iPastafari

I’m a humanist, which basically means I “believe” humans can solve human issues without the need of some supernatural deity....but over the course of making the film I also consider myself a Pastafarian, since literally believing in the FSM isn’t a requirement for membership (not unlike many other religions), and I support the purpose of the Pastafarians, which is to bring about more critical thinking into society.

well at first I like many thought that Pastafarianism was against religion in some fashion. While yes, the Pastafarian community is diverse, and there are some with varying levels of regard towards religion, I found that that they in a way are fighting for religion, the sane version of religion. In the courts they are fighting for religious freedom, because once a state official says "youre religion is real, yours is not, therefore you get less rights" they are violating the human right that is religious freedom. Also, and I think Mienke in the film illustrates this the best when she says "I wear this colander on my head because a colander separates the important stuff (pasta) from the not so important stuff (cooking water)...this helps remind me how to live my live. You got to hold onto the good stuff, and let the bad stuff slip away". In a more meta view, I think the pastafarians are doing just that....they are asking other religions to "hold onto the good stuff", being community, culture, charity etc, and evolve past the bigotry, discrimination, and anti science non-sense.

There are similarities for sure. They both (satanism) want religious freedom to be equivalent from freedom from religion, I think....so basically your religious beliefs shouldn’t impact the lives of others who don’t share your beliefs. But I would argue the pastafarian approach is more friendly and entertaining, so possibly will reach others that shut down when “Satan” is invoked. In other words: Pasta is more digestible than Satan.

Well in many countries, like New Zealand for example, you can legally get married by a Pastafarian Minister (Ministrone). In other places you can wear your religious headwear in your ID photos (a battle captured in the film). But the Pastafarians are just getting started. With the recent Supreme Court ruling about tax funds for religious schools, I pray to the FSM for some motivated pastafarian to create a tax payer funded pastafarian school, so we can learn how the pirate population impacts climate change. Or, better yet, just uphold church state separation and dont use public tax payer dollars to teach ones particular religious agenda.

No, it was started to point out that religion is not science and science is not religion. When they’re combined, they both suffer. The “faith” has evolved over the years to also bring attention to issues around church state separation. So it isn’t whether the Pastafarians “believe” literally in a Flying Spaghetti Monster, they believe in the message that the FSM represents. Yes their means to share this message may be unique, but these days to cut through all the noise you have to be unique.