Symbolically touching His Noodly Appendage vs. symbolically drinking the blood of a guy who walked on water. Tough choice, that.
“Flying Spaghetti Monster” Religious Group Turning Heads at MSU
A group at Missouri State University is raising eyebrows with it’s not-so-mainstream take on religion.
The national “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” has a local chapter at MSU, and it’s sending a strong message to students on campus.
It’s the second-largest religious group on Missouri State’s campus, with more than 200 members, including MSU staff.
It’s a student organization Jeffrey Markus wanted to be a part of as an MSU student.
“For the people that are not heavily into a religion it feels like a real welcome movement because here on campus there’s a lot of people who are very confused on what they believe and on what they want to do.”
Check out the interesting articles on the FSM website, including where the Pastafarians take on the tough issues like global warming:
Bravo!
I think that MSU students are especially skeptical because of Missouri’s well known reputation as the “show me” state. While other religions offer no tangible evidence of their deity, spaghetti has enough true substance to satisfy an MSU student’s demanding mind (as well as their hearty appetite).
Personally, I’m still struggling with the realization that Missouri State University actually exists.
I’m glad to see the FSM church finally getting the attention it deserves. We do a lot of praying too which makes you think you are doing something worthwhile when you really aren’t.
It certainly can’t be any more made up then any other religion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBC5L6cyq2Y
Jägermeister
That’s one of the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen. Haggard’s obviously a very ill guy….
#6 – Rob R
It’s a parody of the Haggard interview in Root of All Evil… which in itself was shocking. 😉
I, for one, welcome our new peg-legged, parrot-bearing overlords-in-training. Arrrgh!
Did you see the large FSM cake one devout worshiper made?
http://tinyurl.com/259pe7
The pirate graph was a real hoot, if somewhat inaccurate – too bad Schlumberger didn’t include pirate data:
http://tinyurl.com/hlj8X
#10: What do you mean? Are you implying that FSM is not real? How dare you, sir! Impugning one of the great religions of the world! I ask you: Have you no shame? Next thing you’ll be trying to tell me that people actually believe in Christianity with all it’s goofy beliefs. That people will be preaching it and defending it as if it were real. Ha ha! Good one!
I hear if you give FSM 10% of your money for the rest of your life that it will take care of you after you die and provide you riches and shit.
This was what I was afraid of with FSM. It’s truly hilarious and makes an excellent statement. However, it runs the risk of simply becoming a real religion. In which case, it completely loses its intended purpose.
“For the people that are not heavily into a religion it feels like a real welcome movement because here on campus there’s a lot of people who are very confused on what they believe and on what they want to do.”
This does not sound like a bunch of non-theists pointing out how silly theism is or pointing out that no theology should be taught in public schools. This is the beginnings of a real religion. Yikes!!
So when will we see FSM ads on the site (maybe next to the horoscope ads?).
15. Bob Dobson is going to be pissed! (http://www.subgenius.com/)
#13, Scott, This is the beginnings of a real religion. Yikes!!
Indeed. I had to curse the semiconductors and focusing mirror alignment last night — I can’t blame it all on FSM’s Invisible (and probably dark matter and energy) Holiness.
[Or, I could just chalk it all up to a wayward controller circuit board and some servos that needed the delicate touch of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch….]
Religion is used to fill in the fear factor and uncertainties of life. By that definition science can be considered religion too because it is based on authorities and experts telling believers what to think about the things that we do not know personally. Science is faith-based just like any other religion.
The spaghetti monster is based on spoof, not on any one actually “seeing” it. It is based on a complete and utter lie. The belief in God, however, is not a complete and utter lie because someone has sensed God. There have been people who have sensed a higher being talking to them. This is true for that person. The trouble is that it is difficult to repeat that experience with others, while others have had that same experience on their own.
Science is great because others can know electrons by studying the requirements of understanding it and then by experimenting and getting the same knowing of electrons as science popes have. The same cannot be said for the Bible. People can study the Bible but there have been no proven cases of any man or woman seeing God like Moses did. That is the proof in the Bible being a false word. Because if the words in the Bible were true, those words would provide the knowledge of getting to God.
#17: A couple of wrong assumptions:
a) “Science is faith-based just like any other religion.”
Wrong. Science is based on observation of and repeatable experimentation on real things which anyone can duplicate. Same cannot be said of religion which is based on inference, speculation and stories which, by their nature, cannot be verified.
b) “The belief in God, however, is not a complete and utter lie because someone has sensed God. ”
Wrong. They have ‘sensed’ what they have interpreted as and decided was caused by God. Big difference. Worse yet, it’s what someone else has told them they should interpret as God. You aren’t born with a ‘knowledge’ of God. Someone has to teach you it.
Saying “God did it” is easier than figuring out if they’re schizophrenic and their body chemistry is causing them to hallucinate. Or it was before we learned about such things so invisible spirits talking to them was a reasonable alternative. Old theories get replaced by new ones as we begin to understand how things really work. Unfortunately, this is happening very slowly, hence we still have religion hanging around.
c) Allegories and embellishments combined with wishful thinking comprise much of the Bible. A belief in one or more gods was born out of attempts to understand the world in pre-scientific times. No harm in that. It, in fact, was pretty clever.
