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[wind whooshes]

[thunder rumbles]

[choir vocalizes]

[camera clicks]

[camera clicks]

[camera clicks]

[choir vocalizes]

[thunder rumbles]

[choir vocalizes]

[Roel] The Netherlands are a secular state.

We do, of course, have religious freedom in our Constitution,

and I'm convinced that religious freedom is a very important principle

of the Dutch legal culture.

[Roel] Religious freedom

could be seen as a part of, well,

essential human dignity.

Every human being should have the freedom to decide

about the way he wants to organize his or her own life.

But the privileges of the church

might be something else.

[choir vocalizes]

[coffee machine rumbles]

[dark playful music]

My dad and mom are Christian,

so I was raised up as a Christian child.

And I think I was 14 years old when I thought, "No,

that's not the religion for me."

A man splits the sea in two parts,

so people can walk in, into the sea?

And, yeah, it's, it's it's, it's nonsense.

[dark playful music]

In 2008,

I saw the first Pastafarians on the internet.

I read about it, and I thought,

"Yeah, this is more a religion for me."

[dark playful music]

[Bruder] I read an article in a German newspaper

called Spiegel, about the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

In that moment, I was touched in my heart

by his noodly appendage

and started a small group in Templin.

[dark playful music]

We opened that church in, I think, September 2014.

We invited the mayor of the town and a lot of politicians.

They didn't come.

[bright music]

[Niko] I think I'm a saint for some Pastafarians.

At least the Russian church made me into a saint.

Also, I'm an honorary member

of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

in Trinidad and Tobago.

Yeah, and, and of course, in Austria.

In Austria, I used to be, like, religious leader.

I used to be Superior Macarona,

but then, when I went into Parliament,

I had to step down, because you can't do both,

being a religious leader and member of Parliament,

so I decided to be on the state side.

The thing I like most about the Church of FSM

is its freedom it gives its, uh, followers.

[Dirk] You don't have to pray.

You don't have to go to the church.

But when you want, you can.

When you don't want, yeah, you don't have to.

[colander clanks]

[Bruder] Welcome, my dear Pastafarians,

for our Friday Noodle Mass.

[Bruder] We see us not as a church,

we see us as a worldview community.

And in Germany, as a law that's a worldview community

has the same right as a church.

Beer from his beer volcano.

[Bruder] But only in the words, not in the practice.

Noodle from his noodly appendage.

[Bruder] And we try to do it in the practice.

[together] R'Amen.

[sings in German]

[light guitar music]

A colander divides the main important stuff

from the stuff that you don't need. And for me,

it's a symbolic way that teaches me how to live life.

You have to hold on to the good stuff,

and let the bad stuff slip away.

[Samir] What I like best about Pastafarianism

is the fact that it's relatively free of violence.

The other older religions, there you have certain rules,

that you must hold onto or else you go to hell

or you go to-- yeah, all kind of evil things happen to you.

The church of FSM has a kind of guidelines,

"Rather Not's," we call them.

They give you a moral compass,

but they give you the freedom to be your own moral person.

[Dirk] Our belief tells also that, uh, you have to accept all the religions.

When some people are believing in other gods

or in other religion, it's okay.

Now, this is a great example for society,

so much better than the eternal conflict

that some other groups of people have.

[Dirk] When you are a good person in society,

then you are a good Pastafarian.

♪ Hallelujah

♪ The Holy Gospel is written in the 20th chapter ♪

♪ Of the Gospel according to Saint John ♪

♪ Beginning at the first verse

♪ Hallelujah

[soft peaceful music]

[Daniel] Our brains, like the brains of all animals,

have evolved by genetic natural selection

to render the aspects of the world that matter to us

visible, perceptible, trackable, usable.

We have all sorts of hardware that's genetically wired in

that makes it easy for us

to cope with those parts of the world

that matter most to our species.

But we have enhanced that by orders of magnitude

with human culture, which also evolves by natural selection

to fill our minds with mind tools.

