Are you a Pastafarian or a Legologist?
My attention has recently been drawn to two humorous takes on religion. Most recently, The Brick Testament (thanks AJ); and to The Flying Spaghetti Monster, (thanks Dean).
The Brick Testament
This is a series of still shots depicting Bible scenes. The pictures are entirely LEGO. According to Wikipedia (a most respected and almost wholey accturate virtual-tome), these pictures have been embraced by the religious believers 'who often use its material for evangelical and instructional purposes' and also non-believers 'who view The Brick Testament as pointing out what they consider to be absurdities in the Bible'. The images are created by Brendan Powell Smith, who, according to wiki, is no longer religious , but is on the website referred to as The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith [sic]. Is this a serious take on religion? Seeing as it's creator is also responsible for the short film 'Vendetta: A Christmas Story', methinks not. The image of Genesis 3:21 caused much amusement between Erica and myself: consider the horse in the background when you read the caption.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster
Many of you have probably alread hear of this, but if you haven't, then surf on over and be touched by his noodly appendage. It is basically a reaction against the pro-Intelligent Design talk that has been floating around government education departments over the last year or so. It was founded in 2005 by a guy called Bobby Henderson (thanks wiki). It not only has a logo, Tshirts, mugs and other parafernalia, as well as artistic imagery, but also it's own Gospel.
The Brick Testament
This is a series of still shots depicting Bible scenes. The pictures are entirely LEGO. According to Wikipedia (a most respected and almost wholey accturate virtual-tome), these pictures have been embraced by the religious believers 'who often use its material for evangelical and instructional purposes' and also non-believers 'who view The Brick Testament as pointing out what they consider to be absurdities in the Bible'. The images are created by Brendan Powell Smith, who, according to wiki, is no longer religious , but is on the website referred to as The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith [sic]. Is this a serious take on religion? Seeing as it's creator is also responsible for the short film 'Vendetta: A Christmas Story', methinks not. The image of Genesis 3:21 caused much amusement between Erica and myself: consider the horse in the background when you read the caption.
The Flying Spaghetti MonsterMany of you have probably alread hear of this, but if you haven't, then surf on over and be touched by his noodly appendage. It is basically a reaction against the pro-Intelligent Design talk that has been floating around government education departments over the last year or so. It was founded in 2005 by a guy called Bobby Henderson (thanks wiki). It not only has a logo, Tshirts, mugs and other parafernalia, as well as artistic imagery, but also it's own Gospel.
posted by Hooch | 2:48 pm
17 Comments:
You should look at "the wives compete" - copious amounts of blood and birthing fluid made from translucent red blocks...
I like the old testament>judges "remorse then another massacre".
Such a scientific way of deciding who is a virgin or not as the case may be.
Where is "the wives compete"? I can't find it...
oh....found it - it's in Genesis: "jacob's wives compete".
Haha have you read the hate mail FSM gets? ahh I love when christians get angry.
have you seen the FSM coffe mug caption: 'this mug holds coffe and pisses off Jesus'. It makes me laugh, but at the same time, I think Jesus would be more pissed off by ID than FSM.
These people are everywhere, I've had people doing a science degree say to me 'but didn't they find that all the hominid fossils were fakes?'.
Sad as that is I personally love the fact the proporters of 'Intelligent Design' seem to be a)so stupid and b)really crap at designing stuff.
Here's another nice little bit of information:
A report in the Journal of Religion and Society recently concluded: "In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion."
Perhaps there is hope yet.
Ramen.
those are very disturbing statistics indeed.
In looking at those statistics we need to remember that correlation and causation are different things. Belief in a Creator and those nasty societal practices may both be linked to another thing - namely the tendency of many in religious groups to oppress and censor. So for instance never discuss reproduction with your children and teenage pregnancy may well be a consequence.
P. S. I touched on 'Intelligent Design' (in a somewhat frivolous manner) on my blog a few posts back. Comments welcome.
Do those satistics include the septemer 11 or Bali incidents?
Anonymous- Although I have not seen the original paper it is unlikely that the summary refers to, for example, 'all homicides, anywhere, ever' as this would be unfeasibly difficult to gather accurate data for. More likely it is based on statistics for a number of discrete communities over a set time period.
Daniel- I agree with you that correlation and causation should not be confused. But I think that the influences of religious groups on the individual were probably assumed to be a logical extension of believing in a creator. You give a good example of a reason to conclude a causal relationship when the data shows a strong correlation.
Hooch- sorry to create this tangent on your blog.
from now on you shall be known as Adam the Creator. feel free to create all the tangents you like. :)
Adam im not saying your wrong,
I just disagree with the finding of the report from the journal of religion and society. It would be almost impossible to correlate the data to prove that religion is soley responsible. It would have to take into account many different variables that if assumed could vary the outcomes.
(i.e) type of religion, social status, culture, amount of athestists in the populus, etc etc.. then u could even go into the whole cult side of things or even the mind set of people depression and what not.
If your trying hard to prove something u can manipulate the data to prove anything.
If u put a big enough spin on things u 'could' prove that it all resulted from the new chemicals in the foods we eat.
I don't think Adam or the findings are saying that 'religion is solely responsible'; merely observing that there is a correlation. It is obviously much more complex than saying 'here is the problem, here is the cause'.
I agree with you, adam and I are neither right nor wrong on the subject and 'solely responsible' probably isn't the right term to use.
Im sure there is correlation towards religion aswell as im sure that there is a correlation towards many other issues.
Would the correlation exist if it is a controled experement?
The study should have deemed inconclusive due to uncontrolable variables.
... and now I see you have!
Marvel at my correctly placed comment!
(o^_^o)
I see you have been touched by his noodly appendage, and a most beautiful thing it is to.
You may wish to commune with other Australian pastafarians at our very own Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
See: http://noodlynation.blogspot.com/
Bless you, and I think you may have some sauce on your collar.
RAmen
Pastor Len
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