A few days ago, in the midst of the discussion of the Tennessee legislation allowing mental health professionals to refuse to serve any patient if the patient was offensive to them on religious grounds, our daily commenter Duane Swacker informed us of a relatively new but fast-growing religion: the Pastafarians. This religion worships the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Those who may have been inclined to scoff should stop their scoffing. A woman who identified as a Pastafarian just won the right to have her driver’s license photo taken with a colander on her head. That has some relationship to pasta, straining it, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
So far as I know the Pastafarians have not yet sought vouchers, but their branches in Arizona, Louisiana, the District of Columbia, Nevada, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin certainly qualify to receive them.
Just when you get feeling really down about the way things are going in this country, you come across something like this, and it gives you a laugh and some hope for the future.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
oh cool-I’ve been looking for religion & I adore pasta💋
Sent from my iPhone
>
If you really want a laugh, take a good, long look at Christianity. Talk about the longest joke ever running.
Mind your P’s and Q’s. I and many other teachers are Christian. I don’t consider my faith a joke and I was raised with enough manners to not consider your religion ( or lack there of ) a joke.
See? Funny.
Christianity is a great religion, but I, as Left Coast Teacher, follow Diane-etics.
Educators should love Pastafarianism. It is a fake religion (if you’ll forgive the implication that other religions aren’t fake – but most “pastafarians” don’t actually “believe,” so much as use the structure deliberately to cast shame upon the “real” religions), first developed in protest to the Kansas State Board of Education’s decision to bring “intelligent design” as an alternative to teaching about evolution. Eventually, Kansas reversed the decision; although pastafarianism’s role in the reversal is uncertain. But the “religion” is mostly a movement to educate the public about the failures of education and governance that result when religiously minded organizations overpower our national impulse to keep church and state separate.
That’s it. My PuddyTattarians and I will be announcing our special requirements soon. All hail the golden fish!
Like!
Are the pastafarians related to the matzafarians?
Poet,
The matzofarians are a different religion but with similar roots. They worship the Great Matzoh Ball.
No, Pastafaria is chometz.
I worship the French Pastissefarians . . . The Religieuse is our God . . .
I just had some Matzahfarianism, but it’s also good to mix Pastafarianism with Pestofarianism and maybe add a little Parmafarianism.
“So far as I know the Pastafarians have not yet sought vouchers”
Sounds like a good get rich quick scheme. Ohhhh, too bad it would be ruled unconstitutional here in the Show Me State. Guess I’ll have to open some schools in the state that inspired Pastafarianism-KANSAS!
Would those be vouchers for Olive Garden?
No, Duane!
Vouchers are only for weakening public schools . . .
While the past agrarians started as farce, people did find solace in a group dedicated to thinking, to the sublime, and a diet that brings some joy. Of course the Genesis of the pasta people was the absurdity of, “it just a theory,” so I can have one too reasoning that passes for science. If you believe is something, fine, but it’s not a way to explain reality, the functioning of nature, climate, or evolution of species. There’s a difference between a belief and facts, a vetting process, the 95% certainty which is greater than the preponderance of the evidence, even well beyond reasonable doubt.
Living in Oregon I see many pastafarians as they leave patterns in our wheat fields.
IMHO, whatever symbols and beliefs, founder and followers not only should, but must have human conscience in being considerate for the welfare and harmonious/peaceful living environment of all people on Earth.
In other words, religion demands a support of money and respect from people WITHOUT any contribution to community or society, then that religion is PURELY crooked and it definitely offends/betrays people’s blind trust. Back2basic
RA-men, Sister Diane. RA-men.
Nicely done, Steven. That’s using your noodle.
I want to be a pastafarian!
This isn’t the first time that this result has occurred. However, a Federal Court recently ruled that Pastafarianism isn’t a real religion but satire, which it is. So I’m skeptical that this sort of thing will go much further, unfortunately.
I believe there is someone out there in the clouds watching over us. Unfortunately, it’s Bill Gates in the cloud watching over our data.
LOL LCT!
I think true Pastafarians would consider it a farce! Anything less and and the FSM would wap you upside your head with His Noodly Appendages. I know that for a fact as the almighty FSM talked to me last night, just as Georgie the Least’s god talked to him and told him to invade Iraq. Oh, wait that was the Dickster Cheney that told him to do that-my bad.
If I’m not mistaken the following is one of Pastafarian’s liturgical songs:
I take the graph from the first pages of the Pastafarian Bible to teach correlation. The premise: The Flying Spaghetti Monster, angry that there are fewer people dressed like pirates, is warming the Earth. The scatterplot clearly shows the inverse relationship: the fewer people there are dressing like pirates, from the 17th century to present, the higher the mean temperature has risen.
It leads to some great conversations, especially when I point out that the coolest summer we have had in Tacoma, WA in recent memory was the summer of the Tall Ships Festival, in which many people dressed like pirates.
Now, where did I put my colander…?