Friday, 19 August 2011

The Invisible Pink Unicorn

Like the FSM, the Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU) is the goddess of a parody religion intended to satirise theistic religions.


Paradoxically she is both invisible and pink.  She represents the arbitrary way that theistic beliefs are often formulated to explain things that are not really there.

I'm sure we can all think of the ways that our favorite religions make use of the shifting sands of a language to make the impossible and irrational appear to be perfectly comprehensible - at least until you start to think about them in different ways.

Was it John Maynard Keynes who said:

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

He wasn't actually talking about religion at the time, but his words of wisdom apply outside the field of economics.  For me, the facts changed about the time I read "The God Delusion".  Thank you Richard Dawkins.

******

Having had a break from criticising religion for a couple of weeks, this post suggests a gentle change of tack.  Come back soon for a series of posts examining surprising aspects of the story of Noah's Ark.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I am an atheist and believe that it is extremely likely that unicorns really exist.
Let me explain why.
We have very strong grounds for believing in the existence of an infinite number of paralell universes.
The probability that unicorns would appear either through evolution or through the chaotic motion of matter (as Boltmann’s brains) is incredibly low, but more than zero.
But if there exist an infinite space of possibilities, the probability that unicorns exist is equal to 1, it is certain that there exist an infinite number of unicorns in the multiverse.

There would even be an infinite number of flying stinking spaguetti Monsters and Dick Cheneys.

As atheists, we are better off giving up such analogies and providing positive arguments for the inexistence of God.

Anonymous said...

As a DEVOUT and righteous follower of the flying spaghetti monster (bless his noodliness! <3), I am deeply OFFENDED that you would DARE to call him a parody religion! Those who do not believe will boil for all eternity, and I will pray for your salvation.

Plasma Engineer said...

So you are anonymously suggesting that the Reformed Church of the FSM is not the one true doctrine? Those who have not had revelation of the truth of the reformed movement should seek advice from their pasta!