A bunch of assholes

[Reverend R]

So Im a dedicated Dudeist Priest, I take this shit to heart yanno. About two nights ago I printed off the FAQ's page on the Dudeism website so I can give them to people that might be interested to know more. So I go to college and there are these 2 gals I know, we dont talk much but we do talk here and there, so I go up to them and we start talking and I find a way to slide in Dudeism and I show them my Dudeist Priest ID Card. There IMMEDIATE reaction was "Thats fake, you can easily make those, you can easily get someone to make those". Im thinking to myself "Keep your dude, dude". So I start explaining the website and how I got the ID Card from the Dudeism Store and all, and here they are "Well Dudeism cant be a real religion, its based off a movie, a religion cant be a religion without a god". This is when I knew, I fucked up, but I was so determined to defend my pride and joy of my life. Then I start spilling out all those facts and shit, I had them a FAQ's call the fucking Dudeism Phone Number like 6 times (They thought I made this), Pull up the website, get those relations between Dudeism and Taoism and Buddhism that I learn from The Dude De Ching and Tao of the Dude. After a good solid 50 minutes of straight facts I get this cared pulled on me "Dudeism sounds like a Cult". I defend Dudeism of course and Im some how keeping my Dude but dying inside. They gave me alot more bullshit and they finally tore up my FAQ's sheet and left. The End.

[LotsaBadKarma]

Well, from my point of view it all depends upon who you're doing this for. When I started the journey I had no thoughts in mind of spreading the word to anyone who didn't feel the need to ask. It's kinda like some of the "born again Christians", some of whom (not all, take note) feel the need to start evangelizing to anybody who happens to be within ear shot. Gives me kind of a pain in my ass. I would rather someone see me in a stressful situation and keeping my wits about me and ask me how I did that and then I can share it with them.
So it appears to me, and this is just my opinion so I could be wrong, that you may have left yourself open to some unnecessary stress by trying to spread the word to someone who is not at the level of evolution that you have attained. Since these ladies couldn't understand what really goes on they felt it acceptable to ridicule the process and this is what you'll encounter when you attempt to spread pearls before swine.
So just relax into the bosom of the wisdom of the Dude and let people come to you and make inquiries. We're all on our separate journeys here. When people see that you've become able to deal with shit in a relaxed and productive way some of them will ask how you're able to manage that. The rest, being convinced that there's no other way but to court high blood pressure and the risks inherent with that will just go on doing what they know. And that, to my experience, is how the word gets out most effectively.

[Reverend R]

Well, from my point of view it all depends upon who you're doing this for. When I started the journey I had no thoughts in mind of spreading the word to anyone who didn't feel the need to ask. It's kinda like some of the "born again Christians", some of whom (not all, take note) feel the need to start evangelizing to anybody who happens to be within ear shot. Gives me kind of a pain in my ass. I would rather someone see me in a stressful situation and keeping my wits about me and ask me how I did that and then I can share it with them.
So it appears to me, and this is just my opinion so I could be wrong, that you may have left yourself open to some unnecessary stress by trying to spread the word to someone who is not at the level of evolution that you have attained. Since these ladies couldn't understand what really goes on they felt it acceptable to ridicule the process and this is what you'll encounter when you attempt to spread pearls before swine.
So just relax into the bosom of the wisdom of the Dude and let people come to you and make inquiries. We're all on our separate journeys here. When people see that you've become able to deal with shit in a relaxed and productive way some of them will ask how you're able to manage that. The rest, being convinced that there's no other way but to court high blood pressure and the risks inherent with that will just go on doing what they know. And that, to my experience, is how the word gets out most effectively.

True, true, I could have honestly just walked away and saved my stress for another day. Very true.

[jgiffin]

You may have accomplished more than you thought. These broads first thought Dudeism was a scam, now they think it's a cult. That's only one or two small steps from a respectable religion. Although, frankly, I have more respect for most scams...

[BikerDude]

The legitimacy of religions exist on a continuum.
It's not a black and white issue.
If you take the line that religions are either legitimate or not then where does the line fall?
Are the pastafarians real?
The church of bacon?
It's difficult to deny the irony inherit in dudeism.
The very concept of a religion being based on the character of the Dude trades in the delicious humor of blasphemy. Much like Monte Python.
It's a personal judgement in the end.
I'd put dudeism at around 80% fun at the expense of more serious religions and 20% "serious" philosophical content with said content being likewise offered in the spirit of light hearted mockery (Dude de Ching for instance). It's wonderfully fun to explore how far this stuff can be taken but in the end for me it points more toward how genuinely silly serious religion is than how legitimate dudeism is.

I'd suggest that the dudeists response to "unbelievers" would be that "that's just like their opinion man".

[Chaplain K]

It's been a great journey for me and if others I talk to about it don't understand it, it's like, their opinion man. All I can do is share the good news as I understand it, and know that I'm not the only person out there who follows this path to un-glory-ness.