They're not inherited through our genes,

they're inherited through our culture.

Included among all that cultural inheritance

is a lot of superstition.

When people were scared, puzzled, baffled,

surprised by phenomena, they tended to imagine them

to be the effects of strange monsters, demons, ogres,

leprechauns, imps, fairies.

All of these invisible creatures

became part of the local lore.

Then gradually, people began to realize

that some of them were very useful.

And they began to domesticate them,

and turn them into the watchful eye of Big Brother.

If you made sacrifices to this one,

this would bring in great crops.

And besides, if you were a priest,

you might be able to share in some of those sacrifices.

That is, you could, you could get the food for free

that was being offered to the gods.

So what we see is a process

from just happenstance creation

because of fear and surprise and alarm among people.

That gave us a population of cultural entities,

all imaginary, but made vivid by the retelling

and the refurbishing in the imaginations

of all the storytellers.

And these gradually morphed by an evolutionary process

into the gods, like the Greek gods, like the Roman gods,

and then into the God.

We gradually moved to monotheisms.

There have been thousands and thousands of religions

that have vanished

with only the faintest traces in the history books.

They leave almost no fossil traces, but we know they're out there.

And the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

is one of the most recent.

-[choir vocalizes] -[thunder rumbles]

[light gentle music]

[Dirk] Last year, I thought that it's strange

that the Church of the FSM is not in the Netherlands.

I wanted to try to get it recognized

here in the Netherlands.

So I went to the Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands

also register the churches.

[Dirk] After that I appealed

the decision of the Chamber of Commerce to reject our church.

And after that appeal, we won.

[choir vocalizes]

In January 2016, Church of the FSM is recognized

by the Dutch government.

[audience applauds]

[audience laughs]

[audience laughs and applauds]

[Bruder] Every god has special people.

The Christian God has the Jews.

So the, uh, Pastafarian God,

his people are the pirates.

[adventurous music]

[guests laugh]

[guests cheer]

-Arghhh! -[Toby] We decided to do a pirate wedding,

um, mainly because it shows respect to the Pastafarian faith.

Pastafarianism believes that, um, all humans

are descendant from pirates and share 99.999% of our DNA with them,

and it's also just such a fun thing to do.

Why wouldn't you do it?

[guests cheer]

[Bruder] Pastafarian scientists find out that the earth warming

also has happened because too less pirates around.

You can make a graph and you'll see

that the number of pirates is going down

and the earth warming is going on.

So, it clearly-- for any scientific-thinking man,

we need more pirates to stop the earth's warming.

That is our holy mission, our holy order.

[dramatic music]

[audience applauds]

[Bruder] We only accept pirate headgear.

The colander for us is blasphemic.

In 2011, the Austrian people is starting

with the colander, but it was an Austrian,

and it was, for us, a bad idea to use a colander,

because we were already pirates,

and specially we Germans know what happened

if Germans follow the crazy ideas of Austrian leaders.

You understand what I mean.

[bright invigorating music]

[Niko] If you read the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster,

you don't read about pasta strainers or colanders

or any type of headgear.

The role model for the Pastafarian is the pirate,

and pirates don't wear colanders.

That's something I came up with.

I invented it.

I, I'm not even sure if I invented it.

I think the Flying Spaghetti Monster

touched me with his noodly appendages,

and kind of inserted the idea in my head.

[gentle piano music]

It must have been around 2008 when I decided

that, I, uh, would like to have a new driver's license.

I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles

and I found a brochure.

One of the rules was that you're not supposed to wear a hat

or any type of headgear in your license's picture.

There was an exemption for that rule

that was for specific religious reasons.

And I thought, "Okay, if this is the rule,

then I have to come up with a religious reason."

I'd been working in my office, and in my office kitchen

I saw that, I saw that colander, that, that pasta strainer.

It, it kind of struck me. It was like this--

The thing perfectly fits on my head,

and it also perfectly fits the purpose.

