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I, Pastafari: A Flying Spaghetti Monster Story

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
The story These People Worship a Flying Spaghetti Monster includes a link to a documentary web site I, Pastafari: A Flying Spaghetti Monster Story but you have to pay to see it. But the trailer itself is worthwhile. If unprovable beliefs must be accommodated, why not the unprovable belief in the FSM after all.This might seem silly to some, but there was a legal fight for the right to have an official picture taken with a colander on one's head - head coverings being only allowed when religiously mandated. Two images from the trailer:
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Anyone want to petition the powers that be for a FSM DIR?
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Since you set the standard at unprovable beliefs, I must point out that the belief in objective reality defined as follows, namely that independent of you the monitor in front of , which you read this on, if you are sighted and can read, is there in itself independent of you; is an unprovable belief. In short epistemological realism is an unprovable belief. That is how you understand that science is methodological naturalism and not metaphysical/philosophical naturalism.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
The story These People Worship a Flying Spaghetti Monster includes a link to a documentary web site I, Pastafari: A Flying Spaghetti Monster Story but you have to pay to see it. But the trailer itself is worthwhile. If unprovable beliefs must be accommodated, why not the unprovable belief in the FSM after all.This might seem silly to some, but there was a legal fight for the right to have an official picture taken with a colander on one's head - head coverings being only allowed when religiously mandated. Two images from the trailer:
View attachment 41396

View attachment 41397


Anyone want to petition the powers that be for a FSM DIR?
Are you saying it is not real

What about the Beer Mountains?
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
"actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed."

So if I suppose something, is it then a fact, that I can suppose something? Here is where we end and it is sociology:
In effect as a paraphrase of the actual principle here it is to its effect - Unreal beliefs can cause real behavior and influence real things and in fact have real consequences.

I.e. that it is imagined that God exists, is unreal, yet it is real that it can be imagined and lead to further behavior and consequences. So no, I don't accept your understanding what real is, because the unreal has real consequences, thus it can't really be unreal.
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
"actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed."

Take 2:
The world is from God.
The world is natural.*

Both claims are in effect if you check as per proof unsupported and thus both unprovable beliefs.
* The difference between methodological naturalism and metaphysical/philosophical naturalism.
The first one is a limited human behavior and can't answer what the world really is. The latter is an unprovable belief, just as God.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Humans could not live without "unprovable beliefs". I will drive to work this morning believing that I will arrive there without incident. But I can't prove that. I believe I will be paid for my efforts at the end of the week but I can't prove that, either. In fact, almost everything I do, I do based on unprovable beliefs. So this arrogant delusion that faith in God is absurd because it's an "unprovable belief" is itself, absurd. We humans can prove almost nothing. We live in a sea of estimated probabilities, trust, and hope.
 
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mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Humans could not live without "unprovable beliefs". I will drive to work this morning believing that I will arrive there without incident. But I can't prove that. I believe I will be paid for my efforts at the end of the week but I can't prove that, either. In fact, almost everything I do, I do based on unprovable beliefs. So this arrogant delusion that faith in God is absurd because it an "unprovable belief" is itself, absurd. We humans can prove almost nothing. We live in a sea of estimated probabilities, and hope.

Some people "across religion and non-religion" in effect do the same. They individual have a standard for beliefs, they apply to everybody else, which they don't apply to themselves. In effect it is a form of special pleading. As absurd as it is. That other humans do special pleading doesn't apply to me, because I am that special. ;)
That has nothing to do with religion as such. It is a general psychological process and can be found in many variants, if you strip away the particulars of any belief system and look at it generally.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
Humans could not live without "unprovable beliefs". I will drive to work this morning believing that I will arrive there without incident. But I can't prove that. I believe I will be paid for my efforts at the end of the week but I can't prove that, either. In fact, almost everything I do, I do based on unprovable beliefs. So this arrogant delusion that faith in God is absurd because it an "unprovable belief" is itself, absurd. We humans can prove almost nothing. We live in a sea of estimated probabilities, and hope.
But, when you arrive at work (and have done for many days consecutively) and you receive you pay cheque as has happened every week/month since you started that job, you are not acting on faith, you are acting on good evidence that it will happen.
Yes, you could be in an accident or the company could go bust, but you have weighed up those odds and decided on the evidence of previous experiences that the risk of it not happening is very small.
 

icehorse

......unaffiliated...... anti-dogmatist
Premium Member
Humans could not live without "unprovable beliefs". I will drive to work this morning believing that I will arrive there without incident. But I can't prove that. I believe I will be paid for my efforts at the end of the week but I can't prove that, either. In fact, almost everything I do, I do based on unprovable beliefs. So this arrogant delusion that faith in God is absurd because it an "unprovable belief" is itself, absurd. We humans can prove almost nothing. We live in a sea of estimated probabilities, and hope.

Well one difference is that for most of us in our day to day lives, our "beliefs" come from a lot of consistent evidence.

And, FWIW, my FSM t-shirt is one of my favorites!
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
I am a Pastafarian. I'm also at my limit of DIR affiliations.
The Pastafarians and other Sacred Clowns (like The Satanic Temple) can meet up in the Same Faith Debate area or in whatever Non-DIR section we like, because we break rules with a purpose.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Meta comment: I started a thread with the hope that belief would be discussed and was surprised to find that belief is being discussed. :cool:

you could be in an accident or the company could go bust

At one struggling company I worked at before the days of direct deposit, we used to get our paychecks and immediately go and deposit them because we knew the company was on the edge of checks going bouncy-bouncy.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
In general, there's a black hole one can get into when considering "sincerely held beliefs" compared to "insincerely held beliefs". In the general case, we don't know whether someone is sincere or not in the absence of concrete evidence.

That's what makes situations like the one documented in the OP interesting to me. Because it shows what can happen when religion meets politics. Sometimes the result is very ugly and sometimes it turns out OK.
 
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