publicaBon of Peter Carroll’s Liber Null in 1978.
 The Church of All Worlds
• The Church of All Worlds (CAW) was founded in 1962 by college students Lance
ChrisBe (1944-2010) and Tim Zell (1942-) at Westminster College, Fulton Missouri.
This religion is based on Robert A. Heinlein’s science ficBon novel Stranger in a
Strange Land (1961), in which ValenBne Michael Smith, raised on Mars, brings a
message of sexual liberaBon and religious pluralism to humanity.
• In the early years of CAW’s existence, rites and doctrines were based on Heinlein’s
novel, but in 1968 Tim Zell registered CAW as a religion in California, and began
incorporaBng elements of modern Paganism into its pracBce, in part due to his
friendship with Frederick McLaren Adams (1928-2008), founder of Feraferia.
• Tim Zell had a powerful vision in 1970 which changed the course of CAW’s
theology, with the focus shiding from the polytheisBc goddess of revived Paganism
to the noBon that the Earth itself was the goddess, Gaia, a conscious enBty
incorporaBng all living being in which humans funcBon as planetary consciousness.
• From that Bme on, Lance ChrisBe devoted himself to environmental acBvism, and
Tim Zell (as Oger G’Zell, later Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, now Oberon Zell) and his
second wife Morning Glory Zell (b. Diana Moore, 1948), explored spiritual travel to
ancient Pagan sites such as Eleusis, and devoted themselves to the modern revival
of Paganism.
Gaea and the Sacred Chao
The Church of the SubGenius
• The Church of the SubGenius (COSG),
which was founded in 1979 by Ivan
Stang and Philo Drummond). COSG
teaches that human beings are ‘Pinks’
and ‘Normals’, dupes and vicBms of
the vengeful deity Jehovah-1, the
Elder Gods, and the Conspiracy.
• SubGenii, by contrast, are hybrid
beings descended from the YeBs of
AtlanBs, and have ‘Slack’, the power
of the salesman messiah J. R. ‘Bob’
Dobbs, which makes them
independent and creaBve.
• When the alien X-ists invade and
liberate the earth, only SubGenii will
be saved and escape the Conspiracy.
 What Are Invented Religions?
• Invented religions are exercises of the imaginaBon that have
developed in a creaBve (though someBmes opposiBonal)
partnership with the influenBal popular cultural narraBves of the
contemporary West, parBcularly film and science ficBon.
• Invented religions are an inevitable outcome of a society addicted
to the consumpBon of novelBes, in which the exercise of creaBvity
and innovaBon in the development of products is rewarded by
wealth and fame. Inventors and entrepreneurs became valued
during the industrial revoluBon, when a stable agricultural society
that had remained basically unchanged for centuries was
transformed by new technologies that radically altered the life
pagerns of people.
• Invented religions proudly declare their ficBonal status. All the
invented religions discussed here promote interesBng explanatory
narraBves that replicate the condiBons of tradiBonal religious
forms (myths, sacred histories).
 Other Invented Religions
• Jediism, Matrixism and the Church of the Flying Spaghe[ Monster similarly feed
on popular discourses and ‘lite’ versions of Eastern religions including Taoism and
Buddhism, using humour, irony and memorable narraBves to criBque the culture
of the new millennium. All three rely on a single ‘text’ (the Star Wars films, The
Matrix trilogy, and the reshaping of creaBonism as Intelligent Design), and their
creaBvity is best measured by the unexpected uses to which they put this
foundaBonal text.
• Jediism and Matrixism also engage less with the criBque of ChrisBanity, signalling
the widespread postmodern acceptance that popular cultural forms are
appropriate sources for values and self-spiritualiBes. Star Wars and The Matrix are
both science ficBon films, confirming the ongoing relevance of that genre to the
imaginaBve longings of the contemporary West. All six invented religions
disseminate wonderful stories, filled with memorable agents, which would saBsfy
any seeker’s desire for an imaginaBve and saBsfying explanaBon of the nature of
reality and the purpose of human life, and would also fulfil any cogniBve science
criteria to be regarded as ‘religious’.
 Some Conclusions
• The ChrisBan religion has a story of sacrifice and salvaBon at its
heart, teaches a world-denying and sexually restricBve ethic,
advocates strict discipline for the faithful, and is strongly opposed
to blasphemy, irreverence and unconvenBonal behaviour.
• Further, it is a universal religion that dismisses all other religions as
untrue. Invented religions violate all of these criteria and thus run
the risk of not appearing to be religions at all, they cannot escape
from the shadow cast by ChrisBanity.
• David Chidester (ciBng Rodney Needham) notes that to be a
success, ‘a fake religion must look exactly like a real religion. Basic
forms of religion, such as myth, doctrine, ethics, ritual, personal
experience, and social formaBon, represent not only the template
not only for invenBng new religions, but also for asserBng their
authenBcity’ (Chidester, AuthenCc Fakes, p. 210).