The Flying Spaghetti Monster

[Actingman00]

Actually, this is a serious thread!!!

For those of you who have never heard of it, he is the "god" of a fake religion called "Pastafarianism".  more info can be found here.


What are your thoughts on this "religion".  Personally, I find all religions kind of pointless but this one is pretty funny, as it's meant to be anyway.  I like all the little jokes and parodies (if that's the right word O_o) of other religions.  I can't believe how it took off the way it did!  Even in a South Park episode they mention the Flying Spaghetti monster.

So what do you think about Pastafarianism?  Do you think it's funny, or rude, or something else?

 

[Legendary]

Personally, I'm not too fond of it, because it seems to basically be a place to gather and say "LOL, religus peoplez r dum," but at the same time, I actually do find some stuff amusing. I guess I'm half and half, but I'm really bugged by the people who say "This IS my religion" or "This is the only religion I could ever respect." I think that it's better to be an atheist and respectful of other people's beliefs than to just enjoy belittling others.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Yeah because poking fun and jabs at someone's near tight held beliefs is going to benefit the world.  It's a joke, but the sad thing is it's not even a funny one.

 

[e]

Well, not point any fingers here, but if one bothered to read a bit on the actual site, not simply Wikipedia, you'd notice that this is actually directed strictly at Creationism. It's not targeting religions as a whole, nor Christianity, but simply the very idea of Intelligent Design and those who advocate it at all cost.

A bunch of void pseudo-scientific studies were concocted in the benefit of Intelligent Design, hence the pseudo-scientific "Pirates vs Temperature" study found on the FSM website; it uses the same "methods". I assume I don't have to explain why they chose such a ridiculous topic.

Oh, and by the way...it is a pretty funny joke. Guess it depends on who reads it, eh?

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

I may find creationism a fanciful thought, but it's still someone's near tight held belief.  And it's still going "Ha we're mocking you!", and while that can be fun the jokes are still lame.  Crap, a censored collage of those dreaded indy flicks with Teen Ape in them set to a Yoko Ono song would be funnier.  Might even be more relevant.

 

[___]

It really doesn't take much to register a religion.  I believe you have to have a place to meet, a holy book or set of values or what have you, a certain number of followers and a certain number of regular meetings in a row and sign a paper and you're set as far as the government is concerned. 

I looked into this with some friends once a long time ago when we invented a goofy ass fake religion, and we nearly pulled it off before we lost interest   So these guys and others like them, if they don't wish to be taken seriously, aren't a big deal.  If they do wish to be taken seriously, thankfully we still have the right to make fun of them.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

It takes a LOT to be a religion in the eyes of the government, at least here in the US.
It's not easy, nor is it all that accessible.  You need a certain number of followers, but you need to have practices and for-lack-of-a-better-word rituals and philosophies.

You have to prove to skeptics you are a religion, else we would have a hell of a lot more people going tax free due to it.  Especially since you have to explain in detail, and have multiple witnesses answering swerve questions.

 

[___]

You'd be surprised.  There are around half a dozen cult groups about 150 miles away from me in Sedona, AZ enjoying tax exempt status thanks to being a recognized religion.  None of them consist of more than a relative handful of members and none of them have been around longer than since, oh, say, the 70s when all that nonsense (sorry to anyone who doesn't think it's nonsense) got started.
Scientology is recognized as a religion in the U.S., as well as Satanism and various other fringe groups (sorry again if you belong to one of them and find that insulting, you're welcome to believe whatever crazy shit you want to).  Granted Scientology had to fight like a motherfucker to pull it off, but I think more than anything it's because the IRS does the deciding on that subject and Scientology makes a *ton* of money.
Once again not really in the mood to back that one up, I'm not terribly invested in this one, but it's what I understand to be true

 

[e]

Yeah, I was going to get the Scientology example out, but eh, seems you were faster than me.