[gentle piano music]

They called me and asked me for another picture,

and I told them, "I'm wearing headgear

for religious reasons. That complies with your rules."

They sent me an invitation to the Public Health Officer.

She had to check whether I'm sane or not.

Basically I just told her what I was doing,

and she completely understood what I was doing,

and so she declared me sane.

So I am officially and legally sane in Austria.

And finally they just issued the driver's license.

[gentle piano music]

I did it on purpose, though, of course. It was a planned thing.

I knew, uh, it would spark some media attention, maybe,

but it kind of exploded.

[light piano music]

[news anchor speaks in German]

His name: Niko Alm, Lionel's hero of the week.

[reporter] A man in Russia who identifies himself

as a Pastafarian, and he has just won the right

to wear a colander on his head in his driving license photo.

A Madison man has won the fight

to wear a spaghetti strainer on his head

in his driver's license photo.

[Canadian news anchor] A Surrey man is boiling mad

that ICBC is denying him a photo driver's license

because he wouldn't remove his religious headgear for the picture.

The attorney for the man says,

his client is, quote, "Pastafarian."

[speaking in foreign languages]

The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I'm like, "You're discriminating against us

just because you haven't heard of us?"

[man] Pastafarian? You know, that sounds like a joke to me.

I was asked to remove it.

I did explain that it

was my religious headgear.

His religion? Well, it isn't exactly mainstream.

-[woman] She's making a mockery out of the whole thing! -[man] Exactly!

[news anchor] Look at them, it's chaos!

Civilization crumbling.

[news anchor 2] Some people, when they first heard

about all this, they were wondering if this

is a real thing.

[man] I think that you could ask that question about any religion.

[woman] You can be like, "This is ridiculous."

[man] Obviously it's stupid, you know what I mean?

There's no such thing as a Pastafarian,

and it's just a horrible take on Rastafarians,

-which is a real religion. You know what I mean? -Right, right, right.

Nonsense.

I think the most important argument is that it is

virtually impossible to distinguish

so-called real religions from, uh, fake religions.

[Mienke speaks in Dutch]

An identification cards has the word "identification" in it,

and in identification is the word "identity."

This colander is part of my identity, it's my religion.

[Bruder] In Germany, every church can have a sign,

where it's standing, what time

and what day are their Masses.

We also would like.

[Dirk] You can't say a Pastafarian is not a true religion,

because it's based on the same grounds

as every other religion.

[Mienke] If someone believes something that you don't,

it's always crazy.

I think believing in a guy who walked on water

and a guy who split the sea is crazy.

And they say to me my religion is crazy.

But... yeah, what's the difference?

[Dirk] It's in the law.

Every religion, uh, is the same.

You may not discriminate.

When you have that exception,

you have to make exception for everyone.

[narrator] From the coming of age, Bryan surveys the nation

and finds it wicked.

His sermons become bitter tirades

against the godless conspiracy of science

and his particular target,

that pernicious theory, evolution.

When the Tennessee state legislature, inspired by Bryan,

outlaws the teaching of evolution in the public schools,

Dayton generally approves.

But Dayton's young high school science teacher, John Scopes,

says the law can't be right

if it forbids him to tell the truth to his students.

On a May afternoon in a drugstore booth session,

Scopes admits he has taught evolution

and volunteers to get himself arrested for doing it.

He is quite willing to stand trial

and test the anti-evolution law.

All attention focuses now on the prospect

of an ethics debate of science versus religion,

city versus country, reason versus faith.

Can this trial really be taking place in the 20th century?

[woman] We have a lot of people addressing us and saying,

"Well, this is not science."

And when I say, "Well, I think that it has scientific basis."

They still argue that it's not science.

Can you address any of that?

Why is intelligent design science, then?

Kansas is front and center on a national debate

about how children should learn

about creation in public schools.

[man] I believe that evolution should be represented

for what it truly is, which is a theory

that is being presented as a possible option for, uh, for origins.

-[interviewer] But that there are other theories? -There are other theories.

