#wwfsmd

[maebealayter]

The Flying Spaghetti Monster loves you.  He was boiled for our sins. Have you been touched by His noodly appendages? 

www.venganza.org

<3 Reverend Captain Stevie <3

[oatsandunicorns]

davis update: there's a spider in my living room and I am afraid 

[semiambivalent-blog]

Unintelligent Design

All hail the flying spaghetti monster! Worship Him! Obey Him! Be Touched by His Noodley Appendage for He is THE ONE! WWFSMD?

             That last part stands for “What Would the Flying Spaghetti Monster Do?” and no I haven’t gone crazy. Pastafarianism is a parody religion invented by a man called Bobby Henderson in response to the introduction of teaching Intelligent Design in Kansas State schools. Intelligent Design is a criticism of Darwin’s theory of evolution and a thinly veiled attempt to get religion back into science class. Now don’t get me wrong, I like to think I am a pretty spiritual guy. But organized religion, by its very nature, is not science, and it should never pretend to be.

            The flying spaghetti monster deity is a modern day ‘Russell’s Teapot’; philosopher Bertrand Russell coined this analogy to describe why the sceptic should not have to prove unfalsifiable claims. He describes that if he were to claim there was a teapot orbiting the Earth, that was too small for our most powerful telescopes to see, he would be described as a madman because he is unable to prove his assertion. However you would not be able to prove that there wasn’t such a teapot. Obviously the right thing to do would be to ignore him until he produced evidence (or started getting aggressive). However, in the case of religion, claims of the existence of a super-natural being, which science cannot prove, are based on the same principle as the teapot: you can’t prove that God doesn’t exist.

            So, in steps (or flies) the Spaghetti monster. Despite the fact that this is a made up religion, it uses all of the same logical and (often) illogical arguments that Religious-types use to defend their religions. You can’t prove there isn’t a Flying Spaghetti Monster who created the entire universe “after drinking heavily”, just like you can’t prove that God didn’t create the World in seven days. What about carbon dating you ask? Where did Dinosaurs come from if the world was only made a few thousand years ago? Well some Christians claim that God has put the bones of Dinosaurs there to test our faith, and that God changes the results of carbon dating to… make it a harder test? Pastafarianism, in a direct parody, believe that the FSM (Flying Spaghetti Monster) is there changing the results of carbon dating and planting evidence of Global warming “with his noodley appendage” to test the faith of Pastafarians.

            Followers of Pastafarianism (finally) acknowledge Pirates as ‘absolute divine beings’. Did you know Pirates stop Global Warming? They have provided evidence in the form of a chart showing correlation between the number of Pirates and World Temperature. Surely it is no coincidence that the home of modern piracy, Somalia, also has some of the lowest carbon emissions in the World! Pirates are so important to Pastafarians that they are required to wear full Pirate regalia as part of their religion. In fact, a student in America, who is a practicing Pastafarian by the name of Bryan Killian, was suspended from school for wearing full Pirate gear. Bryan argued that this violated his freedom of Religion: which the school dismissed as ridiculous. But is it? His school obviously didn’t believe in the FSM and claimed Bryan was being disruptive. Is it any less disruptive to wear a replica of a crucifixion, paint a dot on your head or wear a full burqa? Is it less offensive to wish someone a Merry Christmas when they don’t believe in Jesus?

            What makes Pastafarianism so awesome (apart from how much they love Pirates) is its ability to ridicule. The religion is obviously fictional and probably quite offensive to Religious-types. But because Pastafarianism uses all of the same arguments and thought processes as the typical religion, they cannot attack it without attacking themselves. I acknowledge that religion has been (on balance) a positive force in the world. I know there are topics that Science has yet to explain. I do kind things for other people even if it doesn’t benefit me, not because of logic, but because deep down it feels like the right thing to do. But Pastafarianism shows how ridiculous it is to subscribe blindly to rules made thousands of years ago: we have come a long way since then. It fosters the critic in all of us and reminds us that the Bible is not a documentary. It also lightens what can be a contentious issue with a bit of frivolity, which is important, according to my last blog post, and also Dr. Seuss:

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities." - Dr. Seuss

I think we can all agree that religion is at its most valuable when it helps fosters charity and community, and it is at its worst when it breeds tribalism and pig-headedness. Pastafarianism attacks the notion that you can defend an inherently emotional and subjective belief with logic, making it harder to maintain a stubborn position and leaving us with the option to believe what we want in the gaps that Science can’t fill. Most importantly of all, their Heaven has a beer volcano and a Stripper factory. I think I’m converting…

RAmen

Anyone wanting more information on the CotFSM (Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) please click here: http://www.venganza.org/

[posnonrel-blog]

WWFSMD?

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