One Month Without Faith - Thank you.

[Randy Carson]

The title is misleading.  Sorry.  Today, I celebrate my one month anniversary of giving up trying to have faith.  I, for the last month, have been living as an agnostic free of prayer, church attendance, and, the constant discussion that once consumed me, defending a god I found detestable even on my "best" days.  I'm still finding it difficult to keep the same friends I had in the Church because they always want to talk about faith, but some of them are slowly realizing that I'd rather talk about other things.  My wife (who agrees with me most of the time) still attends, but it's because our entire life was wrapped up in the Church.  She said to me the other night in the kitchen when I showed her the "Pastafarians" YouTube video that she feels so stupid for holding similar beliefs.  For the first time in a very fulfilled life, I feel like I'm winning.  I feel like I'm on the bow of Magellan's ship calling out the course.  Free of hell, free of an eternal watchful "father", free of pointless scriptural study... I am happy and hopeful to help those who I can, learn as much as I can, and enjoy my life with the things I can now take credit for having (rather than thanking a brutal dictator in the sky for pretending to give me the bounty of *my* hard work).

I am happy.

I'm toasting you guys for being supportive and hope that whatever your part in existence is right now, that it's bringing you happiness.

Thanks, guys/gals.

I have a question or two about being "pastafarian".

According to the accounts I've read, the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) seems to interact quite a bit with the natural universe. For example, I read that gravity is really nothing more than the FSM's "noodly appendages" pushing people down. Has this been verified in any way by science? After all, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

I'm also told that people are taller today than they were in the past due to the fact that the population has grown so much that the FSM is no longer able to hold them down as well as it did before. Doesn't this suggest that the FSM is not omnipotent? A real God would not be limited in power or ability.

The argument from parody for the FSM is this:

1. Our quasi-religion, Pastafarianism, is silly and unfounded and therefore false.
2. Other religions are just as silly and unfounded as our religion.
3. Therefore, other religions are false.

Premise one is granted. Therefore, the real issue is whether Christianity is just as silly and unfounded as Pastafarianism.

Is it?

Well, begin with this question: Did Jesus Exist?