I like this — Arizona Rep. Juan Mendez offered the daily prayer at a floor session, and instead of God talk, he spoke about tolerance and the values we share as humans, and the duty of government to look past religious divisions:

Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.

This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love.

What a great sentiment, and surely the members of the House, even if religious, appreciated such a positive message.

Except for Rep. Steve Smith, who felt it necessary to re-do the prayer the next day in repentance. What a douche.

Some articles:

About Rep. Mendez’s secular daily prayer

About Rep. Smith, butt-hurt, re-doing the prayer

I look forward to the day when Pastafarian members of the House can speak openly about their one True faith.

My friend Gooeld spotted this egg with an uncanny likeness to the FSM. 

Because it is Easter, I want to share a link to a debate on “Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?” between Michael Horner and Dan Barker.   Horner is Christian scholar and Barker is a reformed Christian preacher and now an atheist activist.  It is an engaging debate and I suspect no matter your beliefs you’ll find reading this time well spent.

Here’s the link:  Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?

Nice work everybody – Kiva Team FSM just reached $1.5 Million in loans.

Kiva is a non-profit micro-lending organization whose mission is to end poverty. We believe making small interest-free loans to 3rd-world entrepreneurs can be a big help. Please consider joining us if you haven’t already. Check it out.

Note —

We are currently 2nd place in the Religious Congregations category, just behind Team Baha’is. We are still ahead of the Mormons.

Aaron Williams, an Egg Harbor NJ Pastafarian and Sauced Beyond Marinated, has paid tribute to the just Licencing Laws of New Jersey and honoured Lord Glob by wearing the Holy Colander for a renewal photo. Joining Niko Alm with the desire to etch his devotion to the One True Monster in perpetuity, Aaron insisted that the Colander did not breach the Licencing Law.

Despite Aaron Spreading the Truth, the Unenlightened, dedicated as they are to the Law of New Jersey, were compelled to refer this Holy Matter to the State.

Here are some excerpts of  Aaron’s Epistles of Enlightenment to the MVC from the original South Brunswick Patch report written by Davy James:

“What we deem as different or embarrassing is different from what another individual deems as different or embarrassing, in terms of religious practices,” Williams told Patch on Tuesday.

“Had it been a turban or a head scarf, or something from a mainstream religion, then it would’ve been fine,” he said. “I guess since they hadn’t heard of the religion, that’s why they opposed it. But that’s not really acceptable to me. They’re not in a position to discriminate against religions that are mainstream, or not mainstream, just because they may not have heard about it.”

“The people there were very polite, but I’d like to have better training for their employees, so I may be looking into some way to educate their employees on their own policies,” he said. “I feel like after I expressed my opinions and beliefs they were definitely more accepting. I was met with hostility at first and they were asking me what my problem was.

“I didn’t have a problem, they had the problem. After I expressed myself, they realized I wasn’t just some crazy person, but they still didn’t let me wear the strainer for my picture.”

Here is a link to Davy’s original article.

May His Noodlyness Touch the Unenlightened that they become strengthened by Protein, and that the Colander takes its true place not only among the world’s great head garments of faith but on the photo of every Pastafarian driver licence holder!

PBUY!

(Thanks to South Brunswick Patch and Davy James)

This FSM snow design was discovered on Wayne State’s campus today. And here on reddit.

I would love to see some more snow evangelism.

[banner made by Dustin M– click for fullsize]

Happy Holidays everyone! I want to share a collection of my favorite displays this season.

But first, check out what is to my knowledge the first ChrisFSMas song, composed by Rade – who, incidentally, makes his home in the same town (Hallein, Austria) as F.X. Gruber, who composed Silent Night.

Now that you’re in a Holiday mood, here are the displays:

Possibly my favorite this year, here’s Scott and Jeanette’s knitted tree-topper.

It would not feel like ChrisFSMas without a festive and historically accurate Nativity scene – this one, courtesy of Dmitry:

Here’s an ornament spotted on Dmitry’s Holiday tree:

Abbey found this Holiday stocking at her house:

And the FSM perched atop her tree:

He was spotted on a number of other trees as well:

He was also spotted in Holiday lights in a window:

and here He is in a yard:

Here’s Mark from New Zealand’s wreath:

And He was seen in a number of Holiday treats:

Happy Holidays everyone!

Here is the link for the original speech given by Tracy:

And the second speech:

Being of course the world’s largest and most prominent non-religion that has a deity who is truly edible and Full of Complex Carbohydrates, there has been much media coverage of the request for Holiday displays:

http://www.examiner.com/article/pastafarians-fight-county-commissioners-for-holiday-display

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Pasta-loving-church-tests-Pa-holiday-display-4073601.php

Unfortunately, the County Commissioners have not been Touched, and the request has been refused. However, the battle for reason continues. Tracy is pushing to get an appearance on the Daily Show with John Stewart, and you can show your support by emailing Guestpitch@thedailyshow.com

Here is an update pasted from Tracy’s facebook page, Evangelical Pastafarianism, on the refusal:

“UPDATE: West Chester, PA – Despite many phone calls and emails of support, as well as statements by Pastafarian supporters for Holiday Tree and from atheist supporters for the Tree of Knowledge, commissioners Farrell and Costello rejected t

UPDATE: Pastafarians can also enjoy the feeling of being evangelical by visiting the splinter church at www.evangelicalpasta.com

Please send me your Halloween Evangelism photos and I’ll post them here.  As always, pirate girls are encouraged to send in their photos. For academic reasons.  Or maybe some sort of equal opportunity thing, I don’t know.

Below are some photos from this year and some of my favorites from previous years. Keep them coming.

Pumpkin art is one of my favorite forms of evangelism.  Here are some great pieces:

More to come.  Send me your photos!

Too bad I live in Vancouver, I was hoping to be one of the first to feel the pull of the Holy Tentacles.

Even in name, a contradiction,

Christian

Strong evidence of the FSM’s presence for sure, but I think it’s hasty to refer to this as Rapture. Perhaps He is there for protection?  Have any Easterners felt the Touch of His Noodly Appendage?

The attached photo is of a small, hand-held, plush creature meant to represent the bacterium E. Coli. I obtained this little guy at a science fair in Corvallis Oregon. I believe the creature looks a lot like Him and I think that the fact that it was obtained at a science fair is no small coincidence…

Dr. Audrey

At The Citadel in Quebec City. His noodley appendages spread pasta goodness to the Québécois.

-Geoff