The Michigan Tech University Pastafarian club has been the victim of harassment even before their first meeting. The MTU Lode reports:
Two individuals are currently undergoing disciplinary procedures through the Dean of Students Office after an investigation by MTU Public Safety determined that they posted a threatening message on the door of the President and Vice President of a recently-formed student organization called the Pastafarian Club.
Some background on the MTU Pastafarian club’s leaders:
According to the president of the Pastafarianism Club, Matt Halberstad–who identifies as agnostic–the group is a parody “religion.” But the group’s purpose isn’t to attack religion, and one would be hard-pressed to find a member of the group who truly believes in their parody deity–the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The vice president of the Pastafarian Club, Steven Wheeler–who is atheist–believes that Henderson’s argument boils down to the main belief of the Michigan Tech chapter of the Pastafarians: creationism, whether or not one believes in it, is not a science, and should not be taught in a science classroom.
I agree with that, but there are people – maybe not in this particular club – who do truly believe in the FSM. Also, I want to make the point that there are plenty of Christians who are members of the Christian religion without truly believing in the deity God/Jesus.
The harassment was hateful, not unlike some of the messages I receive. In part, the message said:
they [Pastafarians] should be shot and hanged from the tallest redwood and then thrown to the raging sea.
The individuals who left the hate messages were caught and are now facing a hearing:
The Bias-Related Harassment and Violence section of MTU’s Code of Community Conduct covers threats due to one’s “race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious or cultural identity, sexual orientation, gender-identity or gender.” The penalties for violating the Bias-Related Harassment and Violence section range from disciplinary probation to expulsion.
The outcome of this will be very interesting. Even if the death threats were not meant to be taken seriously, they were still hateful messages directed at members of a religious group on campus. What if the harassment had been instead directed at an Islam club? I strongly suspect the kids would be expelled.
I wonder if the school admins are willing to make the statement that Pastafarians deserve less protection against religious harassment than other mainstream religions.
That said, I don’t think these kids should be expelled. But it would upset me if a Pastafarian organization received less protection than another religious organization (or any other organization).
I guess we’ll see what happens.
Read more about it here.
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This… truly goes to show that no matter how Young a religion might be (Faux or otherwise) there are always going to be the bigger and more agressive religions to try to make it seem heathen or something like that.
Truth be told, I don’t actually believe the FSM exists, HOWEVER I do believe that it is a clever and well thought out satire on how actual religions behave these days, and doesn’t order its members to commit acts of violence or hatred against another religion for being who they are. Thats why I concider myself Half Atheist, Half Pastafarian.
Besides… who can resist the call of HEAVENLY beer volcanoes :D
Ra’men
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Hey Alex (UK), how do you like not having any guns? How about that knife ban? And the porn ban? And what about Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles? Is it the same as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? What does the Labour Party have against ninjas? How do you like being watched by cameras 24/7? Do chavs really beat up old ladies? If so, how often? I heard parliament was planning on imposing drinking restrictions? Is that really true?
I’m rather curious. All that I know about the UK is from the internet.
I kind of like having knives, porn, guns and alcohol, even though I don’t drink. I don’t know what your government has against them. It’s not like alcohol forces you to drink it. In free countries, people are responsible for their own actions and lives. I don’t need or want my government to protect me from myself.
Good luck to you brother. Ramen.
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Omg all I can say is laugh. out. loud. And seriously, why all the hate non-believers?
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thank you guys for being a beacon of sanity in an insane world. i can’t believe in this day and age that so many people are still caught up in superstition, religion and magical thinking. as long as such backwardness prevails we will never be anything more than cavemen with some cool techie toys. and we will never get beyond hatred and war. keep up the good work!
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Let’s face it, this is not a religion but a parody so if some of you really believe fine. But those of you that don’t then how can you make a demand for protection of a religion. Some people have been pegged to die for their choice of religion like those being persecuted in China. They are being viscerated for their belief and their organs are being sold to the black market for a horrendous profit. That truly is unfair. So poking fun with the pasta religion may seem fun but remember we are in times when people are dying for their religion.
