The Banner

The 1998 Coen Brothers film "The Big Lebowski" inspired many to live the laid back life- style of the common "dude." Recently, this lifestyle was taken to a new level when it was offi- cially deemed a legitimate religion called Dudeism.

Although it is not necessarily an organized religion, the men and women of Dudeism believe themselves to be recognized as a faith nonetheless. They often compare themselves to the an- cient Chinese religion of Taoism, minus the alchemy. According to the Dudeism web site, the basic principles of Dudeism are to kick back and take it easy. Dudeists are firm believers in not worrying about anything because "life goes on." The main rule of this religionis to "abide," which means to be true to onself.

There is, however, an entire manifesto on their web site entitled the "Take it Easy Manifesto." In it, they proclaim Dudeism as a legitimate religion. The manifesto begins by claiming that Dudeism is the religion for our time and place. Dudeists believe that the beauty of Dudeism is its simplicity, while other religions are irrelevant for today's society because of their overbearing complexity. This statement reveals the laziness and simple-mindedness of Dudeism, and needless to say there is a fine line between simple-mindedness and stupidity.

Their manifesto also states that faith is not the preferred no-menclature. Rather, they use to term "worldview" when discussing the principles of Dudeism. But this statement is quite contradictory to their argument that Dudeism is indeed a religion. Religion and faith are cohesive terms. Faith without religion is blind, and religion without faith is not religion at all.

Of course there are different worldviews among society today. God gives us the freedom of choice, but to take a worldview and try and pass it off as a religion is both offensive and disrespectful to all religions. This is especially true if your worldview is based on the idea that "Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So don't do anything about it. Just take it easy, man. Stop worrying so much whether you'll make it into the finals. Kick back with some friends and some soda; and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others -that is to say, abide."

Dudeism goes even further in their argument to proclaim themselves as a religion by using the
seven dimensions of religion identified by Ninian Smart, otherwise known as DREEMMS: doctrinal, ritual, ethics, experiential, myth, material and social. But this does nothing but further illustrate how ridiculous Dudeism is. They begin by completely disregarding the first two by saying "Dudeism isn't into the whole doctrinal or ritual thing." The only thing the manifesto states under ethics is that there aren't many behavioral rules. Dudeism states that "The Big Lebowski" is their founding myth. Under the material dimension, they simply have a quote from the movie: "That rug really tied the room together, did it not?" Lastly, under the social dimension, they state that they accept everyone into their religion with a few exceptions-like Nazis and angry cab drivers.

It appears that Dudeism is just an extensive joke made up a few die-hard Coen Brothers
fans with too much time on their hands, but this mockery of a religion was brought to an entirely new level of disrespect when they established ordained ministers of Dudeism. Anyone who holds the same carefree views of Dudeism can become a "Dudeist Priest" by simply filling out a form. With this certificate of ordination one can minister over religious ceremonies in most US states and preside over weddings or funerals.

There are currently over 70,000 Dudeist Priests worldwide spreading this nonsense they call a religion. It is disgusting to think that a person, who bases their life on "whatever" and the statement "take it easy" and has no desire to understand anything in life, can now legally wed couples. Dudeists probably think that creating a religion based on essentially nothing is clever, but the truth is it's selfish, ignorant and disrespectful.