Straining credulity 113

An Austrian has won the right to be photographed wearing a pasta strainer for his driving licence on grounds of religious freedom.

Niko Alm’s driving licence Photo: EPA

 

Fun for atheists.

From My Fox:

An Austrian man was Thursday driving around with a new official license that shows him wearing an upturned pasta strainer on his head.

Niko Alm applied for the license three years ago, sending in a picture of himself with the colander on his head and explaining that it was a necessary part of his “Pastafarian” beliefs.

He was apparently furious that officials had allowed Muslim women to wear head scarves when posing for their driving license, the Austrian Independent reported.

The entrepreneur told the Austria Press Agency he had the idea for the colander when he discovered that headgear was allowed in official pictures for “confessional” reasons.

After applying, Alm was asked to visit a doctor to check that he was mentally fit to drive but has now finally got his official license — complete with kitchen utensil headwear.

The atheist belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster … a light-hearted “faith” whose members call themselves Pastafarians and whose “only dogma … is the rejection of dogma,” according to its website.

Alm now wants to apply for Pastafarianism, which was created in the US several years ago, to become an officially recognized faith in Austria.

The religion reportedly believes the world was created by the “Flying Spaghetti Monster,” but, owing to the monster being inebriated at the time of creation, it has a flawed design.

A theology that strains our credulity no more than any other does.

The Telegraph reports:

The spaghetti church was founded in 2005 in opposition to pressure on the Kansas school board in the United States to teach the theory of intelligent design in biology class as an alternative to evolution, and since then it has engaged in a light-hearted campaign against religion.

Light-hearted the campaign may be, but its aim is seriously desirable.

Posted under Commentary, Humor, Religion general by Jillian Becker on Thursday, July 14, 2011

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