Touched By His Noodly Appendage

During introduction to religious studies we have studied and scrutinized different religions and the traditions that follow them. In one of my prior post I commented on the reasoning behind taking this course. I wanted to examine religious beliefs in order to contemplate whether there really is or was such thing as a god. Some points that have slowly penetrated my mind have been

Religion as a backup- In which people use religion to explain the world through stories that are sometimes not rationally true.

When these stories begin to gain momentum among populations these religions and beliefs create stories that accommodate the followers in ways that are advantageous for them.

Some ways for scholars to study certain religions are by using the Historical- critical method or by analyzing the system of symbols. When using the historical critical method scholars may want to examine the historical context of the religious scriptures and try to apply it to the society of that time period. This application could reveal how the beliefs correlate from the origins of the religion to what has become of it.

The system of symbols is fairly simple to understand. It is researching certain key symbols that relate to a religion or belief and to elaborate on their meaning towards that particular faith.

My view on religion is now plagued with what I believe to be false faiths that are created to only help a certain group of people in society. This has led me to elaborate on a faith called Pastafarianism. 

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster otherwise known as pastafarianism was first introduced in 2005 by Bobby Henderson. Henderson is known to be the prophet of pastafarianism. This belief was introduced in a letter by Henderson that protested the decision of Kansas state board of education to allow the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to teaching evolution. Henderson argued in this letter that if the school board wanted to teach science as intelligent design then it should be taught as “one third time for intelligent design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism(Pastafarianism), and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence”. Since the beginning of this faith in 2005 it seems that slowly but surely new evidence arises that holds the belief to be true, per say. This belief was created to thwart the attempt of allowing creationism to be taught in schools and since its creations many people have become followers.

Pastafarianism seems to be a direct attack on creationism, which tries to show that the earth and everything that inhabits it has to have come from some sort of supernatural being. In most cases many people view creationism to have one overall deity or God, which happens to come from Christian teaching and belief. The fact that creationism only applies to the Christian God saying that everything that is has come from him has sparked controversy.  School boards have now been trying to teach this theory in science courses. Henderson Believes that this idea is biased and favors Christianity, therefore he created what he believes is the original religion, pastafarianism.

I believe Henderson and the Pastafarian movement want to show society that religions can sometimes be misconstrued in order to benefit some and not others. Henderson reaffirms this notion in his “comment on the open letter” where he writes “future goals for the church include becoming recognized as a legitimate religious organization with all the inherit benefits *and tax  loopholes* that mainstream religions enjoy”. He wants to show that certain religions claim beliefs only to benefit the few who started it.

http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/

Since the creation of the Pastafarian movement Henderson has come out with “The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster”, in which he explains in detail the creation of the earth and how the flying Spaghetti monster created everything. When reading through the Pastafarian official website they continuously remind readers and followers that this is a real religion although many protesters of the religion try to call it a satire on belief. The most important part about this religion is that there are no rigorous traditions to follow and that ever person who follows the faith has a say in what it should become. 

When trying to examine this faith in a historical- critical style it is almost impossible. I say this because it is believed that the flying spaghetti monster is God and this God has the ability to change whatever he feels necessary. The gospel reaffirms that the world is not billions of years old rather only thousands and that when scientist try to perform experiments that validate the old world the flying spaghetti monster is there tampering with the data. The belief has found ways or loop holes that keep historians and scientist from trying to denounce its religious backing. Here even the system of symbols becomes hard to employ. In the picture below-

We can see certain aspects of the Rastafarian religion due to the color in the background. These colors indicate that in many aspects both religions want to be freed from persecution and ultimately want to gain freedom. The difference is that Pastafarianism sees freedom as religious freedom. The fish itself is very important. The eye patch it is wearing resembles that of a pirate. Pirates are known to be the original pastafarians, hence they are depicted in most of the beliefs propaganda. Pastafarians believe that global warming is a direct effect of the dwindling number of pirates left on the earth.

The religion itself  allows its followers to create their own vision of what they should believe and how to follow it. Niko Alm pictured below is a devout follower and believed that the head garment he should wear to show his religion in his license was a spaghetti strainer to show his faith. It took three years for the Austrian government to pass the identification card. Alm’s argument was that the sieve was a requirement of his faith. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14135523

This topic in religion interested me because I feel as if it applies to the religions we have learned. This religion has been based on the same premises of prior religions but because it is so absurd many people feel as if it does not warrant the approval of being called a religion.  Maybe they should scrutinize their own religion before casting doubts on others.