Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

[GeneChing]

Had to post this (especially for old fans of Asia Carrera)

I am an un-orthodox pastafarian of the non-piratarian sect.

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster 'Pastafarian' makes statement
Samantha Sadlier, 2:51 p.m. MST November 18, 2014


(Photo: Submitted)

ST. GEORGE – A St. George woman exercised her religious rights recently when she had her Utah driver's license photo taken wearing a colander over her head.

Asia Lemmon, also known as Jessica Steinhauser, an atheist and member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, said she wanted to wear the colander, also known as a pasta strainer, on her head for the photo to make a statement.

The colander, official headgear for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is used to represent the person's belief in the church — a satirical religious movement promoting a lighthearted view of religion.

"I'm a really proud, outspoken atheist," she said. "I am proud of Utah for allowing freedom of all religions in what is considered by many to be a one-religion state."

She is the fourth person in the United States to be permitted to exercise her religious freedom in this way and the first in Utah.

Members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are often referred to as "Pastafarians."

"I wanted to see if I could (wear the colander) in Utah. I wasn't sure if they would let me," she said.

Lemmon said she went to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Hurricane and put the strainer on her head at the time of the photo.

Briefly she met opposition, but armed with printed documents indicating her religious freedom, DMV employees took the photo without question.

"It was surprisingly really, really easy," she said.

Bobby Henderson, founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, said in an interview with The Spectrum & Daily News that he enjoys watching the church members make a statement.

"I think it's nice, and I'm 100 percent sure Asia is doing this for good-natured reasons," he said. "Hopefully, the state of Utah will have a sense of humor about it as well. We are fortunate to have her as a member of the church. She's great."

Lemmon said she is no stranger to making waves in the public eye.

Lemmon was a former popular adult film star under the name Asia Carrera, with most of her work filmed in the early 2000s.


Asia Lemmon discusses her connection to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014.(Photo: Chris Caldwell / The Spectrum & Daily News)

She has since retired from the industry and lives in St. George with her son and daughter.

Lemmon is also a member of Mensa with an IQ of 156, she said. Mensa is a high IQ society that provides a forum for intellectual exchange among its members. There are members in more than 100 countries.

Another example of her choosing to take a stand is her push to be recognized on the Mensa's list of prominent members.

After her previous role in the public eye, celebrating her membership in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was an easy decision to make, Lemmon said.

"I've always been a proud atheist, and I feel comfortable doing that even here (in Utah)," she said. "Even though it's really conservative here, everyone has always been really sweet about (my religious views.)"

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster came out of a satirical open letter written by Henderson in 2005, protesting the Kansas State Board of Education's decision to allow teaching Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolution in public schools.

Henderson wrote a letter that satirized creationism by stating a belief that whenever scientists carbon date an object, there is a supernatural creator, closely resembling spaghetti and meatballs, "modifying the data with his Noodly Appendage," according to the church's website.

On the website, Henderson notes not just atheists can be members of the church — it welcomes any kind of believer.

"We are not anti-religion," Henderson states on his website. "We are anti-crazy nonsense done in the name of religion. There is a big difference. Our ideal is to scrutinize ideas and actions but ignore general labels."

Henderson added that while some members of the church — of which there could be thousands or even millions — "honestly believe" in the flying spaghetti monster, some view the church as a satirical view of religion.

Lemmon said she is of the latter group.

"It's just funny," she said. "The church is purely satirical. (My daughter) Catty learned about it online before I did. She's been an atheist since she was 5, and that's how I learned about it."

Henderson said he never expected a church to form following his open letter or that it would turn into the religion it is now.

"I didn't expect the Church of FSM to grow the way it has," he said. "It's mostly good, but I worry about the true believers and the occasional member who is only looking to bash mainstream religion. I think we have the best results by having our own community and our own beliefs. There are a ton of Pastafarians who don't take it very seriously, I mean lots of us are totally skeptical of our own scripture, and I think that's way healthier than the dynamic in some of the mainstream churches with the hierarchy and dogma. Also we are aiming to get a pirate ship in the next few years, so I'm optimistic about the future."

[GeneChing]

I poached this off another thread. There are two posts now. The Pastafarians deserve their own thread.