You know sixty, they probably wouldn't be mocking Intelligent Design if those who advocate it hadn't been trying to push it down everybody's throat. You're entitled to your beliefs, as long as you don't try to impose them.

 

[Ellie]

A flying spaghetti monster is just as plausible as a guy who can make a planet in six days, to be honest. That's not me being atheist, just think about it logically.

I don't like religion. Not because of the religious part. But with every religion comes oppression. And that's what I can't stand.

You're entitled to your beliefs, so long as you let me and everyone else have ours too.

Edit: Ok, that's just weird, same wording as the post above me and yet I hadn't read it before I posted  :huh:

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

You know sixty, they probably wouldn't be mocking Intelligent Design if those who advocate it hadn't been trying to push it down everybody's throat. You're entitled to your beliefs, as long as you don't try to impose them.

Oh trust me, I'm not condemning them.  But if their going to jab someone's serious life beliefs they at least could do a good job.

 

[mawk]

Well, actually, seeing as man created spaghetti (and not the other way around,) a creator deity made entirely out of said foodstuff might not be quite so plausible as one who (we assume) is not.

Unless, um, man created spaghetti in His image as an act of worship.

Personally, I'm fine with the Pastafarians. People take religion far too seriously nowadays; for many, it's a soapbox to stand on and an excuse to be indignant. For (thankfully) few, it's an excuse to kill people for being "wrong." I don't like atheism when it's actively shoved down my throat (you can't chip apart a religion by stating inconsistencies. No, Muhammed wasn't a pedophile. No, I don't want to buy snake oil. Buh-bye now,) but I don't get that sort of vibe from Pastafarianism. I'm sure there are people who use it as an anti-religion religion, but I like to believe its roots are marginally more innocent, stemming instead from some dudes with a wacky sense of humour and a good measure of gentle irreverence.

Regarding conversion attempts, I come across as much "oppression" from atheists as I do from religious people. I personally didn't think anyone could try converting people to atheism until the third or fourth attempt on me. It seems to be a popular trend nowadays to try and undo centuries of faith by taking teachings out of context (and when you take the Qu'ran's teachings out of the context of Muhammed's life, you get idiots like the suicide bombers) and pushing on the inevitable cracks imperfect translation can cause. Personally, I cringe when I hear about "rejecting popular myths" as much as I do when I hear the stuff religious extremists are pumping out. The point of religion is to do nice things. Everything else should secondary, which is why I think the Buddha had the right idea, teaching altruism without too many bells and whistles.

(And really, I'm fine living under an illusion if that particular illusion's trying to make people be nice to each other.)

 

[___]

You want to talk about popular myths you might as well talk about the reverence of scientists by the common atheist as if they're some sort of all-knowing priesthood.  Granted 99% of the scientific community likes to stay out of the public light and stick to their work, but out of the other 1% the majority are hucksters with a need for attention and adoration and don't know real science from palmistry anyway.
The whole fucking point of science is that you don't need someone else to tell you whether it's right or wrong, real science is testable, falsifiable, and reproducible.  If you can't do that, and you can't with a lot of the ideas that sit at the very foundation of hardcore atheism (as opposed to skeptical agnosticism), it's not fact, it's not theory, it's not even a proper hypothesis.  It's belief without rationality or reason, and we call that "faith" in most of the world.
Plain fact is after centuries of science we still don't know much, we just have a better grasp of the shapes and outlines of the things we don't know about and some reasonably good guesses as to what they do and how they work.  Don't let any asshole tell you he has all the answers, because the next thing he's going to tell you after that is he wants something in exchange for them.

/rant off

 

[Alpharoth]

Some people think that science is the enemy of religion. Well, can't say anything about Muslims, Buddhist etc but as a Christian, i think it's wrong. Science is not wrong and believing in science doesn't make you an atheist. One time i asked my pastor "Why did god make dinosaurs?" he just said "Dinosaurs are not real!". That is just stupid. Dinosaurs are real and can be proven. The Dinosaurs are already there, how the dinosaurs got there, that's the difference between religious and atheist people.

