Hi Alice,
A word you used, pastafarianism piqued My curiosity. AT first I thought
you'd made a typo and meant to say Rastafarianism, but that wouldn't be like
you so I decided to do a bit of research. Sure enough, pastafarianism is
indeed a religion.
I had to laugh when I read my results. Here they are, pasted below my name.
Here is real proof that a religion can be anything that anyone wants it to
be. Now that's a good argument for atheism! LOL.
Bob Hachey
http://www.venganza.org/about/
About < Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, after having existed in secrecy
for hundreds of years, came into the mainstream just a few years ago
*.
With millions, if not thousands, of devout worshipers, the Church of the FSM
is widely considered a legitimate religion, even by its opponents - mostly
fundamentalist Christians, who have accepted that our God has larger balls
than theirs.
Some claim that the church is purely a thought experiment or satire,
illustrating that Intelligent Design is not science, just a pseudoscience
manufactured
by Christians to push Creationism into public schools. These people are
mistaken - The Church of FSM is legit, and backed by hard science. Anything
that
comes across as humor or satire is purely coincidental.
Sounds great but where do I start?
For a taste of what we're about, watch this video made by our friend Matt
Tillman, an Introduction to Pastafarianism: Spaghetti, Wenches &
Metaphysics.
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More, please
We believe religion - say Christianity, Islam, Pastafarianiasm - does not
require literal belief in order to provide spiritual enlightenment. Much of
the transcendent experience of religion can be attributed to the community.
And while some members of religion are indoctrinated True Believers, many
are not. There are many levels of Belief and each is no more or less
legitimate than the other.
That is to say, you do not have to Believe to be part of our Church, but we
hope in time you will see the Truth. But skeptics, as well as members of
other
religions, are always welcome.
What is this business about pirates, and the Beer Volcano, and Stripper
Factory?
Religious texts tell us that humans evolved from Pirates. Consider that
so-called "science experts" would have us believe humans evolved from
primates,
pointing towards the shared 99% shared DNA between humans and primates. But
humans and Pirates share upwards of 99.9% of DNA.
We believe that Pirates were the original Pastafarians and that they were
peaceful explorers. It was only due to Christian misinformation that they
have
an image of outcast criminals today.
No one knows what the afterlife really holds, but we our told FSM Heaven has
a Beer Volcano and Stripper Factory.
How Do I Join?
There is no formal membership process and we do not collect money from our
members. The site is supported purely by our
Certificates of Ordination.
images/certframed600
If you're interested in what we're about, please feel free to consider
yourself a member.
How Can I Help?
Evangelism is a time-honored tradition of religion, and it's no different
with Pastafarianism. Nothing helps the Cause more than Spreading the Word.
Here are a few of my favorite acts of evangelism over the years. Please let
these inspire you.
The FSM looks great in parades
06/IMG_2098
How about a Float in honor of the FSM, complete with a crew of Pirates? This
is a yearly occurrence at the Fremont Solstice Parade. Check it out
here.
You can decorate your Holiday tree with a tree-topper
12/treetoppersm
Every year, Pastafarians from around the world make their Holiday just a
little more festive. Tree-toppers have become a tradition.
Here
are some of my favorites. (Sadly I do not know who is the cute girl in the
photo.)
You could ride around in style
09/dragoncon1200
Look at all these people enchanted by this display of evangelism. How many
joined the Church because of this? What a great display. You can see some
more photos
Here.
We need missionaries: girls, you can dress up as pirate wenches any time of
the year
08/missionarywork
Every church needs missionaries to spread the word. Girls, if you do this
please send photos. For academic research and so on.
Or how about joining in with some on-campus ministers?
01/icsmall
It's a common sight at colleges across the world: Christian evangelists
telling us why we're going to their Hell for drinking and having sex. So
why not
join in the evangelizing? Give the students a choice: the Christian threat
of eternal damnation and hellfire, or the chance of FSM afterlife complete
with a Beer Volcano and Stripper Factory. You can read more about these
Pastafarian gentleman's fine ministry work
Here.
Show your faith at the workplace
01/sworn-in
We're living in enlightened times - feel free to wear your religious
headwear (yes, it's a colander) at the workplace. In the photo, Mr.
Schaeffer is
getting sworn in at his new position as council member. You can read more
about it
Here.
Or on your license photos
07/colander2
Why not wear a colander in your ID photos? Most places are cool with it,
and those who are not can surely be poked by the ACLU. In the photo here,
Mr.
Alm has won the right to wear his Colander in his Austrian ID photo. You can
read more about it
Here.
Pumpkin evangelism is festive
08/pumpkins
Why not show your faith next time you carve a pumpkin?
Questions and Answers
Q: Is this a joke?
A: It's not a joke. Elements of our religion are sometimes described as
satire and there are many members who do not literally believe our
scripture,
but this isn't unusual in religion. A lot of Christians don't believe the
Bible is literally true - but that doesn't mean they aren't True Christians.
If you say Pastafarians must believe in a literal Flying Spaghetti Monster
to be True Believers, then you can make a similar argument for Christians.
There is a lot of outlandish stuff in the Bible that rational Christians
choose to ignore.
Q: A lot of Pastafarians seem to be anti-religion and/or atheists (why is
this?)
