MOOism (also known by many alternate names and spellings, such as "The Church ov MOO", or "MUism") is one of a number of experiments, jokes, or artistic projects involving religion as a medium. It incorporates methods and content found in joke religions and subculture pseudo-religions such as Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius, as well as more serious experiments in modern or postmodern religion such as Genesis P-Orridge's TOPY (Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth). It is conceived of as a combination of genuine religion, joke, and performance art. A recent parody religion, Flying Spaghetti Monsterism was created in 2005 to protest a decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution. ... As understood in sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with a distinct set of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. ... Discordianism is a modern, Chaos-based religion founded in either 1958 or 1959. ... J. R. Bob Dobbs The Church of the SubGenius is a satirical, postmodern religious organization, originally based in Dallas, Texas, which gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s subculture, with a large presence on the Internet. ... Genesis P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson February 22, 1950, or May 22, 1949), is an English performer, musician, writer and artist. ... Founded in the early 1980s and ever evolving, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, is a loosely federated group of people operating as a unique blend of artistic collective, religion, cult and practioners of magic. ... A joke is a short story or short series of words spoken or communicated with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the listener or reader. ... Performance art is art where the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time, constitute the work. ...

Originally created as the product of a virtual community on FidoNet in 1991, and later propagated by first the internet via the gopher protocol and then the World Wide Web, MOOism has been one subject of a study of the internet as a medium of proselytization of new religious movements, as well as of the influence of postmodernism on religion. One postmodern element of MOOism is the tendency to use and combine samples of cultural sources and ideas after the manner of collage art. Some sources it has sampled include paganism, occultism (especially the works of Aleister Crowley), the fiction of Philip K. Dick, Jorge Luis Borges and H.P. Lovecraft, and also ideas of Robert Anton Wilson and Terence McKenna. A virtual community is a group of people communicating or interacting with each other by means of information technologies, typically the Internet, rather than face to face. ... The FidoNet logo FidoNet is an inter-connecting file and message transport system that was used by bulletin board systems. ... Gopher is a distributed document search and retrieval network protocol designed for the Internet. ... Graphic representation of the World Wide Web around Wikipedia The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). ... A new religious movement or NRM appears as a religious, ethical or spiritual grouping that has not (yet) become recognised as a standard denomination, church, or body, especially when it has a novel belief system and when it is not a sect. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century... In general, a sample is a part of the total, such as one individual or a set of individuals from a population (of people or things), a small piece or amount of something larger, a number of function values of a function, or part of a song. ... Collage (From the French, collé, to stick) is the assemblage of different forms creating a new whole. ... Paganism (from Latin paganus) and Heathenry are catch-all terms which have come to connote a broad set of spiritual/religious beliefs and practices of a natural religion, as opposed to the Abrahamic religions. ... For other uses of this term, see occult (disambiguation). ... Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (12 October 1875 - 1 December 1947) was an occultist, mystic, sexual revolutionary, and drug user (especially heroin). ... Philip K. Dick Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 — March 2, 1982), often known by his initials PKD, and sometimes by the pen name Richard Phillips, was an American science fiction writer and novelist who changed the genre profoundly. ... Jorge Luis Borges () (August 24, 1899 â€“ June 14, 1986) was an Argentine writer who is considered to be one of the foremost writers of the 20th century. ... Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of fantasy, horror and science fiction, noted for combining these three genres within single narratives. ... Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (born January 18, 1932) is a futurologist, libertarian, and novelist. ... get up Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was a writer and philosopher. ...

At least one sociologist of religion has criticized this approach as superficial and not truly relevant to religious feeling, but one MOOist document justifies the use of collage and sampling methods as a mechanism for demonstrating the interconnectedness of the universe, involving magical thinking in a manner analogous to the "Cut-Ups" of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Sociology is the study of the social lives of humans, groups and societies. ... Magical thinking is a term used by historians of religion to describe one kind of non-scientific causal reasoning. ... William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American novelist, essayist, social critic and spoken word performer. ... Brion Gysin (January 19, 1916 - July 13, 1986) was a writer and painter. ...

Slogans

• "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law, Unless Thou Wilt Not Follow The Law, In Which Case Don't"
• "First there is a WOMBAT. Then there is no WOMBAT. Then there is."

External links

• Church of MOO