For e.g
The big bang
As a christian, i believe in the big bang. However, i don't believe that "nothing happened to nothing and nothing magically exploded for no reason, creating everything  and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason what so ever into self replicating bits which turned into dinosaurs."





As for the topic question, yes i do find it funny because it's just stupid. I mean, really, it's just really really stupid. Even if all religion are fake, i would rather believe in a fake god than a flying spaghetti monster, or Lord Xenu and his Boeing 747 spaceships.

 

[Yoshine]

TWO WORDS (ON CRACK)

 

[mawk]

DC-8s, right? :3

At any rate, I agree with you there; science and religion aren't polar opposites like some people may think. The way I see it... Well, if an almighty being created the universe and the laws of physics along with it, I wouldn't say that everything that deity does would have to fall outside the laws he created. If there were flashes of holy light and choruses of angels every time god decided to intervene in something, I'm pretty sure we'd have a couple more people in modern times sent to rooms with padded walls.

Like, I'm Muslim, and I believe in evolution (with a touch of intelligence sort of shoving it along,) mainly because I find it less likely that every modern animal was created a few millenia ago from nothing than I do the idea that these animals formed to their current state through progressive mutations. Does this mean there's no god? No, it just means god is more subtle than we think. The real reason that the battle of science v. religion is being fought, I think, is politics; people just like their own viewpoints a lot more than they do anyone else's.

 

[Samboy]

TWO WORDS (ON CRACK)

Stop posting crap in the Symposium. Read the rules, the Symposium is for "intelligible debate".

Religion is the reason for most of the wars that have occurred throughout the ages, and these wars have done nothing but keep human population down. Nothing has been solved.

Science is true, hard fact. Except for the big bang. No-one was around to see it, and even though lots of evidence is pointing towards it, it is basically just a stab in the dark that highly qualified people have gone along with.

Pastafarianism is just another stab at the worlds religions, which may be funny for a good minute or so, but really it's not helping. Making religious leaders/followers angry is not funny.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Religion is the reason for most of the wars that have occurred throughout the ages, and these wars have done nothing but keep human population down. Nothing has been solved.

Actually it's people in power and their politics.  No religion ever started a war.  No religion has ever killed anyone.  It's like saying a government thought could kill, or a theory on life - a philosophical idea is a murderer.  Impossible.
My opinion, your opinion, anyone's opinion can be dangerous.  It can lead to deadly circumstances - but it is us, them, and we who are the true catalyst, not the faith, thought, or dream we were inspired by.  The color red on a painting can have an effect to cause people to kill, but the color's still innocent.

Science is true, hard fact. Except for the big bang. No-one was around to see it, and even though lots of evidence is pointing towards it, it is basically just a stab in the dark that highly qualified people have gone along with.

Science is not a true hard fact.  It is an ever evolving thought process.  Else it would be universal.  We wouldn't have a thousand theories on water being wet and land being dry, a bee flying, what killed the dinosaurs, etc.
It's ALL a stab in the dark, with some extremely intelligent (and unintelligent minds) roaming around and placing things together best they see fit.

Fun fact: You can change the word "science" and "religion" in that statement of mine, and it would be equally as true too.

Pastafarianism is just another stab at the worlds religions, which may be funny for a good minute or so, but really it's not helping. Making religious leaders/followers angry is not funny.

I have nothing to argue with, just thought it deserved a second telling.

Fun fact: You can change religions and religious to politics and political, and it'll still be as equally true.  Hell change it to scientists and scientific, it - well it wouldn't make much sense then... never mind that last one.

 

[Mittens2317]

I thought South Park came up with it. They still did it funnier.

 

[Alpharoth]

I thought South Park was joking around when they were explaining the history through Scientology. I did some research and found out it was actually that retarded. I don't know what's more retarded, a flying spaghetti monster or an evil Alien with Boeing 747s spaceships.