Pastafarian

CabanSail

Pastafarians are (AFAIK) members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. From what I have heard I feel that if examined impartially then their supernatural claims are very similar to those made by most of the major religions.

I would doubt that there would be anyone who officialy admit that they do not believe any of their claims as that would undermine what is being done by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. On the other hand I would imagine that privately it is a comical parody of other churches.

Are there many pastafarians here?

Peregrinus

CabanSail wrote: »

Pastafarians are (AFAIK) members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. From what I have heard I feel that if examined impartially then their supernatural claims are very similar to those made by most of the major religions.

Since the supernatural claims made by the major religions are widely divergent, the supernatural claims of pastafarianism can't be similar to those of most major religions, can they? Beyond the trivial similarity that all supernatural beliefs are, well, supernatural, to the extent that pastararian precepts align with those of one "major religion", they must not align with those of other major religions whose beliefs are different.

CabanSail wrote: »

I would doubt that there would be anyone who officialy admit that they do not believe any of their claims as that would undermine what is being done by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. On the other hand I would imagine that privately it is a comical parody of other churches.

Are there many pastafarians here?

It's widely recognised as a comical parody of other churches, and the historical record (as inerrantly revealed in the Wikipedian scriptures - tremble before their ineffable power!) shows that it was created specifically for the purpose of opposing creationism and "intelligent design".

CabanSail

Peregrinus wrote: »

it was created specifically for the purpose of opposing creationism and "intelligent design".

Has it not evolved since then?

Peregrinus

CabanSail wrote: »

Has it not evolved since then?

This invites two responses.

1. It can't have; that would be a contradiction in terms. Pastafarianism denies the possibility of evolution. It holds that all evidence for evolution was planted by the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a test of believers' faith. A "pastafarianism" which had evolved would not in fact be pastafarianism. It might, of course, be a parody of pastafarianism.

(See what I did there?)

2. More seriously, I haven't seen any evidence that it has evolved beyond its original purpose of parodying/critiquing existing religion or the societal acceptance/accommodation of religion. That still seems to me to be the purpose for which it is normally invoked even today.

54and56

I'm a proud pastafarian.

CabanSail

I have just seen images of people doing things with colanders on their heads and that they are now allowed to officiate at weddings.

I do wonder if gluten free pasta would be allowed?

Peregrinus

CabanSail wrote: »

I have just seen images of people doing things with colanders on their heads and that they are now allowed to officiate at weddings.

Yes, but I think the people doing these things do not do so because it they believe it to be important to, e.g., wear a colander or celebrate weddings, but because they want to draw attention to/parody legal/administrative/official accommodations affording to the, um, more conventional religions. I don't observe that they wear colanders or celebrate weddings or whatever other than for the purposes of official interactions with the state, which would be a significant point of difference between them and the religions that they are parodying.

CabanSail wrote: »

I do wonder if gluten free pasta would be allowed?

I don't know. Perhaps this will be the subject of the first Great Pastafarian Schism.

Peregrinus

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

I'm a proud pastafarian.

Are there any ashamed pastafarians?

Samaris

Peregrinus wrote: »

Are there any ashamed pastafarians?

Yeah, the gluten-free ones

Absolam

Splitters.

Absoluvely

CabanSail wrote: »

I would doubt that there would be anyone who officialy admit that they do not believe any of their claims as that would undermine what is being done by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. On the other hand I would imagine that privately it is a comical parody of other churches.

On the contrary, the only dogma of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is that there is no dogma. The self-contradictory upshot of this self-contradiction is that believers are free to disregard any tenets - while remaining devout.

There's no reason for members of the Church to conceal the fact that it was founded entirely for political and satirical purposes. The deliberate and artificial nature of its conceptualisation does nothing to disprove that it is in fact true.

Peregrinus

There's no contradiction here that needs to be justified or resolved, as far as I can see. You can doubt or deny the truth of any or all of the tenets of pastafarianism, and at the same time hold the view that pastafarianism was conceived of as, and still functions as, a social/political satire of religion. I'm not seeing any inconsistency at all there.

CabanSail

A devout Pastafarian can also be an atheist, or is that a technical contradiction?

What I mean is if you profess a belief in a fictitious god, as happens a lot with other religions, then you would not be an atheist.

Absolam

Pretty sure being a member of The Church of FSM doesn't require one to profess a belief in a fictitious, or real, god. Literal belief anyways, though I'm not sure how that's different from belief, and believing that literal belief isn't required itself presents some conundrums. The FSM appears to cogitate in mysterious ways. Though possibly not literally.

Peregrinus

While pastafarianism holds that the observable universe was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster, so far as I know it does not hold that the FSM is "god" or "a god". (Pastafarianism started out, remember, as a parody of Intelligent Design, in which the Designer could be, but does not have to be, God as postulated by Christianity.) Thus you can simultaneously accept the pastafarian tenets regarding the FSM and describe yourself as an atheist, and there's no necessary contradiction there.

Of course, you can also be a theist pastafarian, if you believe that the FSM is a god, or if you believe that there is another god or gods apart from the FSM. These beliefs are not among the tenets of pastafarianism, but equally pastafarianism does not preclude these beliefs.

Doctor DooM

Peregrinus wrote: »

Of course, you can also be a theist pastafarian, if you believe that the FSM is a god

I believe this is referred to as "being touched by his noodley appendage".

Peregrinus

Doctor DooM wrote: »

I believe this is referred to as "being touched by his noodley appendage".

And there was I thinking that was a euphemism for something else entirely.

recedite

CabanSail wrote: »

Are there many pastafarians here?

Oh arr, there be a good few alright.

Fred Swanson

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