Mass. woman wins fight to wear colander in driver’s license by citing ‘pastafarian’ religion



By Andrea Noble - The Washington Times - Friday, November 13, 2015

Some states ban smiling in driver’s license photos, but wearing a colander on one’s head is apparently allowed.

A Massachusetts woman this week won the right to wear a colander on her head in her driver’s license photo after citing religious reasons. Lindsay Miller identifies as a “Pastafarian” and member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which some critics call a parody religion.

She tried to wear the kitchen utensil in her driver’s license photo this year but the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles denied her request. However, after intervention by the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center the RMV recently reversed its stance.

Ms. Miller said she was delighted that the agency allowed her to don a colander for her driver’s license, which was issued Thursday.

“While I don’t think the government can involve itself in matters of religion, I do hope this decision encourages my fellow Pastafarian Atheists to come out and express themselves as I have,” Ms. Miller said.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster spawned out of a letter that Oregon State University graduate Bobby Henderson penned to the Kansas State Board of Education in 2005. He wrote to protest the board’s decision to permit the teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes, suggesting that students should “hear multiple viewpoints” of how the universe came to be, including the idea that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created it.

And though many describe the religion as a farce, believers defend it as legitimate, stating on their website that the religion is “backed by hard science. Anything that comes across as humor or satire is purely coincidental.”

The lighthearted religion opposes the teaching of creationism and intelligent design but believes that Fridays are national holidays, beer should be celebrated, and that pirates were the original “pastafarians.”

“If people are given the right to wear religious garments in government ID photos, then this must extend to people who follow the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster,” said David Niose, legal director of the Appignani Humanist Legal Center.

Despite Ms. Miller’s victory in Massachusetts, not everyone has taken such an evenhanded view of the church.

In October, a Canadian judge issued a rebuke of court case in which a Montreal woman sought permission to wear a colander or pirate hat in her driver’s license photo.

“Too many people implicated in real litigation with consequences that could affect their lives or those of their children or enterprise are waiting their turn in court for us to be silent about the monopolization of these resources to determine if the plaintiff can be photographed wearing a colander or pirate hat,” said Quebec Superior Court Judge Stéphane Sansfaçon, according to Canadian newspaper the National Post. “We forget too often that the courts are a public service with limited resources that must not be abused.”

[Cataphract]

Steinhaus is a maker of quality pasta. Mere coincidence you say? I for one find your lack of faith disturbing.

All hail his Noodliness!

[MarathonTmatt]

I don't believe in major organized religion sects, as an enterprise, (Vatican Catholicism, Mormons, Protestants, etc) , but I especially don't believe in atheists.

[David Jamieson]

Steinhaus is a maker of quality pasta. Mere coincidence you say? I for one find your lack of faith disturbing.

All hail his Noodliness!

I thought it was "All hail his noodley appendages"?

or is that some sort of sectarian thing now?

[boxerbilly]

Crap and I get why they do it. And I agree. The privilege to drive has nothing to do with religion. No head covers period for id cards, should be the rule. Don't want to follow the rules, don't drive. Need a prayer class, send the kid to a religious school like all my Catholic friends had to do. Need special food. Pack it with you, like all the kids that had special diet needs when I went to school. Was not the school problem. Was your families. This is what we have to feed you. Don't like it or religious restrictions, don't eat it. The Jews that I went to school with, would often do just that. They could not eat **** if they were devote. Actually, Christians are not supposed to either but I guess we will burn in hell for eating pig. Tastes like human I was told. Would not know. But, I personally believe it was placed as law in a time when we could not control trichina. Like a lot of those potentially archaic Bible laws. Plus we Anglo Christian still like the old Pagan ways. Be celebrating Yule soon. We also celebrate Jesus at the same time. Funny us crazy crackers and those that follow our line. Cracker, cracker mixed or cracker free.

I love all people. I have no problems with anyone's religion. But, in America you should adopt our way of life if you decided to live here and become American. If you bring a way we like, do not worry, we will adopt it. Forcing it makes people hate more than not but I look at the financial cost of all this bull****. I doubt highly any country is going to bend over backwards for me should I venture there unless I am waving cash for assistance. Everyone likes that everyplace I guess. I got no cash, doom on me. Better learn to fit in there I guess.

