So what exactly is a religion? More specifically, does the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (aka Pastafarianism) count? The CFSM grew from an amusing letter to the Kansas School Board that requested equal time in the science classroom for the views of the Pastafarians, who believe that the universe was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Any scientific evidence to the contrary is merely the result of tinkering done by the FSM’s Noodly Appendage. Funny, yes, but the board at the time was considering whether to include Intelligent Design in the Kansas science curriculum, and the letter makes the serious point that if ID is taught as science, what’s to prevent any other set of non-scientific ideas from forcing its way into the classroom too?
The CFSM is now an official parody religion with its own book of scripture (The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) and a largish cultural presence on college campuses and other hangouts of wise guys and science geeks. Or is it a real religion? This story from Live Science talks about the coverage of the CFSM at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. A panel will discuss Pastafarianism and its connection to the question of what makes a popular movement a religion. It’s a good question. Is Buddhism a religion, or Taoism? Both lack deities but focus on many of the same concerns as religions do. They’re both spiritual systems, I think, but I’m not sure if I’d call them religions. The CFSM is also in a sense concerned with what might very loosely be called spiritual matters, and it certainly shares some of the other features of religions (and it even has a deity).
It’s all tongue in cheek, so the CFSM is known to be a construct of the human imagination. I read a book years ago about an atheist who went to an Episcopalian church; as I recall, he was a little surprised to find others in the congregation who were atheists or agnostics. And I know there are people who call themselves “cultural Catholics”, who go to church for the community, the music, the traditions, but do not really believe what the church teaches about God and sin and so forth. (And certainly the drop in the size of Catholic families indicates a disconnect between official Catholic doctrine and Catholic behavior, even for those who are not cultural Catholics.) If people in mainstream religions can sometimes be fairly loose about their belief in the tenets of their religion, maybe Pastafarianism would count after all. I don’t really know how I’d define a religion, but I’m amused when I think of religious scholars addressing the question in the context of Noodly Appendages.