-Including intelligent design? -That's correct.

-Do you believe in intelligent design? -I do.

Do you believe intelligent design answers questions

that we yet don't know in science?

[expert] In the absence of adequate evolutionary explanations,

it is reasonable and rational to seek other explanations.

Anyone...

who attempts to present creationism

as anything other than a belief

is either delusional...

or willfully ignorant.

[Pedro] Would you then believe that it is appropriate for scientists,

when they cannot find a natural answer

to observations, to simply rely

on a supernatural explanation for that observation?

They should look for the best hypothesis

to fit the evidence, which can include

supernatural explanation when you're talking about origins.

One cannot present a legitimate argument

and expect a legitimate result

when the individual listening has his or her mind

already made and is unwilling to accept new evidence.

[dark cello music]

[Derk] For driving licenses and other photo IDs in the Netherlands,

you need a photo with no head-wear,

except when you're religious or your worldview,

um, makes it necessary for you to wear something on your head.

Then it is allowed as long as the face

is still visible enough.

[speaks in Dutch]

[Derk] This exception for religions and worldviews

will be applicable to Pastafarians

only if it is judged that they do have a religion or a worldview,

and that the Pastafarian in question

really has religious reasons to cover his head.

[Derk] In religious studies or amongst theologians

there has never been agreement

about a definition of religion.

So, if something looks like a religion,

people say it is a religion,

and people say they are adherents of this religion,

then I think it should be recognized as such,

and all the expressions of it should be recognized

and protected equally, because otherwise

you're violating the principle of equal treatment.

[Roel] Well, obviously you can never prove

that a God or your God exists.

That's the challenge for every religion,

and that's the problem in this case,

because the Pastafarians can never prove

that their Spaghetti Monster really exists.

On the other hand, the mayor of Eindhoven

can never disprove its existence.

So, we have to find another way

to decide whether this is a religion.

The core of religious freedom is that the state

shouldn't meddle with religious issues.

And that the state should grant its citizens

the right to express their own religion.

The judge is, of course, not a theologian,

so he has to find other criteria

to decide whether something is a religion, a worldview,

uh, or perhaps just a bunch of nonsense.

[somber cello music]

So, these other religions, they all have, uh, elements

that are not very credible, not realistic.

Uh, that's why it's called belief.

You have to believe it, not explain it or rationalize it.

[Derk] They basically say that, uh, Pastafarianism is a parody.

It's actually just one big elaborate practical joke.

That's what they argue, and they say that Mathe is a joker,

and he's doing this purely for fun

just to see if he can get away with it,

and have a big laugh and that's that.

Well, this is, I think, a satirical religion,

and if we start to recognize this, what's next?

Where does it end?

You could, of course, ask the theoretical

and principled question, "Is this a good thing?

Should religious people be awarded more rights and freedoms

than non-religious people?"

[somber music]

[Niko] If we would be writing a fresh Constitution

and fresh laws, we would never introduce

something like religion or any other philosophy

as being privileged or discriminated against.

It would be totally clear in our modern society

that everybody has to be treated equal,

regardless of his confession, religion, whatever.

[Bruder] In a very special way, we fight to get the same rights

as the churches has.

It never will happen, I'm sure, not in the near future.

The only way is not to give special rights for anybody.

[dramatic music]

[thunder rumbles]

[woman] People of faith make better leaders.

Faith gives us empathy.

[chanting] God hates fags!

It's called the Religious Freedom Act.

[news anchor 1] The Indiana version

gives businesses a license

to discriminate, allowing them to refuse services

to gay couples for religious reasons.

[news anchor 2] Most of the measles cases in New York

have occurred in Orthodox Jewish communities.

Parents can opt out of mandatory immunizations

for religious reasons.

Jesus himself gave us the flu shot.

[Anderson] Didn't call a doctor or seek any kind of medical treatment, they prayed.

[news anchor 3] The death later ruled a homicide.