A: We're not anti-religion. This is NOT an atheists club. Anyone and
everyone is welcome to join our church including current members of other
religions.
In addition to the Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers who have joined us,
we have a number of Christian (and Muslim, and Hindu and Buddhist .) members
and I would love to have more. Note to the religious: You are welcome here.
Let me make this clear: we are not anti-religion, we are anti- crazy
nonsense done in the name of religion. There is a difference.
Q: I don't believe you or any of your so-called followers actually believe
any of this.
A: Some Pastafarians honestly believe in the FSM, and some see it as
satire. I would just make the point that satire is an honest, legitimate
basis for
religion. Satire relies on truth to be effective. If it's a joke, it's a
joke where to understand the punchline you must be conscious of underlying
truth.
Compare our religion to those that are built on lies. I am not talking
necessarily about mainstream religions (which themselves are often full of
mysticism
and ad-hoc reasoning), but think of cults, or churches where the leaders are
scamming their followers out of money. These are groups where the followers
fully believe. Are these churches legitimate since they have many True
Believers?
Or can we agree that religion is as much about community as any shared
faith. By any rational metric, Pastafarians are as legitimate a religious
group
as any. Arguably more so, since we're honest and rational.
Q: We want to use FSM designs for t-shirt, jerseys, posters.
A: It's ok to use FSM materials for your own use and to spread the word -
I'm happy to see it. There have been a number of sports team and club
shirts
- I can provide high quality images/vector designs for screen printing, just
let me know.
That said, please do not *SELL* FSM products.
Q: What Does the Flying Spaghetti Monster think of Same Sex Marriage?
A: The CotFSM has no judgement on same sex marriage, for/against; that is to
say, all are welcome into the loving embrace of His Noodly Appendage. (And
there are many gay/bi members).
Q: In 1000 years will FSM be a mainstream religion?
A: This is something I think about a lot. I sometimes wonder what the
Church of Scientology - or lets say the Mormon Church looked like 5 years
after
Joseph Smith transcribed the scriptures out of the hat with the
seer stones.
What worries me is that right now I can be pretty sure there aren't a lot of
dogmatic nutty FSM people around, but what about in 20 years? What about
in 50 years? What about when someone figures out a way to make money out of
this and turns it into some new age spiritual enlightenment thing. There
are billions of Christians who are crazy serious about their religion who
don't necessarily believe the things in the Bible actually happened. So ..
yes, I do worry where FSM will go. I think the best we can do is work to
instill in the Church positive values that will keep us on a straight path.
Q: How do Pastafarians believe our world was created?
A: We believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world much as it
exists today, but for reasons unknown made it appear that the universe is
billions
of years old (instead of thousands) and that life evolved into its current
state (rather than created in its current form). Every time a researcher
carries
out an experiment that appears to confirm one of these "scientific theories"
supporting an old earth and evolution we can be sure that the FSM is there,
modifying the data with his Noodly Appendage. We don't know why He does
this but we believe He does, that is our Faith.
Q: To what extent do Pastafarians need evidence to support their beliefs?
What is considered valid evidence, and why are some religious ideas lacking
evidence
believed more widely than others? Why is Christianity more widely accepted
than Pastafarianism?
A: For many religions, acceptance is due to the time it has been around and
due to the number of people who already follow it. For potential followers
it's often less a consideration of evidence, and more a judgment that the
collective group of followers is better informed. That millions or billions
of
people already follow this religion is strong social proof that there is
something to it. The larger the group and the longer it has been around, the
more
pronounced the effect.
But nonbelievers are overreaching when they dismiss the phenomenon of
religion as wrong and useless because it so often lacks a basis in evidence.
The
fact that millions of people get something positive out of a religion - even
if it is based in superstition - *does* mean something. But that's not to
say it's True, only that it has Value. For many people, religion is about
being part of a community and being part of something bigger and more
important
than themselves. These transcendent experiences are something we want to
emulate.
Nonbelievers would be better off criticizing only on the negative, damaging
parts of religion, and being less judgmental about the idea of religion in
general. Nonbelievers get hung up asking for evidence when really we should
be looking at why does religion thrive despite evidence? We should be
pushing
the idea that faith is not equivalent to evidence-based-reasoning without
insisting that it's inferior, only that they are different ways of seeing
the
world. And that the problems happen when these world views clash.
Pastafarianism is different than most religions in that we explicitly make
the point that our scripture need not be believed literally. In other
religions
this is known but not often said out loud (many Christians don't take the
Bible literally but won't volunteer this). Pastafarian scripture has some
outlandish
and sometimes contradictory components - and unlike the scripture of
mainstream religion, these pieces were intentional and obvious, and our
congregation
is aware of this.
About Bobby, a mini-bio.
08/hammock
Age: [current year minus 1980]
Education: Negligible (B.S. Physics)
Location: I grew up in Oregon, USA. College: Oregon, New Zealand. After
college I lived in Nevada and then Arizona, and then Oregon again, and then
wandering
around. I lived on an island in the Philippines for 3 years. Now I'm back
in the US.
Occupation aside from prophet of FSM: Hobo, hammock enthusiast. Also various
nerdwork around computers.
You are welcome to
Contact Me
*1: The Church of the FSM came into the mainstream in 2005 after
this open letter
was published.