[GeneChing]

This is awesome.

Schism Erupts In Pastafarianism Over The Acceptability Of Plastic Colanders


Plastic colanders like this are considered sacrilegious by orthodox Pastafarians.
POSTED BY: GULLIVER

The little-known religion of Pastafarianism became a little less little known this week when a Massachusetts woman won the right to have her drivers license photo taken whilst wearing a colander atop her head – an important tenet of the faith.

The extra attention has brought a simmering dispute within the Church to the fore, namely what types of colander constitute acceptable religious attire. Progressives argue that any recognizable colander is acceptable, be it made of metal, plastic, or even collapsible silicone. The orthodox wing has a simple response to any pasta straining device that isn’t a dual-handled wide-holed metal colander.

“Anathema!”

While there have been no physical clashes yet, some reddit threads reportedly ‘got quite nasty’, with older traditionalist Pastafarians proving to be especially vitriolic – though they were often taunted by liberal church members who would post selfies wearing their non-metallic brightly colored pasta strainers.

“Death to the plastic-colander-wearing heathens! They will not get to enjoy the afterlife.”

Though the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – as it is officially known – doesn’t take a doctrinal position on what the afterlife is like or even if there is one, orthodox church members maintain that the breakaway liberal wing will never see it.

“Maybe Pastafarian heaven is like real life except you can eat all the linguini you want and never get fat. But those blasphemers aren’t getting in. That much I know.”

While many moderate Pastafarians despaired for the split in their congregation, some can find a bright side even as factions emerge that view each other with an uncompromising hatred.

“Our maturation into a real religion is complete.”

[GeneChing]

The Netherlands Recognizes Official Church: Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
JANUARY 31ST, 2016 JORDAN OLDBURY

Religious people rejoice, a new faith has arrived and it’s ready to welcome you with open arms, full bowls and meatballs aplenty. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has been officially recognized as a religion in The Netherlands.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founded in 2005, has some unusual beliefs and their doctrine might be a little on the quirky side but they’re certainly no odder than any other organized religion. Followers of the Church, or Pastafarians, believe that a giant spaghetti monster created the world for unknown reasons, and they worship him by eating pasta, drinking beer and wearing colanders on their heads. The church made news in the Russia at the start of the year when a man fought, and won, for his right to wear a colander on his head in his driving license photo.

It might seem like a petty mockery of organized religion, but the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is much more than that. The founder, on their official website, says:

“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.”

The Church is a statement about the importance placed on religious views in all aspects of society, even education, despite often going against what we know to be true. We can be fairly confident that nobody really believes in the flying spaghetti monster, or that humans are descended from pirates, but why should should other faiths, especially those that argue against scientific fact (creationists, I’m talking to you) be part of our children’s education?

North America already recognizes the Church as a religion, so if you’re thinking about converting, perhaps you’d like to hear about their heaven and hell:

Pastafarians believe that heaven is a beer volcano and stripper factory
Pastafarians believe that hell is also a beer volcano and stripper factory, but the beer is flat and the strippers have STDs
The nice thing about Pastafarianism is that anybody can join. They don’t mind where you’re from, who you like to have sex with, what you do for a living or if you even believe in the flying spaghetti monster. You can join if you’re already a member of another faith or if you don’t believe in anything. The church of the flying spaghetti monster is truly universal.

If you’d like to learn more about the church, check out the video from their official website below:

I'm considering converting now.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Probably why Europe as a whole is doing so well

[Cataphract]

I'm considering converting now.

Wait, have you considered Jediism yet?

[GeneChing]

Wait, have you considered Jediism yet?

I'm waiting until they get real light sabers. Then I'll consider it.

[GeneChing]

So tempted to convert

Rüdiger Weida, aka Brother Spaghettus, with one of the signs he wants to protect in Templin, Brandenburg. Photo: DPA.

Brandenburg faces wrath of Flying Spaghetti Monster
Published: 06 Apr 2016 11:01 GMT+02:00
Updated: 06 Apr 2016 11:01 GMT+02:00

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Brandenburg is suing the state over what they say is their right to post signs around town.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) in Templin has filed charges against the state of Brandenburg over being able to post signs around town, with the first hearing set for Wednesday, according to the group.

