Category Archives: Secular Vs. Religious

Dear Friends at the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster,

We celebrated last Friday the event of the reference. It took place at the "Plaza de la Paz" [Right in front of the Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral] in Barranquilla, Colombia. Though we were only 25 Pastafarians, the presence of his Noodliness was strong. The opportunity served us to settle an agenda of activities that are planned in order to promote the idea of the separation of church & state, a secular view of the world, and of course, the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I´m not sure of how well informed are you about what´s going on here in Colombia, but under the Uribe administration freedom of beliefs was not cherished [measures that undermine the spirit of the Constitution of 1991 were taken, like forcing the teaching of religion again in schools and granting privileges to the Catholic Church]. The previous constitution was adopted in1886, which made Colombia a confesional state, namely, a Catholic one. This means that in the past 9 years we got back over a 100 years on the subject of rights, having to witness cases related to the discrimination towards other beliefs, not to mention those who are agnostic or atheists. The situation is really one to worry about: picture yourself the General Prosecutor boycotting a law that allows women to abort if (1) Malformation of the fetus, (2) Grave risk for the mother´s life & (3) Pregnancy being a result of rape. Guess what? This member of the government is affiliated to the "Legionaries of Christ"[!!!], and offered a number of different phony legal explanations to promote the figure of "conscientious objection of institutions" [Yeah, right, that´s what he argued] so as to allow different hospitals to deny the services to women that requested the practice of abortions under the above mentioned three circumstances [as granted by a Sentence of the Constitutional Court]. In the practice, he has put forward an agenda that implicitly accepts it is good to be first a believer and then a member of the government. Going beyond the discussion on abortion, no matter if one is in favor or against it, it is simply outrageous that a member of the government decides that it is legal to brake the law.

Since some of us got sick & tired of this & other similar cases, we decided to open a FB group called "Primera Iglesia del Monstruo de Spaghetti Volador de Barranquilla". The attached pictures were taken the day of the meeting. We hope to make a small contribution & that you include this news on the site.

May he touch & enlighten us all with his noodly appendage!

Sincerely yours,
René J. Campis C.
Pastafarian

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I’ve added a few additions to the store, including the “He Boiled For Your Sins” shirt above. I got some upset emails about the ‘He Boiled’ designs posted here before (some of you will remember Kaitlyn’s He Boiled poster from a few weeks ago), and at the time I felt it was too polarizing to add to the store. But a few things have turned me around since then.

I talked with some of the upset people and tried to understand why this design, more than others, irked them. What I heard was that they felt it was directly mocking Christianity, directly mocking Jesus for his sacrifice and you’re wrong to question what I know to be True. The conversations were for the most part civil, but I detected a sticking point around the idea of Original Sin.

There is a strong belief that Jesus died for mankind’s sins among this group, and a strong belief in Original Sin – the idea that we are born guilty, or born with a tendency towards a sinful lifestyle. Only “belief” is not a strong enough word – they felt it was unshakable truth, and that questioning this was the highest offense.

I feel everyone has a right to their beliefs, but I also feel strongly that no ideas are above scrutiny, and that Unquestionable Truths have dangerous potential, whatever the idea at the root of it. The context makes it an unstable force, not necessarily the content.

Original Sin is True, therefore unbaptized babies in non-Christian countries are doomed to Hell. The people who can believe this without inner conflict are under the influence of an Unquestionable Truth.

So then, the shirt. Is there value in questioning in what Can Not Be Questioned? I think there is, and I think the people who do the questioning are working for the cause of reason. Some people will only see our group as being willfully disrespectful. Some of us will only see theirs as culture that values irrationality, that rejects reason. But I have talked to many religious people who believe faith is not a virtue – or at least, that faith is not necessarily a virtue – who value reason more than dogma. These people don’t feel threatened by our group. All in all, I think this shirt is a force of good in the world and I hope most people will get that.