Netherlands recognises the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a religion

Hooray for the Dutch

Where’s a colander when you need it?
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has finally been recognised as a religion in The Netherlands.
Two days ago, pastafarians were told by the country’s Chamber of Commerce that they would be granted official status. They had been trying for several years.
Although a momentous time for the church of FSM – this is not the first time the church has been officially recognised.
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The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is already recognised in North America after being established by ‘prophet’ Bobby Henderson in 2005 as a protest against creationism.
Pastafarians believe heaven is a beer volcano with a stripper factory, while hell is the same but the beer is stale and the strippers have sexually transmitted diseases.
Explaining more, the ‘hammock enthusiast’ says:
We believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world much as it exists today, but for reasons unknown made it appear that the universe is billions of years old (instead of thousands) and that life evolved into its current state (rather than created in its current form).
Every time a researcher carries out an experiment that appears to confirm one of these “scientific theories" supporting an old earth and evolution we can be sure that the FSM is there, modifying the data with his Noodly Appendage.
We don’t know why He does this but we believe He does, that is our Faith.
Members of the new church naturally celebrated the news with a bowl of pasta.
Read more: Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster recognised in Netherlands as a religion | Metro News

So a pretend faith organization gets the same legal standing as sincere faith organizations. That seems right, since it can’t be objectively discerned whether anyone’s faith is sincere or pretend.

So a pretend faith organization gets the same legal standing as sincere faith organizations. That seems right, since it can't be objectively discerned whether anyone's faith is sincere or pretend.
That's the point. Nobody can tell.and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster makes that point better than anything I can think of. Lois

I thought there already was a joke “religion” called Scientology.
You know, the one that teaches Xenu brought Thetans to Earth on spaceships that looked just like DC-8s 75 million years ago, chained them to volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Now the spirits of those same thetans cause all sorts of mischief by attaching themselves to people and can only be cleaned off by registered Scientologists… for a fee.
The Church of Later Day Saints also has some whoppers…

My favorite part of Pastafarianism being recognized as a religion is that it completely waters down ‘real’ religions.
If an intentional farce that everyone is in on gets elevated to a religion, that’s the same as ‘real’ religions being lowered to the level of ‘intentional frace’.

My favorite part of Pastafarianism being recognized as a religion is that it completely waters down 'real' religions. If an intentional farce that everyone is in on gets elevated to a religion, that's the same as 'real' religions being lowered to the level of 'intentional frace'.
Religions were farces long before the Flying Spaghetti Monster was invented. The FSM just held up a mirror. Lois

Not sure why you are all so ready to dismiss the FSM as the eternal deity (i.e. dismissing the Great Unknowable as a farce). After all, the universe is causal, and there was a beginning, and something had to cause that beginning, so it might have been the FSM.
I daresay you have not even bothered to study the holy texts, e.g., The first Epistle of Sardonica the Apostle’s Letter to the Ironicians… (Oh wait… I just made that up… never mind.)

Well if part of the sacraments are turning a huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs into it’s Body-then I’m in.
Call me a priest!!

Pastafarians forever!

Well, it is a small feat.
As Dutchman, I can read the documents, and the recognition is on pretty formal grounds.
Every organisation that e.g. wants to have a bank account must be registered with the Chamber of Commerce. There it must be mentioned what kind of organisation it is: a public or private limited liability company, an association, a foundation, … and, yes, a church.
Originally the registration was denied based on the Chamber’s of Commerce assessment that the FSM was nothing more but a spoof. But the lawyers argued that the C of C is not allowed to judge the contents of the belief: only formal criteria may be applied. So the C of C gave in, and accepted the registration as a ‘legal person’ (don’t know if this is the correct English translation).
However, the argumentation sometimes is really sharp, and funny:

  • it is argued that there are no formal criteria what a church is (it is referred to many Christian sects, but also to the “Smoker’s Church”, which was accepted. Of course the Smoker’s Church is just meant that smokers can have a public room where smoking is allowed.
  • They refer to the fact that there is a living prophet (Bobby Henderson), whereas even the historical existence of some prophets is doubted.
  • The comparison with Christianity is devastating: it is called a religion, based on the belief in a punished and reincarnating zombie criminal, who walked over water, and then changed the water into wine, and was born ‘immaculate’ out of nowhere (the Dutch word for ‘immaculate’ is less grand in its meaning: it also means simply unspoiled, pure, untainted) ; why should such a belief be accepted, but not the belief in the FSM?
  • It is referred to the European Convention of Human Rights, that, amongst others, states that: “Where the organisation of the religious community was at issue, a refusal to recognise it has also been found to constitute interference with the applicants’ right to freedom of religion under Article 9 of the Convention.”
    I am curious what their next steps will be…
I thought there already was a joke "religion" called Scientology. You know, the one that teaches Xenu brought Thetans to Earth on spaceships that looked just like DC-8s 75 million years ago, chained them to volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Now the spirits of those same thetans cause all sorts of mischief by attaching themselves to people and can only be cleaned off by registered Scientologists... for a fee. The Church of Later Day Saints also has some whoppers...
So does Christanity. Just think about it. Every religion is full of whoppers. People should change the word "religion" to whopper. What whopper are you? Which whopper church do you go to? Are you a devout whopper believer? Do ou follow the 10 whopper commandments? I think we're onto something.
So does Christanity. Just think about it. Every religion is full of whoppers. People should change the word "religion" to whopper. What whopper are you? Which whopper church do you go to? Are you a devout whopper believer? Do ou follow the 10 whopper commandments? I think we're onto something.
Jesus Christ is likely the biggest religious whopper of them all. He's most likely created from a collection of mythical figures going back thousands of years before his "birth" that were created to describe an inner divinity or rising up of spirit from the material practiced in mystery cults. These myths were never meant to be taken literally, they are complete metaphor for the appearance of conscience and consciousness seemingly from nothing. It would be like people in the year 3,150 praying to the divine Superman who came to Earth from Krypton to save us all from the evil Lex Luthor. You don't have to wonder if something like this is possible, you just have to look at how religions like Scientology have been created from thin air, in this case the twisted imaginings of L. Ron Hubbard.