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Court: Church of Flying Spaghetti Monster Not a Religion
Creative Minority Report ^ | April 15, 2016 | MATTHEW ARCHBOLD

Posted on 04/15/2016 2:27:34 PM PDT by NYer

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster isn't real and it's followers, who call themselves Pastafarians, are just kinda' being jerks, a federal court in Nevada. (OK, the court didn't say they were being jerks but hey I'm allowed some editorial leeway. It's just a blog anyway.)

A blast of common sense from the bench. Whoa.

Newsweek:

Worshippers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster call their faith FSMism or Pastafarianism, a portmanteau of pasta and Rastafarianism. One such worshipper, Stephen Cavanaugh, a prisoner in a Nebraska state penitentiary, sued the state in 2014 over the right to practice his faith.

Cavanaugh argued that his religion requires him to wear special religious clothing in the form of "full pirate regalia," but that prison officials refused to allow him to do so, despite allowing members of other, recognized religions to purchase and wear special clothing and other items. Cavanaugh also argued that prison officials kept him from meeting and holding religious services with other members of his faith. He also demanded $5 million in damages for "deep emotional, psychological, and spiritual pain."

But the U.S. District Court of Nebraska found that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not a religion. "It is, rather, a parody, intended to advance an argument about science, the evolution of life, and the place of religion in public education," District Judge John Gerrard wrote in a 16-page decision.
I say make the dude who sued wear "full pirate regalia" in prison every day. Let's see how things go from there.



TOPICS: Current Events; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 04/15/2016 2:27:34 PM PDT by NYer
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To: Tax-chick; GregB; SumProVita; narses; bboop; SevenofNine; Ronaldus Magnus; tiki; Salvation; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 04/15/2016 2:27:51 PM PDT by NYer (Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy them. Mt 6:19)
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To: NYer

I can’t write off Prego on my taxes anymore?


3 posted on 04/15/2016 2:29:19 PM PDT by moovova
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To: NYer

So when a pedophile Bedouin in the 600’s says he is the prophet and writes rules for his followers...is THAT a religion?


4 posted on 04/15/2016 2:33:47 PM PDT by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: NYer

I say make the dude who sued wear “full pirate regalia” in prison every day. Let’s see how things go from there”

Would they have to chop off one leg? Maybe gouge out an eye? So he could have a peg leg and an eyepatch.


5 posted on 04/15/2016 2:37:22 PM PDT by Mercat (Boredom is a problem on the inside. And happiness, too, is an inside job.)
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To: NYer

They should have put “church” in the title. The North Texas Church of Freethought (atheist) managed to get and maintain religious exemptions by doing so.


6 posted on 04/15/2016 2:38:17 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: NYer

Prince spaghetti day will never be the same.


7 posted on 04/15/2016 2:38:21 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: NYer

The judge was using his noodle.


8 posted on 04/15/2016 2:39:00 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: NYer

It is as much a religion as Wiccan or Druidism.

For whatever that is worth.


9 posted on 04/15/2016 2:45:43 PM PDT by Bubba Gump Shrimp (A Canadian... denying Americans the right to vote...but he's a principled constiutional conservative)
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To: Larry Lucido
Prince spaghetti day will never be the same.

It hasn't been ever since "Mama" died a couple of months back.

10 posted on 04/15/2016 2:46:16 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: NYer

Butt-pirate regalia? He wears THAT on a daily basis!


11 posted on 04/15/2016 2:57:37 PM PDT by W. (Screw it. Send in the Marines! NOW!)
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To: moovova

lol


12 posted on 04/15/2016 3:16:50 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: Bubba Gump Shrimp

true


13 posted on 04/15/2016 3:17:23 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: NYer

American 2016
Courts and the IRS decide if your church is a valid church.

I no more believe the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is really a viable religion than I believe in the Chrch of Scientology.
But is that the courts job? Or is this just to validate the IRS’s (The Government) claim on their money?


14 posted on 04/15/2016 3:25:04 PM PDT by Tupelo (we vote - THEY decide.)
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To: NYer

The whole idea of Pastafarianism is to be a parade or lampoon of religion. It’s kind of like what The Onion or Salon does with journalism.


15 posted on 04/15/2016 3:42:00 PM PDT by CrazyIvan (Socialists are just communists in their larval stage.)
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To: NYer

If we allow the practice of Islam, that threatens to kill us all, we should allow the same for other weird forms of worship.


16 posted on 04/15/2016 4:25:18 PM PDT by 353FMG
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To: moovova

Lol! You can throw out the pasta strainer receipt, too.


17 posted on 04/15/2016 4:25:37 PM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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