Believe it or not, I get asked this question a lot, but it's tough to give a good answer. Describing any belief system in 50 words or less can only result in something ridiculous -
 

In order to really answer the question, you have to look at a religion exo-memetically. That is, you have to go beyond the thing-in-itself and examine all of the effects it has and the beliefs it indirectly supports. These are just as telling as the official dogmas; for example, Christianity has an official tenet that a wealthy person should give money to the poor and needy, but many denominations today view wealth as a sign of God's approval and downplay the charitable aspect (have you watched TBN lately?).

A short-answer description of Discordianism is especially difficult, since one of its Most Hallowed Beliefs is that it's dumb to have Any Hallowed Beliefs. As a matter of fact, I'll probably get excommunicated for making the following list, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice for you, Beloved Reader. (Besides, I'll just get a buddy of mine to de-excommunicate me. I could do it myself, of course, but it's considered poor form.)

The Discordian Worldview
The world around us is a chaotic place, first and foremost. That means there isn't any purpose to life, no divine plan for each one of us, and a person doesn't get hit by a bus because "it was his time to go" but because "the idiot didn't watch where he was going".

Therefore, we see meaning as something imposed from without rather than an endogenous aspect of reality. Just because the world is a chaotic place doesn't mean that it won't "tell" you things sometimes - it just means that you should be aware that it is telling everybody something a little different, and the answers you have may work nicely for you, but they aren't the Universally Correct answers that are written in the back of some celestial Book.

What kind of person is drawn to Discordianism?
Usually weirdos.

How should Discordians behave?
Well, we have a real problem with the word "should", because people usually use should like "I am better than you, and therefore I say that you should ...." Legally speaking, there are no de jure Discordian "shoulds", but there are a lot of de facto ones.

As far as issues of morality are concerned, it's pretty wide open. One writer put it pretty well: "Goddess forbids nothing, but nobody likes an asshole." Being mean to weaker people isn't seen as very positive. Neither is going out of your way to mess with somebody who is minding their own business. You'll have a wider latitude when messing with an institution instead of an individual, but pointless destruction won't impress anyone.

You really should try to be creative, though, and funny too. If you finally wake up to the enormous, beautiful freedom of your existence and decide to spend it sitting passively in front of the tv, well, that's just sad. And you should have some courage, too - figure out what you think is the right thing to do, do it, and accept the consequences.

The most important thing is to realize that you are FREE! And, unless you feel like wasting it, freedom means becoming something, making choices, and taking responsibility for all the choices you make. If you are still spending your life just getting by, eating-and-excreting, then you don't quite Get It.

What is the flavor of Discordian discourse?
It tastes like chicken. Ok - it's largely irreverant and iconoclastic, with a strong dada component. There are a lot of mystical and/or paranoid references and a conspicuous amount of Unnecessary Capitalization.

How seriously should we take all of this?
Of course, we don't recommend taking anything very seriously. People usually ask me this question, though, because they're trying to figure out if I think there really is an Eris somewhere who is a Goddess and does Goddess-type things. This is especially complicated by contemporary Christianity, which teaches us that there is a God who is paying attention to you every moment of every day and who responds pretty much like a person - you can make him mad, if you get lippy he'll probably do something bad to you to put you in your place, etc. God as a magnification of the Self.

So, the answer to this question needs to combine the following aspects:

• The only answer one can give to "Do you believe in God" is mu - anything else is an over-simplification.
• There is a strong "Ha Ha, Only Serious" flavor to Discordianism.
• Of course, we don't recommend taking anything very seriously.