We need to do something about "parody"

[Arkaeon]

"If you know what you do, you are blessed. If you do not know what you do, you are accursed." -- Jesus on violating the sabbath for practical necessities, or not being deluded by dogma to the point of self-injury.

As a guest on this forum or among this religion, I would encourage the Pastafarian community to consider itself as more or other than a parody. A parody is a mockery for the sake of humor or commentary, an antithesis to make a point. Sure, the original Open Letter was a parody of ID, but CotFSM has gone beyond that now. If the parody was all it meant, there would only be one thread on this forum: ID vs Science. No one would wear a pirate hat or eat pasta on friday because of their CotFSM involvement. There would be no need for a Loose Canon, no 10 Suggestions, no pirate parties except to protest creationism, and so on.

Once people have made relations among themselves independent of the parody and start observing rituals and principles of the Pastafarian code "en situ," it has become a real religion. It serves all the purposes of any older religion. It is a non-exclusive religion, an intelligently designed religion, a religion that recognizes the limits of religion to determine the observable truth, a modern, agnostic religion if you will. A religion or spirituality does not have to be deluded by its own metaphors to have real religious benefit -- it is the failure of older religions to recognize this principle that makes them dangerous to humanity in the first place, their essential corruption and dishonesty.

Do you derive comfort, communion, enlightenment, entertainment, and/or education from your Pastafarian ways and interactions, well apart from the specific issue of the creationism vs science issue; and do you also realize that FSM is an intellectual construct and metaphor for the haphazard nature of human belief systems? Do you and numerous others sport/wear clothes, items, and symbols and artifacts of this religion in your daily life as part of your declared social identity? Congratulations, you are not deluded, you are taking part in a real religion! Both the clinical definition of delusion and the functional definition of religion support this conclusion. The basis of religion is not really some inner unsubstantiated belief, it is about practice and application of principles and values in your life. Pastafarianism is very much a real religion, thoroughly self-aware of its principles, by this argument, and it should be recognized as such by the internet and intellectual communities, and by governments of free nations.

It doesn't matter if the FSM is "true" or not, scientifically. No religion's mythos can be proven "true" by that standard. If it were, it would just be science. The right for a group to maintain a separate or additional legitimate value set and symbols and call it religion is protected by law in the better nations of modern times. CotFSM is a beneficent, self-aware, individually tolerant, scientifically supportive religion that holds high moral ground by this standard.

[lord potato]

Exactly what I'm talking about. Arkaeon you found the words that were in my head.

[Nefnora]

The problem, in my opinion, is that most visitors don't get any further than the noodles and pirate heads. It's great that the CotFSM evolved beyond a parody, but the original cause (get religion banned from science class) was lost somewhere halfway. Occasionally, a brief bout back is made, but it's drowned almost immediately.

[Tigger_the_Wing]

I think that the reason not much is being done about that is because the case was more-or-less won a while ago. There are only a few minor skirmishes at the moment. Although I expect that could change and then we'd all be charging in.

At the moment the focus is more in Australia where non-Christians, and Christians of different denominations, are trying to get the evangelical Christian chaplains out of the public schools or, at least, no longer being paid out of the public purse.

[disney.jessica]

I agree with Tigger. I don't take it completely seriously but it's fun to learn about the practices and holidays and everything.

[Sai]

If Pastafarianism is recognized as a religion, it would be one of the first religions to be founded on humor.

[Marc Pot]

I have to admit LP is right, When I first met the FSM religion I thought it was a parody, a joke to everyone who "pretends" to believe in it. The only reason my head wasn't set on "FSM is a joke and there is nothing interesting about it" was because it grew so big.

How is it possible for a parody based on nothing but rubbish to grow so big, of course it could be because so many people think religion is stupid. But it would've happened before if that's the only reason, so I looked further than the news and sites like Wikipedia and that's when I found out the whole FSM thing had a purpose.

The real purpose of FSM disappeared from the media so when people hear of us and look on the internet the first thing they think is "What a bunch of idiots, they take the joke to far" (I asked a few of my friends what they think of FSM and that was their answer when they looked it up)

My own view about FSM is exactly the one on the site "We do not take ourselves too seriously". But we should not let people think we aren't serious at all.

My point is, it almost disappeared from the media that the "religion" started with a purpose so everyone thinks we are a complete fake!


(Don't know how everything in you environment is but that's how people think about FSM in mine)