44 thoughts on “Jesus ‘n’ Mo and the FSM”

  1. I love the noodly appendage reaching into the last panel! They are about to be touched…

      1. That’s a ditto. Added an extra layer of noodly goodness to the strip.:-)

        1. Ditto again.

          Its almost as if you only see something if you are expecting or wanting it to be there.

          There may be a metaphor or an analogy in there somewhere.

    1. Over at the Pastafarian site they will send you an ordination certificate for twenty bucks.
      Wouldn’t you have to go to Noodle College for four years and spend thousands in tuition to learn everything that’s true about their religion?
      Other denominations demand that to learn everything that’s true about their religions.

      1. Which just goes to show the fundamental truthiness of Pastafarianism, and the ineffable generosity of the Great Meatball On Earth, His Bobby-ness.
        That’s how I got my ordination, and look at what that’s done for me!

  3. Every now and then I wonder if anyone really DOES take the Flying Spaghetti Monster “seriously.” It’s a stretch to think so, but I try hard to never underestimate human gullibility.

    Many years ago I heard a speech given by Robert Price, an atheist whose two main loves appear to be theology and science fiction. He spoke about going to Star Wars conventions and discovering that some of the fans did indeed seem to believe in the “Force” — and even think Star Wars may have actually occurred a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. My guess then is that at least some of the folks who self-identify on surveys as “Jedi” aren’t having fun or making a point.

    But a sincere believer in the FSM would have more problems ignoring the satirical nature of the entire set up. If there are people who take it seriously, then, it’s more likely to be clueless members of some other religion (ie Christianity) who live in Paranoia World and exist out of the loop (and will also forward stories from the “Onion” as fact.)

    1. All followers of the FSM take it seriously, by some definition of “it”.

      Which is, I think, the point.

    2. “Every now and then I wonder if anyone really DOES take the Flying Spaghetti Monster “seriously.” It’s a stretch to think so, but I try hard to never underestimate human gullibility. ”

      It wouldn’t surprise me greatly if someday it turned into a “real” religion. It probably would take some reinterpretation about what exactly “spaghetti monster” meant; perhaps it’s merely a metaphor for complexity or our interconnectedness. Or maybe it’s a deity that happens to look like a plate of spaghetti.

      2. “I do not look like a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. I do not look like a plate of spaghetti and meatballs.”

        — Don Martin, 1963

      3. I can see someday someone with a really big collander on his head blessing the troops as they go off to do battle with the heretic White Sauce armies.

      1. James Randi has said “There is no idea so ridiculous that you can’t find a PhD to endorse it.”

    4. I think part of the point of the FSM is that there is no trustworthy, legally admissable test for sincerity.

      So any consideration of granting privilege to religious believers should take into account that said believers could be cynically gaming the system. That should result in a very high bar before granting privilege on the basis of professed religious belief. As the spaghetti -strainer ID photo issue showed, that bar is probably not high enough.

      1. Sincerity isn’t a physical quantity like charge or mass, but the US courts do legal sincerity tests all the time.

        They look at a whole host of factors, most of which can fit under the category of “statements and behavior you did when you didn’t think the courts were watching.”

        1. Fair enough.

          In the US at least, deciding who is and isn’t a sincere believer, or whether a religion is real or fake is fraught with 1st ammendment issues.

          And a privilege based purely on relgious membership could put the government in such a position.

          RFRA and the Sherbert Test start to get into this territory, though granted, there’s no evidence that I’m aware of large numbers of people switching religions to get Saturday’s off or to use peyote.

    5. Wasn’t the whole point of the Church of the FSM, that it obviously can’t be taken seriously, but that every argument against it is at the same time an argument against (in this case) Christian fundamentalism?

        1. I don’t know if he missed the humor (he may not have the requisite sense to detect humor), but he certainly used the most words to express the fewest thoughts of any blog post I’ve read recently.

          I see he’s coming out with a book “The Case Against Atheism.” Anyone want to guess the probable ratio of “long-refuted statements against atheism” to “positive evidence for god(s) and/or theism”?