The FSM church explained in a statement that in December, it had discussed with local authorities its status and agreed it could qualify as an "ideological community". They therefore had the right to post signs advertising their "noodle mass" - just as Protestant and Catholic churches advertise their own masses and gatherings with roadside signs.

Then, Brandenburg Culture Minister Sabine Kunst declared that because the spaghetti monster followers were not officially designated as a religious community, they would therefore have to remove the signs.

Worshippers saw no recourse but to bring the case to court.

"No matter what happens, the opposition has shot themselves in the foot," Brother Spaghettus, also known as Rüdiger Weida, told Jetzt, because either they will allow the signs to be set up again, "or we will take it to the next level court."

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was established in the United States in 2005 as a satirical way to protest fundamentalist Christians pushing for the intelligent design theory to be taught in schools.

Equal time should be devoted to the idea that science alone could not explain the emergence of life as to the theory of evolution, the religious groups demanded.

FSM founder, Bobby Henderson, called for his beliefs to also be awarded equal time in the classroom if the Christians' demands were accepted.

Since then, the church's "Pastafarian" followers have spread throughout the world, gathering at noodle masses to eat spaghetti and drink beer.

Pastafarians often wear colanders on their head, believe that humans descended from pirates (“the original Pastafarians”) and that in the afterlife they can look forward to a heaven complete with a “beer volcano and stripper factory”.

“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,” the FSM website states.

"We are not some kind of mindless, nonsense troupe that many people think we are," Brother Spaghettus told Jetzt.

"We remain confident in the right to our claim and are prepared to achieve it through all legal means," Brother Spaghettus wrote in a statement.


An FSM sign advertising "noodle mass" in Templin underneath Catholic and Protestant notices about their own masses. Photo: DPA.

[David Jamieson]

It's the religion that is antithetical to religion.

I think it's good that humanity is moving away from rigid organized religious structures.

At the same time, there's a lot of gold in spiritual doctrine that is being completely ignored and more and more people are finding themselves in a kind of a soup of unfulfillment.

Self responsibility and accountability is pretty hard for most folks. It's nice to have someone to talk to, even if it's in your head, but you have that belief that you are talking to someone or something. Religion gives you all the tools and reasons for doing that. It's literally the method in many cases.

A generation of spiritually oblivious people is inevitable. Let's see what it brings!

[GeneChing]

I'm surprised this is the first. Here in the U.S., Universal Life Church will ordain anyone to be able to solemnize weddings. I've solemnized 4 weddings under their auspices. If the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would certify too, I'd make the shift. Not that I'm certifying weddings anymore, but you never know...

With this rigatoni, I thee wed: The 1st Pastafarian wedding
By NICK PERRY, Associated Press | on April 16, 2016


Bride Marianna Fenn and bridegroom Toby Ricketts stand on a jetty in Akaroa harbor, New Zealand, Saturday April 16, 2016. New Zealand hosted the world’s first Pastafarian wedding, conducted by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The group, which began in the U.S. as a protest against religion encroaching into public schools, has gained legitimacy in New Zealand, where authorities recently decided it can officiate weddings. less

AKAROA, New Zealand (AP) — The wedding rings were made of pasta, the ceremony was held on a pirate boat, and when it came time for the kiss, the bride and groom slurped up either end of a noodle until their lips met.

New Zealand on Saturday hosted the world's first Pastafarian wedding, conducted by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The group, which began in the U.S. as a protest against religion encroaching into public schools, has gained legitimacy in New Zealand, where authorities recently decided it can officiate weddings.

Saturday's ceremony was all about having fun. The guests came dressed as pirates and shouted plenty of hearty "Aaarrrhs." The groom, Toby Ricketts, vowed to always add salt before boiling his pasta, while bride Marianna Fenn donned a colander on her head.

The church claims that global warming is caused by pirates vanishing from the high seas, and that there is a beer volcano in heaven.

"The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world. We know that," said marriage celebrant Karen Martyn, aka the Ministeroni. "We weren't around then and we didn't see it, but no other religion was around to see it either, and our deity is as plausible as any other."