It quickly became clear that those ideas could be a powerful tool to control an illiterate population. All the more reason to embellish and enhance. Hence, the turning of simple ideas into Religion with a capital R. Most don’t know or conveniently forget that Christianity was one of many anti-Roman political ‘parties’ vying for power. That’s what the Romans were afraid of and why they killed the ‘king of the Jews.’ It was politics, not mystical powers which were written about decades to hundreds of years later when story after story was handed down verbally. And we all know how verbally passed stories end up getting altered and embellished, especially if such enhancements add to the reason for the stories.
Unfortunately, today, there are too many people who are simply illiterate when it comes to science and are easy prey to religions which are hanging on to the wealth and power and self-delusion these old establishments have become.
#16 – BubbaRay,
Remember, this is very important, three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three.
(Of course, five is right out.)
A strange “coincidence” I’ve noticed is how my right honourable colleague M. Mustard, defender of the (non)mysterious “religious experience” is never around when exposés of religious absurdities are the topic.
‘Tis a puzzlement…
That graph is a load of crap!
There are more pirates now than ever were back in the 1820s!
In fact by Sony we are ALL pirates! We copied CDs!
Cursor_
#20
Oh Lord,bless this thine holy hand grenade, that with it, we mayest blow thine enemies into tiny bits… in thy mercy.
I worship the Invisible Pink Unicorn
DEATH TO THE SPAGHETTI WORSHIPING INFIDELS!!!!!!!
The Flying Sapghetti Monster is #3 religion after secular Humanism and Christianity. (See Torcaso vs. Watkins)
FSM sounds like a crutch for some atheists, who aren’t quite sure that they can handle believing in nothing. I always thought that they should worship those fuzzy dice they make for car mirrors. Because they appear to believe that everything is purely a matter of chance. Therefore, random chance is their God. So no matter what you do, you end up believing in something, that you can’t defend to others. It’s inescapable human nature. Even devotely atheist scientists often talk about “believing” in some aspect of their research, that they can’t prove or disprove. Usually that’s something to do with Cosmology or Evolution.
M Scott and #26, bs:
That’s no ordinary scope. Darned thing made me soil my armor I was so scared!
Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.”
After consulting the Book of Armaments, Chapter 2 Verses 9-21, I found a glorious picture of His Holy Instrument which may be seen here:
http://tinyurl.com/39ut9h
FSM be praised!!
#29 – Glenn E,
I don’t know anyone who actually believes in FSM, so can’t talk about it as a crutch. All of the atheists I know are perfectly happy not believing in anything, including random chance.
I think you likely suffer from a major and common delusion about evolution and natural selection. Evolution, or more accurately biological evolution since stellar evolution is totally different and very predictable, is simply the idea that all life today descended from earlier life forms with modification. This is incredibly well documented in the fossil record. Numerous predictions of fossil finds based on morphology of species have come true as the fossil record has filled in. This is as near fact as anything gets.
Natural selection is the idea that genes mutate relatively randomly, though not truly randomly. Some segments mutate more often. External conditions can increase the rate, e.g. radiation. And, mutations tend to occur with limitations on just what they can produce. Wings jutting out of a human back would be far less likely than an extra digit, for example. So, the mutation is relatively random. However, the forces of natural selection are the very antithesis of random. They shape the raw material of mutations to meet the current needs of survival through the simple act of killing off what doesn’t work. However, this little nudge is an incredibly powerful force, especially when given time frames and numbers that are nearly incomprehensible to the human mind.
As for the big bang, yes, there is randomness and unpredictability at the quantum level. And, at the instant of the big bang, everything was at the quantum level. That said, if you don’t like quantum mechanical randomness, I’d strongly suggest turning off your computer. It doesn’t work anyway since it relies on that quantum randomness. The semiconductors that are necessary for the computer on which you are reading this rely on that quantum randomness.
#23. A strange “coincidence” I’ve noticed is how my right honourable colleague M. Mustard, defender of the (non)mysterious “religious experience” is never around when exposés of religious absurdities are the topic.
I certainly can’t speak for M. Mustard, but as a sometimes defender of the “religious experience” I’d say that the Church of the Spaghetti Monster is quality satire. The Church of the Subgenius, which have a similar history but started at the University of Texas in the 1970s (if my memory serves me right) have done the same thing only funnier and more involved.
Many people who have had a religious experience have spent at least some portion of their life being non-religious (I certainly did) and understand why it is that people who haven’t had a religious experience can’t for the life of them understand why the religious are religious. The illogic and un-explainability of the religious experience is also apparent to many religious people. However, this doesn’t change our interpretation of the experience, which is why the religious tend to be so bloody stubborn about their faith, even in the face of all the logic and reasoning in the world. The religious experience is not a philosophy, or a doctrine, or a theology. Its an experience, the philosophy and theology is what arrives out people’s attempt to understand their experience. However, if you don’t have the experience, the theology will never make sense.
#30 – BubbaRay,
But, what would I do if a vorpal bunny ever came at me with a banana?
#33 Misanthropic Scott
Punt.
#33, Scott, I’d shoot the nasty bugger and spend some time in Castle Anthrax with that naughty, naughty Zoot.