Lain

Something to hopefully brighten up your day at least but I found this article rather amusing

I swear, this is the first religion I have heard. Oh well, to each his own I suppose.

Link to Article

Student punished for spaghetti beliefs
Thursday, March 29, 2007

A student has been suspended from school in America for coming to class dressed as a pirate.

But the disciplinary action has provoked controversy – because the student says that the ban violates his rights, as the pirate costume is part of his religion.

Bryan Killian says that he follows the Pastafarian religion, and that as a crucial part of his faith, he must wear 'full pirate regalia' as prescribed in the holy texts of Pastafarianism.

The school, however, say that his pirate garb was disruptive.

Pastafarians follow the Flying Spaghetti Monster (pictured), and believe that the world was created by the touch of his noodly appendage. Furthermore, they acknowledge pirates as being 'absolute divine beings', and stress that the worldwide decline in the number of pirates has directly led to global warming.

Pastafarianism gained wide attention when its key prophet, Bobby Henderson, wrote to the Kansas School Board during the height of the controversy over 'Intelligent Design' being taught in science classes. His letter, also published on his website, demanded equal time be given to the teachings of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as was given to ID and evolutionary theory.

Since then, the Flying Spaghetti Monster has gained countless followers worldwide, although there are those who remain spagnostic.

The school, in North Buncombe, North Carolina, remains adamant that their decision to suspend Killian for a day has nothing to do with his religion, and quite a lot to do with his repeated refusal to heed warnings against wearing pirate outfits.

migamoo

I read this a few days ago. It's good for a laugh, that's for sure.

Parallax

Now there is a religion i would like to follow!

quaist

The thing about that "religion" is funny, but the suspension is not.

I mean, even though it's a hilarious "belief", it is one, after all.

Lain

There's a wikipedia entry about it:

Pastafarianism

quaist- Yes the suspension is not funny of course. And though it is a religion, I think it is one that no one has really heard about until now

migamoo

Actually, it's a PARODY religion. It's not meant to be taken seriously. Why some people would, I don't know.

elisheva

Yeah, it's an internet joke. It's really hilarious (especially the pirates-global warming correlation - totally true, of course!)

sunnykerr

The sad thing, too, is that... shouldn't we support originality and creativity in students, especially when it comes in such benign ways? I mean, who was he hurting?

Unless there's a dress code at that school and he was in violation of it... But, otherwise, I'd rather say bravo to him for bucking the norm.

quaist

Kris, that's what I meant.

Even if it was against the "dressing code", I can't really understand the suspension.

sunnykerr

From what I understood, and perhaps I got it wrong, but he was suspended for a day. I understood that to mean that he was basically sent home for the day. Which would have been the case for me if I had shown up at my school wearing something that went against the school's dress code.

And we don't exactly know how he chose to go about representing a pirate. At my school, anything resembling a weapon (even made out of cheap styrofoamy plastic) was grounds for a day suspension.

Mind you, I went to one of those schools where there is a violence problem.

I still think it's a shame his originality wasn't rewarded. It's hard to buck the trend in what I assume was high school.

quaist

Well, maybe I've read the article too fast, I assumed that he got totally suspended.

Now that I know that, I came to think about what my school would have done, and I think the headmaster would've done basically the same: Send the student home for a day because of violating the dress code.

Californian

I have never heard of that religion, but that was an amusing article. Although I don't think that student should have been suspended.

Lolabelle26

Okay...