Eskiyeni

Öz

The changes and transformations experienced in the modern era have been reflected in religious beliefs and practices and have caused the phenomenon of religion to move beyond its traditional boundaries from being an institutional authority to a direction centered on individual experiences. With this process, which has led to the diversification of religious discourses, it is seen that religion still plays an important role in making sense of individuals' lives. Still, this role has become more flexible and questionable. A similar process of change in atheist thought has led to a move away from the classical atheism, which represents individual disbelief, and the emergence of a new atheist movement that targets traditional religious beliefs. This movement, called 'New Atheism', represents an approach that rejects the belief in God, criticizes traditional religious institutions, teachings, and practices in a rigid manner, and argues that science and rationality should replace religion. As a matter of fact, the rise of new atheism has added a new dimension to the centuries-old opposition between religion and atheism, going beyond the traditional conflict between these two phenomena and paving the way for the emergence of a new form of criticism called 'atheist religion' or 'parody religion', which mocks religions through their imitations. In the context of the aforementioned issue, this article deals with the concept of 'parody religion', which emerged as a humorous reflection of atheist thought, and examines this concept in the example of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which was born in the USA in 2005. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, also known as Pastafarianism, is gaining popularity thanks to the large number of members it has gained all over the world and the legal initiatives these members have launched for the legal recognition of their beliefs. In our country, many Pastafarians gather under the name of ‘the Pastafarian Community of Turkey'. The main motivation for this study is the fact that there is no Turkish study that comprehensively analyses Pastafarianism, which has been subjected to examination in many aspects within the scope of religious studies in the international literature. The main thesis of this study, which is believed to contribute to the deficiency in the literature, is that fictional arguments built on an atheistic ground are the source of the formation of the concept of parody religion and that the basic teachings of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster have a similar structure with the aforementioned fictional arguments. In this context, the study first analyses and evaluates when the concept of parody religion emerged depending on which factors, what exactly it refers to, and what role the fictional arguments put forward by famous atheists such as Russell, Sagan, Baggini, and Dawkins played in the formation of parody religions. Then, the historical background of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which is one of today's popular parody religions, its basic teachings, sacred texts, rituals, and examples of the legal struggle to be recognized as a legal religion in the context of freedom of religion are discussed. Thus, it is aimed to reveal the harmony and similarities between the fictional arguments of the aforementioned atheist scholars and the fictional doctrine of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Another aim of the study is to prepare a theoretical basis for field research that can provide an understanding of the effects of parody religions on the individual and society.