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Our lives our but a web we weave until all the innocent jokes turns into an all out war. And we are in constant conflict over things that are said as a joke. we all will see where the party and play get us maybe you will end up in a pasta spagetthi bowl or in a giant gas chamber when you die or in a fury of hellion hellraisers that pound down margaritas and drink spiked kool aid with cynide. Who knows. Maybe at the moment of death our last thought will be our thouhgts for all eternity. But the hate of another is the only fuel will have for the moment. Until mormons and muslims can pray together along the jew and pastafarains we have a long way to go for world peace.
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Pastafarianism is as much a religion as any other. Unless someone has some secret empirical evidence they’re not sharing, I think you’d have a hard time proving the FSM is any less real than Christ, Allah, Mohammed, Ganesh, Zeus or Thor.
The tired old claim by the big players that any new belief is wrong-headed, made-up, comical, insincere or even satanically inspired, have been used since time immemorial to squash ‘upstart’ sects and preserve their own hegemony. From Gnosticism, Baha’i, and Kaballah to the Universal Life Church, the immediate response to any new church or religion is “It’s not true, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not!”
Encarta defines a religion as:
1. people’s beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life.
2. an institutionalized or personal system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine.
3. a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by.
4. an object, practice, cause, or activity that somebody is completely devoted to or obsessed by.
Pastafarianism would appear to qualify on all counts.
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If this was “The Force”, those hateful anti-Pasatfarians would already be disintegrated.
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Pastafarianism is just as valid a religion as Christianity. That is, neither can prove anything they say is true. They just have “faith.” This “faith” is the force that causes people to know things are true without any actual evidence. This is a core element in all religion. Some might call it madness, but that depends on your definition of madness. Wikipedia describes psychosis as this:
“Psychosis is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a “loss of contact with reality.” People suffering from it are said to be psychotic.”
And it goes on to say…
“However, most people have unusual and reality-distorting experiences at some point in their lives, without being impaired or even distressed by these experiences. For example, many people have experienced visions of some kind, and some have even found inspiration or religious revelation in them. As a result, it has been argued that psychosis is not fundamentally separate from normal consciousness, but rather, is on a continuum with normal consciousness. In this view, people who are clinically found to be psychotic may simply be having particularly intense or distressing experiences (see schizotypy).”
And on psychotic delusions it says…
“One important and puzzling feature of psychosis is usually an accompanying lack of insight into the unusual, strange, or bizarre nature of the person’s experience or behaviour. Even in the case of an acute psychosis, people may be completely unaware that their vivid hallucinations and impossible delusions are in any way unrealistic. This is not an absolute, however; insight can vary between individuals and throughout the duration of the psychotic episode.”
According to Wikipedia’s definition of psychosis, all people who have this “faith” are suffering from a form of psychosis. Pastafarians are no more mad than Christians, and therefore should be treated equally in the eyes of law. Of course, this only applies in a government where law is expected to give all people equal treatment (“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal…”) However, if the government is not expected to do this in the case of religion (as in, it has an established religion or religions) then there is no reason why they shouldn’t treat Christians or Muslims differently than Pastafarians.
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Lis,
I hope you are not serious. We are take ourselves to seriously at times.
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well lis martin i think techniclay we are a religion i guess. either way we all do need to get along… im going to be really pissed when the koolaid people were right though. well I guess not much actually matters seeing as we are simply slaves to the matrix… oh well
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Lis martin you miss the point. We will die for his noddlelyness. WE demand protection for all religion ours included! Long live FSM
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“they [Pastafarians] should be shot and hanged from the tallest redwood and then thrown to the raging sea.”
anyone else think that after being shot, the acts of being hung, and then thrown into the ocean are just a bit redundant?
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hi this is a intense religion and i hope that HE and HIS holy apendages may strike all you protesters down
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Stupid shallow people. I guess they fear the truth about who (or what) the higher power really is. We must fight ignorance and fundamentalism by continuing to spread the word of his noodly goodness. This harassment will not be tolerated!
Call it my humanitarian nature, but I actually pity the poor lost souls… after all, they are the ones who will suffer when the end has come and us believers alone are taken up into the great noodly world of all that is pasta.
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they [Pastafarians] should be groundround then sauteed in extra virgin olive oil then topped on durum wheat noodles. Take them to Batalli. No Alfredo please. THAT would be heresy, his Noodlyness forbid. Fine chianti and Fava Beans optional.
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And besides, FSM is a FUN religion. Unlike the OTHER religion. Heaven is where pasta happens. Whatever happened to the teriyak jihadists? And radioactive jesus?