And now we're learning the couple's religious beliefs

are a reason they didn't get medical help.

[intense dark music]

[news anchor 3] Sexually abused more than a thousand children

and likely thousands more over seven decades.

Church leaders protected the priests, putting children at risk.

It takes a lot of money to do what they did.

[news anchor 4] It's impossible to know exactly how many millions of dollars

these ministries take in every year,

because they are not required

to make financial disclosures of donations received.

By the way, all of it is tax-exempt.

[dark playful music]

[news anchor 5] Pakistan's blasphemy laws,

which says anyone who's convicted of speaking ill of Islam

and Prophet Muhammad faces the death penalty.

-[klan member] A sign of the Christian religion! -White power!

[news anchor 6] Shot in the head by a Taliban gunman

simply because she believes

girls have the right to go to school.

[news anchor 7] Fires as he approaches the upscale club

in Istanbul, Turkey.

[news anchor 8] Terror strikes France once again.

[news anchor 9] ISIS is taking credit

for the truck attack in Berlin.

[woman] Oh, my gosh! Oh, my God!

[slow somber music]

The one thing that I think is really dangerous

in many religions is that it gives people

a gold-plated excuse to stop thinking.

-[host] To stop thinking? -To stop thinking.

To say, I don't have to think about that

because my religion says, this is right, this is wrong,

it's as clear as that, it's black and white,

I don't have to think about this anymore.

It's just a matter of faith.

And this-- and we honor that.

We say, "Oh, it's a matter of faith."

I think we have to stop honoring people

for stopping thinking.

[man] We hold with Charles Darwin

that man is descended from the monkey.

[man 2] Friends, we don't believe that man has come from monkeys.

God has created men.

This dispute over the rising idea of Darwinian evolution

came into the United States right during the Civil War.

[gentle choir vocalizes]

In the book of God's creation showed a beneficent God.

Well, suddenly they didn't see a beneficent God

on the battlefield in Gettysburg,

and they didn't see a beneficent God in Darwinian evolution.

And so, you had people, led by conservative theologians,

object immediately that Darwinian evolution

was antithetical to their religious beliefs.

But they didn't necessarily object to a long Earth,

that Earth was very old.

By this time many dinosaur discoveries

were made in the United States,

so they weren't creationists like we think of today.

They would accept evolution that species evolved

from other species, as long as God

was guiding the overall process.

And that worked out as a bit of a compromise.

And so America adopted evolution

without much controversy until the 20th century.

[somber music]

That time World War I was the most awful thing

that modern people had ever seen.

The amount of carnage, the amount of killing,

and the destructiveness of the scientific weapons,

especially the chemical weapons

that were used during that war, were evidence, many thought,

of what science was doing to us.

That sort of thinking made people skeptical

about scientific progress.

A movement developed out of this fundamentalist movement,

out of this split in Christianity.

And it began in the churches,

where you saw conservative Christians

trying to push those who believed

in a purely evolutionary view out of the pulpit,

out of the seminaries.

And then it expanded

to, "We also want these atheistical,

scientific ideas out of the classroom."

It was a classic populist movement.

Now, the man being tried for his views

was school teacher, John Scopes,

who was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

The Scopes Trial was one of the key pivotal events

in the evolution of creationism.

[news anchor] Bryan stifled the defense

at every turn by shouting over and over again,

"The Bible states it, it must be so!"

As the trial moved outdoors, Darrow astounded everyone

by calling Bryan himself to the stand,

and after a full day of pounding at him,

Darrow had reduced Bryan to a laughingstock

in the eyes of his own people.

As Darrow summed up before the jury, he said,

We are marching backward to the glorious age of the 16th century,

when bigots burned the men who dared to bring any intelligence

and culture to the human mind.

[Edward] William Jennings Bryan only held fast

that humans were created directly by God,

and was willing to accept that the Earth was very old.

He didn't know how old.

"600 million years old," he said on the stand at Dayton,

"I don't know how old the Earth is."