    7. Every now and then I wonder if anyone really DOES take the Flying Spaghetti Monster “seriously.

      As gbjames says, it depends on what you mean by “seriously”. Knowing that the Church was set up as a parody of conventional organised religions (as, for example, Mormonism and Scientology were, but without the magic underpants of the former or the grasping acquisitiveness of the latter), makes it easy to believe, fully and honestly, that the Gospel of the FSM is a force for good in the world, and that the world would indeed be a better place if more people were touched by the Noodly Appendage.
      Getting all metaphorical, the doctrinal minutiae are all metaphors. As a geologist, I honestly look forward to an eternity examining the tectonics and magmatic characters of the Beer Volcano ; the Stripper factory speaks to the basic human desires of sexuality in any form (the gender of the stripper is not specified) ; is not the FSM itself the embodiment, in a very literal metaphor, of the importance of food to people, and as a core of liturgical practice. None of that pussyfooting around with transubstantiation here. Michael Smith grokked the importance of food in his religion.
      I could go on. But life is short, and the Noodles are long.

  5. “(Mo’s description also applies to Scientology, Christian Science, and Mormonism.)”

    And Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.

    1. I’d love to see an April Fool’s Day one off strip of “L. Ron & Joe”. Mary Baker Eddy can be the barmaid.

  6. For those wishing to instantiate the Pasta Lord, I’ve come on a rather satisfying quantifiable method for success.

    Weigh an egg. Multiply its weight by 1.85 and weigh out that much semolina flour. Dump the flour on a (clean!) countertop, and make a well in the center. Crack the egg into the well. Beat the egg with a fork, gradually incorporating the flour. When the fork isn’t doing you much good any more, use your (clean!) hands to finish working all of the flour into the dough, repeatedly folding it in half at the end. The whole process should take no more than a few minutes.

    Tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest at least ten or fifteen minutes before putting it through the pasta machine. Or, the dough can be refrigerated for a few days before using it.

    Makes two servings. If you’re cooking for yourself, cook half and refrigerate the other half. If you’re cooking for four people, weigh two eggs, and again mix in 1.85 times as much flour as the two eggs combined.

    Oh — and it only needs one, two minutes at the most in the pot to cook (depending on how thick you make the noodles). You can go from ball of dough to dinner on a plate with fresh noodles in half the time it takes to cook dried noodles — talk about fast food!

    Cheers,

    b&

    1. For those wishing to instantiate the Pasta Lord, I’ve come on a rather satisfying quantifiable method for success.

      Everyone has their own inner recipe, they just may not recognise it yet.
      Pasta be with you, Brother b&.

      1. Ramen!

        …but, yea, verily, that ratio of egg : semolina of 1 : 1.85 by mass seems to make it impossible to fuck up the pasta. No guessing, no need for mysterious knowledge; just 1 : 1.85 egg : semolina by mass, and you’ve got to be too stupid to boil water in order to fail.

        b&

        1. and you’ve got to be too stupid to boil water in order to fail.

          I fail that one regularly. Boiled egg to exploded egg in 35 easy minutes.
          The wife seems to think it’s something to do with me trying to do something interesting when I go cooking. Like … well, pretty much anything.

          1. Well…you could try pretending that the food in question is a geological specimen in need of analysis in accordance with some very fiddly preparation procedure…

            …or you could just tell your wife, “1 : 1.85” and let her divine the recipe from that. I imagine she must be used to such obscure trivial technical references from you by now.

            b&

          2. I imagine she must be used to such obscure trivial technical references from you by now.

            Yeeees. That’s why she carries a meat-tenderising hammer.

    2. You need to run the dough through the first two settings of the pasta machine a half-dozen times or so before you roll it out and cut it, but for your specified quantities (1 egg plus ,say, 92.5 g. of flour -“Tipo 002” btw- which is a half portion for any working Italian man) it won’t be a long job.

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