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To ignore us as spiritual beings with one common energy that binds us goes way beyong apathy to ignorant. Religion is a manifestation of that spirit in common terms. Christ did not say “go to church and read the Bible”, he said “Love one another”. Therefore, I think a parody religion missed the point by about a light year.
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but, hey, good luck to your little club. I’ve better things to do that sit around poking fun at the most tolerant people on the planet.
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having just converted from jediism to pastafarian i must express my gratitude to his holiness the FSM for helping me see the light., but alas, my scattered mind (14hr bar shift) can say nothing more than this as a statement from the newly anointed, untill religion is no longer a weapon for the greedy, power hungry “all controling” religons (i cant even spell atm lol) to wield on the weak willed, gullible, pro-conformist, status quo endorsing friggin mind numbed and just plain dumb people that exist in every corner of this dirtball and follow every word some megalomanic tells them, based on inacurate information, ledgendes and farytailes from thousand year old peices of scrap written at least 200 yrs after the events even happened. this FSM blessed dirtball the human race exist on will be wiped from existence by the very people these so calles “deietys” protect. and when that happens, then lets see the bloddy mormons and jehovas whitnesses wake me at 8am on sunday after a MASSIVE bender. (BTW forgive the expleatives, im australian.) mmmm now i need some pirate threads. ramen
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Has anybody else noticed that if you slow down ‘Give Peace a Chance’ by Mr Lennon to 11bpm is sounds exactly like ‘The Answer is in His Noodly Appendage’?
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@ fat
NO we do not strike people down fat, we accept them and try to convert them, if they still hate us we hope they taste stale beer for all eternity.
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Man… Up till now I’ve been a strict atheist, but you have got a new convert. May HIS noodly appendage crush all who oppose him! Keep up the good work, and best of luck to the harrased.
Will
P.S. to lostinthewoods65–Yeah that stuck to me too.
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have you ever considered that perhaps other religions such as christianity and islam are not exaclty a ‘religion’ if you must coin the term. what can make you say that christianity is in fact a religion and that FSM is not a religion? just because christianity was founded and publicised before fsm doesn’t mean its a legitimate religion. There are people who believe in the flying spagehetti monster- let them be. If this happened to another religion such as Hinduism or Islam, there might not be such a response. May his noodle apendages bless you.
RAmen
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This just shows how small minded people can be when it comes to religion. Meself i have been searching for the FSM for 3 hours since i came across ye site. I believe there be no difference between the FSM club or ye olde Christian clubs on campus. We all have rights and ye olde FSM does not condone violence in anyform. It is time for people to wake up. In FSM we trust. ARRRRRR!!!!!!
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How DARE they?! What if we started mocking Christianity, Judaism, or Muslims? Our great deity would smite the non-believers, but he is a friendly, peaceful deity… But if they continue to anger him, who knows what may happen?
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Can you really take a grammatically incorrect threat seriously? I mean, if they couldn’t take the time to capitalize the first letter or proof read should we really expect them to follow through with a promise of doom that is infintely more complex than the task of typing a sentence?
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For us to wish harm upon the non-believers is just as low as them wishing upon us. Us being Pastafarians means we understand the views of others and appreciate thier opinions on what they think happened oh so long ago. We need not turn away from our wholesome ways to spite those who have taken this religion in vane. Rise up, be better than this aggresive manner, put that energy to good use; spread the word of The Flying Spaghetti Monster and bring those questioning thier faith to the side of openness.
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I must say, that people would try and incite the wrath of his great noodlyness is rather disgusting. I knew a man who made his greatness the FSM angry once he know has a panic attack everytime he sees a plate of spaghetti.
still maybe these cretins deserve the wrath of our lord.
Long LIVE THE PIRATEs
blessed be the pasta
The Evilbelgian
Humble servant of his noodlyness the FSM
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What’s really amusing is seeing that some are too cowardly to face the fact that religion and faith are crutches for the pathologically weak…and so they substitute the CotFSM for traditional and mainstream religion.
I guess such people desperately need to believe in *something*. That’s much easier than growing up and taking responsibility for their own lives.
There are no gods, there is no heaven and hell, or good and evil. When you die, your body will decompose into organic sludge. You won’t meet up with dead relatives, friends or pets. You will be gone, forever. Face up to and accept these facts and so live a better life for it.