Gradually, those ideas were worked out, were, were removed,

and the fundamentalist doctrines became more conservative.

[preacher] The Holy Gospel...

Healing all matter of diseases!

Healed by Jesus!

Savior, Jesus Christ.

And his blood washes whiter than snow.

And you need to make a vow of faith of $1,000!

I think it's not too much to say that evolutionism

is the-- a chief weapon, the basic weapon

in Satan's war against God.

[Edward] Henry Morris, who was a Southern Baptist,

became convinced

that if you want to take the Bible literally,

you have to take the whole Bible literally.

You have to believe these things,

because if you can't believe Genesis,

why should you be able to believe the Gospels?

[host] Doctor Morris' lecture was based in part on this book.

You know, if Satan really is the originator of evolution,

that answers a lot of questions, doesn't it?

Well, the Bible certainly tells us

that Satan is the father of lies,

and he's the one that deceives the whole world.

Science begins with hypotheses,

and then looks at nature to test them.

Creation science, as, as Henry Morris called his ideas,

is the reverse.

They know the answers to begin with,

because, and Henry Morris would be the first to say this,

because, "I know the Bible is literally true.

I know the answers."

And he looked at nature to prove his ideas.

[Ken] There's a war on.

There's a war in society.

It's Christianity versus humanism.

But you know, at the foundational level,

it really is creation versus evolution.

It's one of the most fundamental, important issues of today.

Why should our ideas, which are scientific in their view,

why should our ideas be excluded from public schools?

So the movement to exclude evolution

morphed into a movement to have both ideas taught.

Lots of local school districts passed laws or ordinances...

calling for balanced treatment,

equal treatment of the two ideas.

[man] Oye, Oye, Oye!

[Edward] The Supreme Court stepped in

and struck down those laws as unconstitutional,

because they were promoting

a religious idea, creation science.

The theory of evolution is as unchallengeable as we've been planned.

When something like 90% of the public is skeptical

to one degree or another of the theory,

how should educational authorities address this?

Okay, we can't ban the teaching of evolution.

We can't mandate the teaching of creation science.

We should at least be able to teach intelligent design.

It might not be a Christian God, it might not even be God,

but some sort of intelligence is behind all this.

[Phillip] Teach what the official voices of science say,

that's knowledge students should have,

but they should also learn why many people believe

that what they are being told is philosophy

rather than a fact.

The lawyerly arguments of, of Phillip Johnson

led to this intelligent design movement,

which then played out most famously in Kansas.

For our future, I urge you to discard entirely

the non-scientific bias testimony

that has been presented in this classroom.

You have a responsibility that is much greater

than each of you individually.

You have a responsibility to the children,

and the future of this state.

A responsibility that you have sadly...

sadly... failed.

[dramatic piano music]

[light guitar music]

[Bobby] "The Open Letter to the Kansas School Board.

I'm writing to you with much concern

after having read of your hearing to decide

whether the alternative theory of intelligent design

should be taught along with the theory of evolution.

I think we can all agree that it is important for students

to hear multiple viewpoints,

so they can choose for themselves

the theory that makes the most sense to them.

I am concerned, however, that students will only hear

one theory of intelligent design.

We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster

created the universe.

None of us, of course, were around to see it,

but we have written accounts of it.

We have several lengthy volumes

explaining more details of His power.

Also, you may be surprised to hear

that there are over ten million of us and growing.

We tend to be very secretive,

as many people claim our beliefs are not substantiated

by observable evidence.

[door thuds]

What these people don't understand

is that he built the world to make us think

that the Earth is older than it really is.

For example, a scientist may perform

a carbon dating process on an artifact.

But what our scientist does not realize,

is that every time he makes a measurement,

the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there

changing the results with his noodly appendage.

Furthermore, it is disrespectful to teach our beliefs

without wearing his chosen outfit,

which is, of course, full Pirate Regalia.

I cannot stress the importance of this enough,

and unfortunately cannot describe in detail

why this must be done, as I fear this letter

is already becoming too long.

