Editing Church of the SubGenius (section)

==Origins==
The Church of the SubGenius was founded by [[Ivan Stang]] (born Douglas St. Clair Smith) and Philo Drummond (born Steve Wilcox){{sfn|Chryssides|2012|p=95}} as the SubGenius Foundation.{{sfn|Cusack|2010|p=83}} Dr. X (born Monte Dhooge) was also present at the group's inception.{{sfn|Shea|2006}} The organization's first recorded activity was the publication of a photocopied document, ''Sub Genius Pamphlet #1'', disseminated in [[Dallas]], [[Texas]] in 1979. The document announced the impending end of the world and the possible deaths of its readers.{{sfn|Cusack|2010|p=83}} It criticized Christian conceptions of God and [[New Age]] perceptions of spirituality.{{sfn|Niesel|2000}}

Church leaders maintain that a man named [[J. R. "Bob" Dobbs]] founded the group in 1953.{{sfn|Cusack|2010|p=83}} SubGenius members constructed an elaborate account of Dobbs's life, which commentators describe as fictional.{{sfn|Kinsella|2011|p=67}} The members assert that he telepathically contacted Drummond in 1972, before meeting him in person the next year, and that Drummond persuaded Stang to join shortly afterward.{{sfn|Cusack|2010|p=86}} Stang has called himself Dobbs's "sacred scribe" and a "professional maven of weirdness".{{sfn|Batz|1995}}{{sfn|Giffels|1995}}