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The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Shifting Discourse on Religion

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The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Shifting Discourse on Religion Counterreligion? The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Shifting Discourse on Religion Hanna Lehtinen Master’s thesis Department of Comparative Religion School of History, Culture and Arts Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Turku April 2018 The originality of this thesis has been checked in accordance with the University of Turku quality assurance system using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. UNIVERSITY OF TURKU School of History, Culture and Art Studies /Faculty of Humanities LEHTINEN, HANNA: Counterreligion? The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Shifting Discourse on Religion Master’s thesis, 102 pages, 16 appendix pages. Comparative Religion April 2018 _____________________________________________________________________ This study discusses a movement called the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (CFSM), also known as Pastafarianism. Pastafarianism was born in the United States in 2005. It has since grown to a global phenomenon with numerous communities active both online and offline. While Pastafarianism is generally considered a parody religion or an Atheist satire criticising privileges awarded to religion in society, its open- endedness and subtle balance between different discourses on religion (and non- religion) make it open for many kinds of interpretations and uses. In this study, I examine the way Pastafarians construct their movement discursively, how they negotiate the categories of ‘religion’ and ‘atheism’, and how they locate Pastafarianism in relation to these two categories. I examine the way this movement is taking part in discourses that question the widely accepted categorisations and boundaries of ‘religion’. As research material I examine the writings of Bobby Henderson on his Pastafarianism-dedicated website The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and written interview responses I have received from numerous Pastafarians in different European countries. My study sheds light on the way Pastafarians creatively mix and use different discursive strands on religion and produce an elusive, potent tool for both questioning and maintaining certain cultural category boundaries concerning religion and non-religion. I also examine whether the concept of counterreligion would be useful analytical tool in describing this process. Keywords: Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, invented religions, parody religions, atheism, counterreligion, religion and secular, public–private distinction, discursive study of religion Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research theme ............................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Background ............................................................................................. 1 1.1.2 Parody religion ........................................................................................ 4 1.2 The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster ................................................... 6 1.2.1 Brief history............................................................................................. 6 1.2.2 Pastafarian teachings................................................................................ 8 1.2.3 Pastafarianism today ................................................................................ 9 1.3 Previous research .......................................................................................... 13 1.4 Research setting and questions ...................................................................... 21 1.4.1 Research questions ................................................................................ 21 1.4.2 Counterreligion? .................................................................................... 24 2 THEORETICAL GROUNDWORK..................................................................... 26 2.1 Social constructionism and discourse approach to religion ............................ 26 2.1.1 Social constructionism ........................................................................... 26 2.1.2 Discourse approach to religion ............................................................... 29 3 METHOD, MATERIALS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ....................... 34 3.1 Research method and analysis ....................................................................... 34 3.1.1 Research method ................................................................................... 34 3.1.2 Analysing process .................................................................................. 35 3.2 Materials ....................................................................................................... 37 3.2.1 Overview ............................................................................................... 37 3.2.2 Electronically published sources ............................................................ 38 3.2.3 Interviews .............................................................................................. 39 3.3 Scope and limitations .................................................................................... 41 3.4 Ethical considerations and positioning .......................................................... 44 4 ACADEMIC CONTEXT ..................................................................................... 48 4.1 What is wrong with Pastafarianism? ............................................................. 48 4.1.1 Invented religion vs. religion is about belief ........................................... 51 4.1.2 Funny religion vs. religion deals with serious matters ............................ 54 4.1.3 Political religion vs. religion is a private matter ..................................... 56 4.1.4 Religion and atheism – an impossible combination? .............................. 59 4.2 Summary ...................................................................................................... 60 5 ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................... 62 5.1 Overview ...................................................................................................... 62 5.2 About Pastafarianism: the website of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster ................................................................................................................... 62 5.2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 62 5.2.2 Religion and Pastafarianism ................................................................... 63 5.2.3 The others of religion ............................................................................. 69 5.2.4 Spaghetti, Wenches and Metaphysics: Your guide to FSM..................... 71 5.2.5 Summary ............................................................................................... 72 5.3 Interview responses....................................................................................... 74 5.3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 74 5.3.2 Religion and Pastafarianism ................................................................... 75 5.3.3 Atheism and Pastafarianism ................................................................... 79 5.3.4 Summary ............................................................................................... 82 6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 83 6.1 Religion old and new .................................................................................... 83 6.1.1 Overview ............................................................................................... 83 6.1.2 Organised religion ................................................................................. 83 6.1.3 Universal religion .................................................................................. 84 6.1.4 Formal religion ...................................................................................... 85 6.1.5 Pastafarianism ....................................................................................... 86 6.2 Counterreligion revisited ............................................................................... 88 6.3 The end is not the end is not the .................................................................... 89 SOURCES .................................................................................................................. 92 Primary research materials ...................................................................................... 92 Research literature ................................................................................................... 93 Other sources .......................................................................................................... 99 LIST OF PICTURES ................................................................................................ 102 APPENDIX .............................................................................................................. 103 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research theme 1.1.1 Background This study examines a movement called Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, also known as Pastafarianism. Since its inception in 2005, the Church of FSM has stirred plenty of confusion, controversy, and hilarity. It has also rapidly
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