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Saturday, November 21, 2015

"Whose Religion" Followup

So, here's the story in a nutshell:
A woman who belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was allowed to wear a colander on her head in a driver’s license photo after her original bid to do so was denied.
That's it. Her American Humanist Association attorney claimed, "The First Amendment applies to every person and every religion." Lindsay Miller of Lowell, Massachusetts, claimed her atheism was a religion. She got her wish.

I recently argued that all of us have a religion, that thing that shapes our values, our specific set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons. I asked whose religion you would want to make our laws since Christianity is being pushed out. I argued that it was a fallacy to say that no religion should be used because "no religion" is a religion, too.

I think Lindsay Miller made my point. Do you want to know something really scary? In 2006 a New York Town Councilman was sworn in wearing a colander. See? Here we have precisely what I was saying, a religion making the laws.

3 comments:

David said...

This is just a testament to stupidity and the fear of lawsuits. Their religion is to mock religion. I seriously doubt they go out wearing that year round, like Jews or Muslims. The point is the license is to depict you on a normal day. It is clearly a mockery of Theism and should be kept out of official venues. The sad thing is, I bet in a couple generations there will be people that truly pray to the flying spaghetti monster and not be doing it as mockery but as a god.

Stan said...

Wait ... are you suggesting that it's NOT really their religion, that they DON'T actually pray to the flying spaghetti monster, that they REALLY DON'T wear those spaghetti strainers on their heads in homage to their god? My, but you're a cynic, aren't you?

David said...

More like cynical.