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This is brutal; if you were to replace the word “they” where it means pastafarians in this:
“they [Pastafarians] should be shot and hanged from the tallest redwood and then thrown to the raging sea.”
with the word “Catholics” or “Muslims” there would be an outrage, but not a peep is made when it’s pastafarians!
I long for the day when people stop saying “God Bless America” as a representation of a country not entirely represented by God.
Allah Bless America!
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Ok, this ‘religion’ is sad, you guys are so, erm, stupid?
Get over yourselves, it’s not a joke anymore.
Jeez.
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I think the students who left the message should be expelled for 2 reasons.
1. to learn that there are serious consequences when you choose to do very bad & stupid things.
2. regardless of the seriousness of the religious beleif of the pastafarians, the seriousness of the hate was real, the attempt to scare and upset and threaten was real, the people being targetted by the note was real
and given the increase of shootings at school and overall lack of tolerance – it is important that hate be expressed openly and dealt with just as openly.
You may not behave in a manner that threatens others.
To allow them to harrass and threaten the pastafarians today is allowing them to gay bash someone tomorrow.
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In the grandest tradition of chaotic religions!
Hail Eris!
Long live Discordia!
Kallisti and the Golden Apple! (Although, cherries are much more fun to pick.)
Long live the Flying Spaghetti Monster!
…
In all seriousness … the only spiritual crime is being serious!
…
Separation of religion and state … yea, lets see it really happen.
It’d be great if separation of religion and education were also a reality.
These types of bigots should be expelled and sent to jail, especially in an age where hate crimes on campus’s are literally resulting in murders.
….
Fnord.
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Dear Sinshol
I am a newly devout pastafarian and I find your slanderous comment deeply offensive! Do you think other religions such as Christianity and Islam are sad? They are based on as much factual information as the FSM is. How dare you refer to His Noodliness as being a joke! I shall pray to Him on your behalf (He loves you afterall even if you cannot accept it) and I will also eat an extra portion of noodles this evening which should hopefully smooth over any damage your comments may have caused.
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Shinshol.. and others posting comments like this just does not get the point. It is not a joke. Is your religion a joke? Why is FSM any less important than any other religion? Teaching of unproven ideas in school should not be done, period and the whole point of the FSM in the first place is to point out that it could be just as “real” as any religion. perhaps they are the ones who should just “get over themselves.”
I continue to proudly display my FSM car emblem for all the world to see.
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What makes it any less a religion than something you believe in?
Prove to me FSM doesn’t exist, without saying something slanderous and pointless.
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You are right Sinshol, it isn’t a joke anymore. our fake religion lasted close to a decade as a joke. I wonder how long your fake religion lasted as a joke. Maybe you should just lighten up and not post something so ignorant and closed minded in a chat room meant for pastafarians… well maybe one day it will happen… Obama willing
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All Hail, Your Flying Highness !!!!
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Lol for the first couple comments arguing about “fake” relgions I have something for that Sinshol guy…
Prove the FSM doesn’t exist using a method that won’t disprove your own god.
I dare you.
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Why not “Delicious spaghetti sauce cover America” instead of “God/Allah/Whateverfavouritesuperstition bless America”?
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Quote:
” Sinshol
Jun 4th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Ok, this ‘religion’ is sad, you guys are so, erm, stupid?
Get over yourselves, it’s not a joke anymore.
Jeez.”
Technically, no. This is not a joke. It is a parody in response to the discrimination recieved by scientists, and the ridiculous “science by popular vote” mentality that Kansas and other areas of this country are faced with.
So while the religion itself is ridiculous, the premise is not. In this country, it is worse to be Athiest than to be gay, muslim, black, female, latino, jewish, or any other minority group. The backlash it recieves is actually a pretty good indicator of how hateful religious groups can be.
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long live the FSM!
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Sinshol and others are to, erm, stupid to understand what the word parody means
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So what ended up happening?
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To Sinshol and other hate mailers:
I hope you know your heinous remarks against my religion are actually incentive for people to join this religion. Several of my friends looked at the website and soon after became pastafarians because they saw the funny closed-minded hate mail and realized noodlynes needs as much support as he can get, for he is truly the path to enlightenment.
RAmen
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well said, finally a good report on this stuff
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