I’ll bet the guys in the Vatican are laughing there ass off right now. “We’ve been getting away with this shit for 2000 years!”
What happens to all those driver’s license photos with people wearing colanders?
It’s apparently always been a thing for the court to determine the sincerity of a person’s religious beliefs. I find it morally troublesome for the government to be telling a person what they really believe but I’m not a lawyer.
Wouldn’t it be a real religion if at least one person isn’t in on the joke?
Time to join Dudeism.
“Come join the slowest-growing religion in the world – Dudeism. An ancient philosophy that preaches non-preachiness, practices as little as possible, and above all, uh…lost my train of thought there. Anyway, if you’d like to find peace on earth and goodwill, man, we’ll help you get started. Right after a little nap.”
Naps are sacred in my religion.
My prayer rug really ties the room together.
Do they give a definition of what a religion must consist of?
Would it help if we all clapped?
Actually we don’t recognize Scientology as a religion in the New York State Correctional System either.
Yeah, but the urine stain is kind of off-putting.
Well, I don’t recognize christianity either. A giant ark filled with representatives of all the animals on earth? Burning bushes? Reanimation of a corpse after 72 hours? You gotta be kidding me.
What, precisely, do you think is bullshit about my post? Do you actually believe anyone who claims to worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Of course not. Nobody does; it’s a joke. It’s the Onion article of religions.
I don’t pretend to know where the line is between real belief and silliness. I’m an atheist and believe in no God and nothing supernatural. But it is very, very obvious to a person with any number of functioning neurons that some people really, genuinely believe in God or gods as defined by such notable religions as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, etc. Those are actual things that people believe in and that often guides their life decisions, for better or for worse; it’s not for me, but it is the reality of human civilization that most people purport to believe in a religion and at least a lot of them really and truly do.
Absolutely no one believes in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It is a joke, and it’s supposed to be a joke.
This isn’t bullshit, it’s fact.
Most of the people I know who belong to/attend a christian church do not really believe the nonsense spewed there, either. They belong for a myriad of reasons.
Who are you to question anyone’s beliefs?
A fact, that, like many negatives, is impossible to prove.
Crap, next you’re going to tell me Festivus is some kind of made-up holiday, aren’t you?
He is gone!
We say goodbye to Spaghetti.
You’re supposed to question pastafarianism. That’s the whole fucking point. There’s a whole subsection of the religion where they incorrectly correlate global rises in temperature with the global reduction of pirates. You’re supposed to say, “wait a minute, you idiots, that’s a stupid fucking argument because correlation doesn’t imply causation” and then I guess you become enlightened or something.
Or at least, that’s one way to use pastafarianism. The other one is to use it as a springboard to loudly proclaim “bullshit!” and then to loudly remind everyone about how all other religions are equally bullshit, too.
It would help to reduce global warming, so it should have been permitted.
I have nothing against the FSM, but The Invisible Pink Unicorn (pbuh) seems to me to be the more powerful deity and I will never lose my faith in her, nor fail to follow her commandments.
Blasphemy!
The Great Green Arkleseisure is the one true Deity. Bless you.
Let’s put this into the proper perspective. This is not an issue of general belief. It’s a specific issue of religious practices within a prison.
The general rule in prison is you can hold any religious beliefs you wish. Prisons only regulate religious practices. So “recognition” means that a prisoner who belongs to a particular religion will be allowed to do something that a prisoner who doesn’t belong to that religion would not be allowed to do.
For example, if you’re a Muslim prisoner you can request to have your meals served during non-daylight hours during the month of Ramadan. That’s allowed for Muslim prisoners because it’s part of their religion. But a prisoner who isn’t a Muslim but just wanted to eat his meals at those times wouldn’t be allowed the same privilege.
In this particular case, Cavanaugh wanted the right to wear particular religious garments and hold a weekly meeting with his co-religionists. These are not things a regular prisoner would be allowed to do for non-religious reasons. The judge said no; Cavanaugh can still believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster but the prison is not required to accommodate his request for those particular practices.
…and him always! :):)