A Religion I Could Get Behind!

Bokononism.

I just finished rereading Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, which I first read 30 years ago. What a great book!

Vonnegut gives us Bokononism, the outlawed religion of the fictional island of San Lorenzo. Bokononism is based on the Books of Bokonon, by the Prophet Bokonon.

Bokonon tells us flat out that, like all religions, everything he says is foma, a pack of lies. The difference is that he admits it.

Gotta love a religion that's so honest.

Bokonon goes on to share a lot of illuminating bits of wisdom.

San Lorenzo is a desperately and continually impoverished nation. Bokonon and his pal, McCabe, were shipwrecked on the island in the 20's and decided to lift the island up. McCabe established himself as President while Bokonon went underground to form a religion. They intentionally rivaled themselves against each other as a form of entertainment for the populace. Successive presidents kept up the charade of trying to capture the elusive and dangerous Bokonon, who constantly eluded them, to the delight of the citizens.

In the end, however, it's all futile. If you haven't read Cat's Cradle, I won't spoil it for you.

Vonnegut was an avowed atheist. I don't know if he was an atheist when he wrote this novel (first published in 1963), but I suspect he was or was very close to it.

I did a little Wikipedia reading on Discordia. Sounds like something I need to investigate!

I can't recall what (if anything) it was called, but Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land pretty much laid out the basics for a new religion. The novel became the Bible of 60s counterculture.

There's some great stuff on the internet about the god, Flying Spaghetti Monster. His Noodliness is all-seeing and all-knowing.

Back to Cat's Cradle...

Everyone knows of the tricky string construction, a cat's cradle. As the character Newt in the novel points out, "Where's the cat? Where's the cradle?" Because there are neither. It's a statement about both religion and the irresponsible recklessness of humans and their technology. Newt's father constructs something of frightening potential with no regard that it might actually be used. To him, it was an amusing little distraction. Like a cat's cradle.