Pastafarian Wins Right To Wear Colander In License Photo

gregmon writes "An Austrian follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has finally won the right to don the religious headgear of his choosing (a spaghetti strainer) in his driving license photo. After a three year battle with the un-enlightened Austrian authorities, Niko Aim can now wear his colander in all official photos."

Comments

Heresy

[Alex Belits]

That must be some heretical Pastafarian sect. Traditional Pastafarians wear pirate hats, not strainers.

Re:Heresy

[Shag]

Clearly some sort of Eastern/Byzantine Orthodox Pastafarian. Probably celebrates all the key holy days a week off, too.

Re:Heresy

[Evtim]

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern ConservativeBaptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

Re:Heresy

[Anonymous Coward]

A heretic is someone who shares almost all of your beliefs. Kill him.
  -- Paranoia

Re:Heresy

[mcgrew]

What makes that joke so funny is that it's only a tiny bit of an exaggeration. My grandmother, a Southern Baptist, told me once that my great aunt was always hounding her, telling her she was going to hell because she wore pants. It's amazing that so few people who profess to be Christians miss the whole point of their own religion, which is you are forgiven! The only catch is, you have to forgive others as well. IMO those who preach fire and brimstone are sadly misguided.

I'm pleased that more and more Christians are ignoring denominations. The church I attend is nondenominational and has become one of the biggest churches in Springfield (although the fact that the head preacher could have been a stand-up comedian surely has something to do with it).

I just woke up and am only on my second cup of coffee, so I first read rge headline as "Rastafarian" rather than "Pastafarian" (and I missed the "in Australia), and the first thing that came to mind was, if I'm supposed to have freedom of religion, why can't I smoke pot as a sacrament? I agree with the Rastafarians that pot is indeed a sacrament; it does bring the religious person closer to God. Why do I not have the right to adopt a native religion and eat peyote or psilocybin? Why weren't Catholics and many other Christians allowed to drink real wine during prohibition when they performed communion?

As to the pastafarians, at first I thought since this "religion" is an athiest joke on the religious it isn't a real religion, but then I thought of L. Ron Hubbard. If Scientology can be a religion, surely Pastafarianism can be, too.

Someone above mentioned gay marriage, I wonder why government has anything to do with marriage at all? Why should a single parent of one child pay more in taxes than a childless married couple who earn the same amount of income? Marriage itself is a religious rite, and government should stay the hell out. I shouldn't have to get a license to get married, and a judge shouldn't have the authority to marry anyone.

To those Christians who bash gays, I'll quote someone they should be acquainted with: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone". You sin enough yourself to worry about anybody else's sins. Fellow Christians, please mind your own fucking business. If God wants an athiest to find him, the athiest will find him.

And you Jehova's Witnesses, GET OFF MY LAWN!

Heh.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's using his noodle.

Why not?

[Anonymous Coward]

If Muslims and Jews can get away with cutting up the genitalia of their completely healthy sons, why can't anybody wear the most preposterous adornments for a license photo?

Re:Why not?

[c0mpliant]

Seems more testy to me

Re:Why not?

[AbRASiON]

Ooooh do I spend my mod points to moderate this guy up or do I reply to him?!?

Your harsh post will no doubt have critics, not just religious ones too! There are 'cut men' who have no medical problems who will defend circumcision simply because "hey I have that, how dare you mock my penis!?"

As someone who DOES have penis damage thanks to an UN-NECESSARY operation that I didn't opt in to, I'd like to bring everyones attention to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer
http://www.circumstitions.com/Complic.html - NOT FOR THE SQUEEMISH
Take note of "Necrotising fasciitis (Galloping gangrene)"

Just because YOUR circumcision didn't fuck up, that doesn't change the fact that besides antiquated, stupid fucking reasons, literally 99.99% of circumcisions are UN-NECESSARY.

If I've convinced one, just one man or woman today, to fucking think twice before dicing up their future childs junk, then I've done my job.

Re:Why not?

[zwarte piet]

Yeah, everyone can do what they want with their OWN body once they reached 18. Cutting up babies like that is a violation of basic human rights.

Re:Why not?

[AbRASiON]

I only have a fairly basic 'flaw' which can be corrected (google images "penal scrotal webbing") this is 100% caused due to an operation I didn't want, need or have a choice in.

It's barbaric and stupid, how anyone DARES think they have the right to make that decision for someone else is fucking beyond me. My parents are forgiven, they weren't to know but it's 2011 now and shit like that needs to stop.

People defending it saying it reduces the chances of disease are fucking retarded.

Re:Meh

[LandDolphin]

Do you feel that a driving an automobile does not require a license that shows at least minimum capacity to actually operate said vehicle?

Re:Wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

thats the point. by making it so ridiculous people may figure that out.
if you are telling people religious symbols should not be on the picture, they gonna tell you you are a hater. if you do like this guy and go fuck around a bit, they may have to remove them because its impossible to do otherwise.

Re:Wrong

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

That is exactly the sentiment he was expressing(and the sentiment that Pastafarianism was originally founded to express: to came into being during the "teach the controversy" creationism period in the US, to demand that its own creation myth be included in official curricula, if other people's were, in order to show how ridiculous going down that path is...)

The law already makes the pandering exception for religious headwear in ID photos. This fellow chose a (quite successful, it's garnered headlines across the western world, if not further) protest-by-absurdity by demanding that his alleged precious religious sensibilities be respected, no matter how apparently ridiculous.

The same logic is behind his attempt to have Pastafarianism added to the list of officially recognized faiths in Austria. He isn't actually trying to ensure that His Noodlyness will see fit to allocate him a spot in the afterlife closer to the beer volcano, he is trying to demonstrate what happens when a civil society cowtows to any crazy shit that somebody declares to be an oh-so-important matter of 'faith'...

I think that you are missing the point of...

[denzacar]

...mock-religions.

Which is... wait for it... to mock religions. ReligionS. As in plural.
Not "one sect's beliefs". That would be religious bullying, which is the first cousin (on its mother's side) of religious persecution.

Besides. Every religion out there already has its own methods and channels for that particular activity, on sect by sect basis.
Mostly based around claims that everyone else who is NOT a member of their sect is going straight to hell.