The church has been battling to gain legal recognition around the world, with mixed success. It was formed in 2005 as a way to poke fun at efforts in Kansas public schools to teach not only evolution, but also "intelligent design" — the idea that the universe must have had a creator.

Church founder Bobby Henderson said in an email that he thought it was odd that most weddings still have such an entanglement between religion and government.

"It's sad that so many people feel pressured to do the traditional Christian wedding even when they don't relate to much of the religion," he said. "If people can find some happiness in having Pastafarian weddings, that's great, and I hope no one gives them any flack about it."

Ricketts, 35, a voiceover artist, and Fenn, 33, a lawyer and photographer, said they've been a couple for four years but decided just three weeks ago to get married, after another Pastafarian couple's plans to be first to wed fell through.

Ricketts said he found out about the church because he's been making a documentary about why religions don't pay taxes.

Fenn said she grew up on a small New Zealand island where people had alternative ideas about how to lead their lives.

"I would never have agreed to a conventional marriage, but the idea of this was too good to pass up," Fenn said. "And it's a wonderful opportunity to celebrate my relationship with Toby, but in a way that I felt comfortable with."

The wedding feast was an all-pasta affair, while the wedding cake was topped with an image of his noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Martyn said she hoped people could find happiness in eating, drinking, being with friends and being kindhearted.

"That be what we're all about," she said.

[GeneChing]

Pastafarian pastor leads prayer at Alaska government meeting
September 18, 2019


Fritz Creek area resident Barrett Fletcher gives the invocation before a Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting as a representative of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at Homer City Hall in Homer, Alaska, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2019. A pastor wearing a spaghetti strainer on his head delivered the opening invocation at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting Tuesday. The invocation by the pastor of the Homer congregation of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the second non-traditional invocation before the assembly since a court ruling. (Megan Pacer/Homer News via AP)

HOMER, Alaska (AP) — A pastor wearing a colander on his head offered the opening prayer on behalf of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to open a local government meeting in Alaska, the latest blessing from a nontraditional church since a court ruling.

Barrett Fletcher, the Pastafarian pastor, noted the duties performed by the members of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly in his Tuesday message, adding a few of them “seem to feel they can’t do the work without being overseen by a higher authority, ” Kenai radio station KSRM reported Wednesday.

“So, I’m called to invoke the power of the true inebriated creator of the universe, the drunken tolerator (sic) of the all lesser and more recent gods, and maintainer of gravity here on earth. May the great Flying Spaghetti Monster rouse himself from his stupor and let his noodly appendages ground each assembly member in their seats,” Fletcher said.

The only people who stood for the invocation were those without seats in the standing-room-only assembly hall in Homer, which is about 125 miles (201 kilometers) south of Anchorage. One man turned his back to face the wall during the invocation, and other men did not remove their hats.

The Pastafarian invocation followed one in June from Satanic Temple member Iris Fontana that caused about a dozen people to leave the assembly chamber in Soldotna in protest when she invoked “Hail Satan” in her opening prayer.

Fontana was among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit litigated by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska against the borough after it approved a 2016 policy saying that people who wanted to give the invocations at the government body’s meetings had to belong to official organizations with an established presence on the Kenai Peninsula. Other plaintiffs who had been denied permission to give the invocations included an atheist and a Jewish woman.

The Alaska Supreme Court last October ruled that the borough policy was unconstitutional, and the borough government changed it in November to allow anyone to offer invocations regardless of religion.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster church, called FSM for short, was formed in 2005 as a response to the Kansas State Board of Education’s hearings on evolution in schools. Its founder sent a letter about FSM as a way to argue against teaching creationism in biology classes, the Homer News has reported.

Church followers believe an invisible and undetectable monster made of spaghetti and meatballs created the universe after drinking heavily, and that his “noodly appendages” hold great power. Many label the movement as satire, but it is recognized as an official religion in some countries, the News reported.

Barrett, who started his chapter in Homer, on the lower Kenai Peninsula, concluded his opening prayer as asking the Flying Spaghetti Monster to provide each assembly member “satisfaction in the perception of accomplishment and allow them true relaxation and an ample supply of their favorite beverage at the end of this evening’s work.”

He then ended the prayer with: “Ramen.”

Good to see that this is still relevant in AK.