Okay, so I know you’re probably not even going to read this, but I had to express myself.
First, a bit of my religious background. I was raised a Baptist, slowly came to realize that I didn’t believe a word the Bible says, and became Wiccan for two years. Then I had a “long dark night of the soul,” more commonly known as existential crisis, during the course of which I became agnostic. However, my closest friends are two devoted Catholics, an atheist, and another Wiccan. I do not make fun of or demean their beliefs, and they do not make fun of or demean me. None of us attempt to convert anyone, although we are willing to share information if asked for it. I am not sure what I think about the Kansas School Board issue, as it concerns the definition of science as well as faith, but I do know that even if I do not agree with some of my friends, I would never tell them they are being illogical.
Recently at my college, a spoken word artist performed. He was also agnostic, and one poem he wrote in particular spoke to me. He compared God to Diet Coke, saying that Diet Coke helps him get through the hard times in the same way that God helps others. So why take that away from people? The majority of Christians aren’t hurting anyone, are they? If their beliefs help them get through their lives without the despair I feel everyday due to my doubts, why ridicule them for it?
If you have actually read all this, thank you for your time. A reply, if you have time to write one, would be appreciated, but you do not have permission to repost my words anywhere.
Sincerely,
Z.E.
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An elaborate spoof on Intelligent Design, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is neither too elaborate nor too spoofy to succeed in nailing the fallacies of ID. It's even wackier than Jonathan Swift's suggestion that the Irish eat their children as a way to keep them from being a burden, and it may offend just as many people, but Henderson, described elsewhere as a 25-year-old "out-of-work physics major," puts satire to the same serious use that Swift did. Oh, yes, it is very funny. -- Scientific American
Worship whoever you want. FSMism is not against the “majority of Christians” but opposes fanatical christians who are trying to push their belief system on others through schools for example.
Watch “Jesus Camp” what those people do to their kids is horribly insane fanatical bullcrap!
We don’t knock any religion. We knock religion posing as science. And with that, I am never using the word “knock” again.
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Also, you sending the e-mail to this site, knowing full well our propensity to post and mock hate-mail, was just dumb if you didn’t want it posted.
“but I do know that even if I do not agree with some of my friends, I would never tell them they are being illogical”
Why would you not let them know they are being illogical? Not pointing out a friends illogocies (my word ©2007) is like not telling them they have a huge booger hanging out of their nose.
And it isn’t science that is being defined, the argument is about trying to fit creationism into science where it doesn’t belong. As was said before, that is the reason for ridicule; it’s a polite way of saying go away (versus the impolite way of shoving)
Ok, a poem mentioning Diet Coke is something I never heard before.
Guess that it would be worse if it spoke of magnesium-added-weat-a-bix.
True, some might feel ridiculed by the FSM, but think of it this way:
many think that people who don’t believe in their deity are immoral, “running away from the truth”, “being close minded”, “being defiant” and the like.
The FSM merely points out that there is no rational reason for someone to believe in one deity or another; the believing in the FSM makes as much sense as believing in their deity.
Now, if someone says “ok, I use my religion to help make my life better but I won’t even think about trying to impose it on you or to think less of you because you don’t want to follow it”, GREAT!
I have no beef with such a person.
it’s when folks start waging war in the name of diet coke or pepsi zero that it becomes problematic…when the miracle of carbonation crosses into science classrooms and tries to oust the scientifically deduced process of carbonation…when polite discussion is bottled up by cries of “can it!” from the opposition…
If some one REALLY has faith they would not be bothered by us believing whatever the hell we want to believe.
Some people get faith to fit into a crowd, to feel good about themselves, or to give themselves a purpose in life…those are the people who have a problem with us. And it’s those same people that are a problem for the religions they belong to. They don’t want to believe. They just want to belong to something…
I’m not knocking god. I’m knocking those impolite knuckleheads who purport to tell me what god wants and condemn me because I don’t believe like them.
If God is like Diet Coke, does that mean that when you add Mentos, God will explode?
@El Peatieablo: you’ve made a terrible mistake: diet Coke does not have high fructose corn syrup in it. :)
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And I’ve come to the conclusion that religion is ridiculous. It is a form of delusional insanity. To those of you who question your faith, at least you’re onto this idea. If you look around at all the different beliefs out there, or that you can invent in your head, how can you not wonder which one is correct? (read the wikipedia article about L Ron Hubbard for a good example of how easy it is to get people to believe something created by a pathological liar and apparent sociopath). To those who don’t question their beliefs…*I shiver in fear*
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My wife is a recovering Catholic, and she’s been exploring alternative spiritual paths as long as I’ve known her. Even though she’s my wife, and I love her, or perhaps because of this, I try my best to convince her of the insanity. She’s finally starting to catch on.
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So, if you have illogical friends, and they have some modicum of intellect, then it is almost your duty to gently bring them back from insanity.
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Oh, and I should point out that shitting your pants might help you get through the day too (if you come at it from the right angle), but you almost certainly have the option of pulling them down first.
Thank you for sending a thoughtful and well written letter. We mock only those that come here and bash FSMism, condemn us to hell, and everything else that can be considered unchristian (they are the ones who seem to send the emails). For the diet coke-god analogy I will give you this. I’ve worked at a concession stand at a baseball game and seen people come and order chicken, catfish (I live in Texas) and corndogs, all of which have been fried in cooking oil.These people then top it off with a diet drink of some kind, thinking that it will offset whatever bad the fried food they just bought and ate will do to them. I cannot understand how they did it so I asked them why, and I kid you not on the answer, they said they liked the taste. Diet drinks flaunt that they taste the same as the regular version, so I do not understand how they can make that argument.
