Flying Spaghetti Monster joins Festivus Pole and atheist signs in Florida Capitol.

Likewise, Wicca.

Wicca started out as a joke?

Didn't some of them get burnt for that a couple hundred years ago?
Now that's commitment to a gag.
Andy Kaufman was a pussy.

wiccans? no.
there weren't any wiccans a few hundred years back.
not unless you reverse dedicate them like mormons or whoever it was were doing.
victims of a puritan inquisition, perhaps. and under the influence of ergotism. most of'em churdh going christian women who just happened to have something someone else wanted.

but as a religion wicca is about as ancient and venerable as scientology.

a joke? no.
but I'd have a hard time not contrasting it to a money making scheme since the moment Gardner started pimping it for the press a la PT Barnum.

I didn't know about it in time for this year, but this goes on a couple of towns over from me.

I'm so going next year.

Wiccan, witch, tomato, tomahto.

Wicca, Jedi, and Pastafarianism are all on their way not to mention Rastafarian which was made up in the 1970's. Most of the others started as fake cults of personality which later got enshrined into actual religions; Mormonism is an excellent and highly documented example of that happening. Of course religion is fake, they're all frigging fake at least in origin, but every body gets to profess any nonsense they want without some jerk trying to tell them if their religious feelings are genuine or not.

In other words, you got bitch slapped like you deserved and you have nothing to come back with. Got it.

Do you still think you're the personal gatekeeper who gets to declare if other people's religious beliefs are true or not? Or have you finally figured out you were being both an idiot and a douche bag? That you're changing the subject tells know the answer is the later.

In the UK there are apparently a fair number of people who officially protest to following the Jedi religion. Sure, it started out as a joke but according to articles there are real Jedi churches with regular congregations. Just about every religion starts out as nonsense but once people claim they have genuine religious devotion to it how is it different from any other religion?

yup, we've got a few of those around here.
that's another unfortunate thing... Wicca has kind of become the de facto "pagan" in most folks minds. That's sort of like having Mormons or televangelists as your predominant impressions of Christianity.

QFT!

I've got that album on vinyl, bitches.

Ok, sport.

So, no denial? Just acceptance of your dirtbaggey? Your arrogant position that you, and you alone, get to decide if other people's religion is genuine or not? Fuck you, sir, fuck you right up the ass.

No amount of deflection is going to change this. It's like a universal truth.

Dinwordinfederateson. The gift that keeps on giving. I'm not arguing with you, because your argument is fucking retarded, you fucking taint.

So where are you going with this contrived bullshit?

Got it, you have nothing and are just a little bitch.

This could have been a magical thread of adventure, and lasers.
But no....it's this.

I'm not a believer, but with Pope Francis it's nice to see someone who would actually get along with Jesus if he met him.

I tried

For satire to work, it needs to ape as many of the things its satirizing as possible, and it often needs to be played deadly serious for greatest effect. Ideally, this enables folks to recognize the foolishness that's being mocked, in reality, what often happens is that some humorless prick starts taking it seriously. Even the founders of the religion can find this happening to them.

Wait. Let me get this straight: We've got a 4 page thread because Gomer found some blogger whose elitist views assuaged his Elitist White Guilt?

You'll go to your grave having never pulled off that feat.

I get the feeling that people STILL aren't getting this point.

Pastafarianism isn't about mocking religion, it's about mocking government promotion of religion.

It is an important distinction.

"The "Flying Spaghetti Monster" was first described in a satirical open letter written by Bobby Henderson in 2005 to protest the Kansas State Board of Education decision to permit teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes.[6] In that letter, Henderson satirized creationist ideas by professing his belief that whenever a scientist carbon dates an object, a supernatural creator that closely resembles spaghetti and meatballs is there "changing the results with His Noodly Appendage". Henderson argued that his beliefs were just as valid as those of intelligent design, and called for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism to be allotted equal time in science classrooms alongside intelligent design and evolution.[7] After Henderson published the letter on his website, the Flying Spaghetti Monster rapidly became an Internet phenomenon and a symbol of opposition to the teaching of intelligent design in public schools.[8]"

via wiki.

What, in your mind, makes a religion "genuine?" Is one person simply claiming it to be so enough for you? Because I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but people have been known to lie in the past.

C'mon, lay out your criteria.