Discordianism

Discordianism is a belief system based around Eris, the Greek goddess of strife and discord, and variously defined as a religion, new religious movement, virtual religion, or somewhere between parody and social commentary. It was founded after the 1963 publication of its holy book, Principia Discordia, written by Greg Hill with Kerry Wendell Thornley, the two working under the pseudonyms Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. David Chidester considers Discordianism to be the first virtual religion and the first to take up the challenge of establishing its religious authenticity. When the Yahoo search engine categorized Discordianism as a parody religion, in May 2001 Discordians started an email campaign to get the religion reclassified. It is difficult to estimate the number of Discordians because they are not required to hold Discordianism as their only belief system. According to Arthur Versluis, Discordianism "both shaped and reflects the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s".