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As for Bobby posting your email, it was to give us a chance to show that we can also debate and show our arguments to those that send us Concerned Criticism (which I think should have it’s own category for emails like this one). What we are against is those trying to get religion taught in school as science, while at the same time demeaning the current science standards.
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Again, thank you for sending a thoughtful email, we don’t seem to get enough of them.
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Mariner
@El Peatieablo: you’ve made a terrible mistake: diet Coke does not have high fructose corn syrup in it. :)
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And I’ve come to the conclusion that religion is ridiculous. It is a form of delusional insanity. To those of you who question your faith, at least you’re onto this idea. If you look around at all the different beliefs out there, or that you can invent in your head, how can you not wonder which one is correct? (read the wikipedia article about L Ron Hubbard for a good example of how easy it is to get people to believe something created by a pathological liar and apparent sociopath). To those who don’t question their beliefs…*I shiver in fear*
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My wife is a recovering Catholic, and she’s been exploring alternative spiritual paths as long as I’ve known her. Even though she’s my wife, and I love her, or perhaps because of this, I try my best to convince her of the insanity. She’s finally starting to catch on.
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So, if you have illogical friends, and they have some modicum of intellect, then it is almost your duty to gently bring them back from insanity.
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Oh, and I should point out that shitting your pants might help you get through the day too (if you come at it from the right angle), but you almost certainly have the option of pulling them down first.
This is my very first post.. so please forgive me if I violate any protocol. I just want to echo ihatemyspace above about religion posing as science. The point here with the big guy (the blessed FSM).. other than allowing a great creative outlet, is that if you put lipstick and pearls on a pig it is still a pig (although a faaabulous pig at that point no doubt). There is a great website called godchecker.com that has a list of 2,850 dieties that are worshiped or have been worshiped at one time or another. For one to say that MY diety is absolutely logical and infalible and quite scientific while the other 2,849 dieties and their ever so enthusiastic followers (not to mention those poor saps that worship my diety incorrectly) are just confused and mistaken is very odd to me. Okay then.. I think I will have a Diet Coke now.
What is important to me is the truth. I want people to understand they will never know the complete truth just by reading a book. That’s why I try to spread the word that religion is lie. Now for pastafarism, it’s just a joke, which I use to relax a bit because you have to admit the FSM is funny, but real religions are everything but a laughing matter in my book. The FSM is also a very good counter-argument to the God thing, even if it sounds arrogant to people who take religion as the basis of their lives.
“He compared God to Diet Coke, saying that Diet Coke helps him get through the hard times in the same way that God helps others. So why take that away from people?”
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>Why take the heroin away from the junkie Z.E.? If people need the idea of a god in that fashion it is just a crutch and is unhealthy emotionally, and probably intellectually. Smoking cigarettes all day help some people get through the hard times but in the end it gives you cancer. Maybe it’s time to quit.
Preston Dec 18th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
“There is a great website called godchecker.com that has a list of 2,850 dieties that are worshiped or have been worshiped at one time or another.
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Hi Preston
Godchecker is an excellent site except for one thing….the FSM is not listed….least not the last time I checked!
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“…MY diety is absolutely logical and infalible and quite scientific while the other 2,849 dieties and their ever so enthusiastic followers (not to mention those poor saps that worship my diety incorrectly) are just confused…….”
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Agreed…the FSM is infallible and absolutely logical, based on our graphical scientific evidence! ;p)
Couldn’t resist it :)
RAmen Preston& welcome
we don’t “knock god” we knock those who try to teach god in public schools where childrens minds are very impressionable.
Well, thank you for being kind about things. We really do understand where you’re coming from. But it seems that you don’t know where WE’RE coming from. FSM isn’t knocking anyone’s God, it’s knocking the fanatical religious people who try to impose their beliefs on others, and those who try to pose religion as science.
@Preston - Welcome!
@Z.E - I also would like to thank you for your well considered words. I think the general direction of the previous posts sums up the position of the Church of the FSM nicely. However, as a recovering Catholic myself I would like to take issue with something you have said.
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Your assertion that “The majority of Christians aren’t hurting anyone, are they?” is, in my experience, incorrect and dangerously naive. Now, as a self confessed “Recovering Catholic” I accept that my position may be a bit biased, but stay with me on this for a moment.
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The majority of Christians make up the body of an institution (or, if you prefer, a group of similarly motivated institutions) that is responsible for some of the greatest atrocities in our history. The “Church” has destroyed cultures, waged wars and tortured millions of people through out it’s history.
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The modern “Church” (and, again I am talking about an Institution supported by it’s individual members) continues to hurt people. Witness the Pope’s decree that Catholics in Africa are not allowed to use condoms even in the face of the grown AIDS epidemic (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4081276.stm).
Yet another example of faith replacing science with a negative outcome.
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There is not room here to fully discuss the intricacies of the differences in christian denominations etc nor to fully outline current and historical injuries inflicted by Christian institutions, and I am aware my argument suffers because of this. However. All I am wanting to achieve is to ask you to really consider the impact of institutionalized “faith” on individuals and society.
Sincerely
Drew Dight
Australia
(Please note, the above is a personal opinion, and is not intended to represent the position of any other Pastafarian)
Well, I believe in FSM, and I have never tried to convert anyone I know. My best friend is christian, and he asks me questions about it, and I tell him.
I appreciate the concern in your letter, but all that I am “knocking” is the fanatical christians who support teaching ID as science in our schools.