The concise explanation

is that he becomes angry if we don't.

Thank you for taking the time to hear our views and beliefs.

I think we can all look forward to a time

when these three theories are given equal time

in our science classrooms across the country,

and eventually, the world.

One-third time for intelligent design,

one-third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism,

Pastafarianism, and one-third time for logical conjecture

based on overwhelming observable evidence.

Sincerely yours, Bobby Henderson, concerned citizen.

P.S. I have included an artistic drawing of him

creating a mountain, trees, and a midget.

Remember, we are all His creatures."

We need to recognize that populations change,

demographics change, so my advocacy

in keeping religion out of government...

must be seen as an effort to also protect religion.

Because who's to say that in 100 years from now,

the Muslim faith...

may be the predominant religion in this country.

And how are Christians then going to feel

if they see passages from the Quran in schools?

They'd be outraged.

Would they remember that when they had the power...

they were enforcing their views on others?

And the best way to protect that balance...

is to keep special benefits, to any religion...

away from government, so that...

one's religious freedom...

is equal to one's freedom from religion.

[gentle piano music]

So, the European Court of Human Rights

says that religion should be cogent, coherent,

important, and serious.

That last criterion has been used by the judge

and by the mayors, uh, to say,

"Well, it's a parody, so it's not serious.

So it cannot be a religion."

So their ethics are in the eight

"I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts."

They contain an ethic of nonviolence, of tolerance,

of being generally nice to each other,

taking care of each other.

[Derk] So this is the serious side of Pastafarianism,

which is often overlooked by peop-- people that only see a parody.

Humor can be used as a very powerful instrument

of, uh, conveying an important message.

And that's what Pastafarianism does.

[gentle piano music]

[choir vocalizes]

[Daniel] We're living in an age where community

is evaporating in many regards,

and contrary to some of the hype,

the internet is not really providing

the right sort of community.

We need face-to-face, local organizations

where people recognize you, know something of your problems,

and make common cause with you about something.

That, I think, is the great virtue of existing religion,

is providing a focus for common cause, for joint activity,

an organization with an infrastructure

that makes it possible to work locally

to make things better.

Now, can we have that in secular organizations?

We can, but we haven't made much progress with that.

I don't think it would be wise for secular organizations

to adopt the irrationalities of religion

in order to maintain their adherents.

But I think they should think very hard

about what kinds of emotionally binding rituals,

traditions, activities, would help them.

These signs of camaraderie are very important,

and I think we should preserve these features of religions.

You have to hold on to the good stuff,

and let the bad stuff slip away.

[sings in German]

I became a Pastafarian three years ago

when I heard my, my Lord speak to me.

I answered him, "R'Amen," and I've followed him ever since.

As a Pastafarian, I believe

that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world

and all that is in it.

I ask that, regardless of your own beliefs,

you show a commitment to equal rights

and to the First Amendment by allowing our church

to erect a holiday display on the courthouse lawn as well

that is in equal in visibility to Christian

and Jewish installations.

I am committed to seeing equality

come to the Chester County courthouse lawn,

and I trust that you are, too.

[sings in German]

We're gathered here to, uh, do the business

of our Kenai Peninsula borough.

We make the rules, behavior in property,

levy taxes, and determine how to disperse them wisely.

A few of the assembly members seem to feel

that they can't do this work

without being overseen by a higher authority.

So I'm called to invoke the power of the true

inebriated creator of the universe,

drunken tolerator of all the lesser and more recent gods,

and maintainer of gravity here on Earth.

May the great Flying Spaghetti Monster

rouse himself from his stupor and let his noodly appendages

ground each assembly member in their seats.

[sings in German]

I look forward to working with you on this. Thank you for your time.

[council member] Any questions?

Go ahead.

Do you but-- Uh, what was the Flying Spaghetti Man?

[Tracy] It's the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[council member] Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[Tracy] Yes, it is-- that is the deity of our religion.