Religion — Helix Nebula resembling a cosmic eye, colloquially called the Eye of God

Religion

2013cultural topicclassic

Published September 24, 2026

Religion is a broad cultural topic catalogued on Know Your Meme that covers how belief systems appear across internet culture, from Advice God image macros to Coexist bumper stickers and the file-sharing faith Kopimism. The entry groups the online history of major faiths, atheist debates, and joke religions into one hub, and it became a reference point during the 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act debates.

religious parody memes christian humor memes advice animals culture war memes debate memes

Overview

As a Know Your Meme topic, Religion collects the ways faith, doctrine, and spiritual identity show up across meme culture1. That includes advice-animal formats like Advice God, which pairs a Michelangelo painting of the Christian God with captions poking at biblical contradictions, and the Coexist symbol set that mashes together icons for Islam, peace, evolution, Judaism, neo-paganism, Buddhism, and Christianity into a single word used on shirts and bumper stickers1.

The entry also tracks joke or fringe faiths that became internet fixtures, including Kopimism, a Sweden-recognized religion built around free file-sharing, and Otherkin, an online community whose members identify as non-human beings. Debates about atheism sit alongside these, since online atheist spaces often frame their position against the same holidays, texts, and rituals the meme formats target2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Know Your Meme (topic entry)
Date
2013

Religion itself long predates the internet. Anthropologists point to ritual burial in Qafzeh cave around 100,000 years ago as one of the earliest known religious acts, and the Sumerian Kesh Temple Hymn from roughly 2600 B.C. as the oldest surviving religious text1. The KYM topic page pulls these anthropological anchors into a single reference frame alongside the modern faiths people are most likely to meme about, listed as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Shintoism, and Taoism1.

The online meme cluster around religion took shape in the late 2000s and early 2010s as advice-animal macros, atheist YouTube channels, and Coexist merchandise spread in parallel2. Urban Dictionary entries from the same window reflect the split tone of that period, with some definitions defending religion and others openly bashing it, which is exactly the tension the memes ran on2.

How It Spread

Religion topics moved through the internet in waves rather than a single viral moment. Advice God macros circulated on Reddit and Tumblr in the early 2010s, Coexist iconography spread through eBay and Etsy sellers, and Kopimism drew coverage after Sweden's Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency officially recognized it as a religious community1. Interfaith comedy also found a foothold with the Japanese anime Saint Young Men, which imagined Jesus and Buddha as Tokyo roommates and released in Japan on May 10th, 20131.

The topic sharpened in March 2015 when Indiana SB 101 and Arkansas SB 975, both branded as Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, passed at the state level and drew comparisons to the 1993 federal law of the same name. The bills let businesses cite religious belief as a defense in discrimination suits, and the discourse followed the same fault lines the meme formats had already carved out1. YouTube videos linked from the KYM entry document the era's mix of explainer, comedy, and debate content around belief systems3456.

Since then, Religion has stayed a background reference on KYM rather than trending, with the page working as a hub that links to Atheism, Coexist, Advice God, Kopimism, and Otherkin entries when those formats resurface1.

Timeline

-100000

Ritual burial at Qafzeh cave, cited as one of the earliest known religious acts.

-2600

Kesh Temple Hymn written on a Sumerian clay tablet, the oldest known religious text.

2005-01-25

Kopimi.com registered by Swedish organization Piratbyrån, seeding what became Kopimism.

2013-05-10

Saint Young Men anime film released in Japan, dramatizing Jesus and Buddha as roommates.

2014

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision recognized corporate religious belief.

2015-03

Indiana SB 101 and Arkansas SB 975 signed, reviving debate around Religious Freedom Restoration Acts.

Frequently Asked Questions