Religion in Spotlight : The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Image credit to the Church of Flying Spaghetti Monster

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster also called Pastafarianism (Pasta and Rastafarian word blend). This is a social movement which used a satirical approach in opposing the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools.
Pastafarians claim that the Church of FSM is a real and legitimate religion just like any other. The church started out as a parody of intelligent design in the form of satirical cricitism.  This religion is now officially recognized in New Zealand, Netherlands and Poland where Pastafarian representatives are authorized to conduct religious ceremonies like weddings. The very first Pastafarian wedding was held on April 2016. 

History 

During the Kansas Board if Education elections in 2004, majority of the board position was won by religious conservatives. The following year, the board called for a new  high school science standards. This was prompted by the Kansas Intelligent Design Network and Discovery Institute through the "Teach the Controversy Campaign."  The campaign called for revision of the science curriculum to include the "Intelligent Design" as an alternative to the "Theory of Evolution. " 

This move was of course challenged by the scientific community including Bobby Henderson who is the founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. In January 2005, he wrote a letter to the Board of Education to argue that if Creationism is going to be discussed in schools as science, then his belief that a giant and invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world is also valid. He further pointed out that the intelligent design movement used ambiguous references to a grand designer so anyone or anything can actually fill that role. The Flying Spaghetti Monster is often considered as another version of the Russell's teapot. The argument claims that the burden of proof lies with those who make unfalsifiable claim rather than those who reject them. 

Having received no response from the board, Bobby then posted his letter to his website on May 2005. The Kansas Evolution Hearing have started by then which caused the letter to gain public interest. Just shortly after that, the letter became an internet sensation. Bobby's website received millions of hits and he received positive responses from the scientific community. After a while, some members  of the board responded to the letter. The minority responded positively while the majority of the board was negative. One of the negative responses came from Mrs Kathy Martin who said, "It is a serious offense to mock God."

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

Now that you know that the church exists, we have to know now our deity, The FSM is a complex carbohydrate based entity consisting of willowy eye stalks, two large meatballs and multitude of noodly appendages. He is popular for his amazing feats like creation of everything in existence, personally maintaining the gravitational forces all throughout the universe, and changing the carbon data results so that things may be known older than they really are. His reasons are still unknown.  He is also known as a kind and benevolent creator as evidenced by the existence of  heaven with a beer volcano and a stripper factory. His fondness of midgets and piracy are also known among his people. The Flying Spaghetti Monster is also very confident of being a God that he is the only deity that offers a 30-day God back guarantee. It states that if he could not give you satisfaction within 30 days, your old god will gladly take you back. 

Claims, Practices and Holidays

Pastafarianism encourages independent thinking. There are no specific rules that are being implemented. The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is nothing more than a guideline than actual rules. It's still your own judgement to follow them or not. There's also no collection of any fees other than the printing of the ministry certificate. That is if you decide to be a minister which is very easy.  No training or seminars are being required to be a minister. You just have to sign up in their website and pay the amount of the certificate and the ID (optional). Once signed up, your name will be included in the official list of ministers. Once ordained, you can perform, baptisms, weddings, and etc. 

The church of FSM also claims that pirates and global warming are correlated. Back when there were more pirates, there were less global warming. Now that there are fewer pirates, the global warming have intensified. They teach that pirates are actually good people and the reason why they are considered as bad today is because of the missionaries who revised the history. They portrayed pirates as bad people. So that's what we have been told since we're young. 

Friday is the Sabbath of his Noodleyness. This is being celebrated by having a party. Beers and liquors should be present and of course, a great bowl of spaghetti with meatballs. Strippers are also recommended though not necessary. The Flying Spaghetti Monster commanded that everyone should have a blast on this day. If you're a pastafarian, then you should host a party or at least join one. 

Several religions have head gears for their church leaders like skull cap, biretta, papal tiara, turbans, kufis and etc. For the church of Flying Spaghetti Monster, their headgear is either a colander or a pirate hat. A full pirate regalia is recommended.  Several religions have the privilege to wear their respective religious headgers in their ID pictures and the pastafarians also have this privilege. Several people in various countries already had their ID pictures taken with their headgears on. You may try to ask your local government offices if it's already allowed in your country.

That's all I know as of the moment. If you have more questions about this religion, you may visit their website by clicking on the link I attached to the right side of this blog. Thank you for reading. May you be touched by His noodly appendage.