Hi all. It appears that wordpress is not meeting our needs like we thought it would be, so we will be moving to our new site later today and part of tomorrow. It is currently at http://pastafariansatusc.blogspot.com but it will move again to http://pastafariansatusc.org. 
The new service we’ll be at should be much nicer and easier to customize and let us work with everything we already do, so we’ll get back to you about that.
Thanks!
I whipped up a few of these guys as a commission for someone I’ve been working with this summer. If there’s enough interest, I’ll hopefully be able sell them in the Pastafarians at USC store, (coming soon-ish. Later than sooner, most likely) provided we get permission from His Holy Prophet. Until then, find me on campus or shoot me an email (president@pastafariansatusc.org) and I can whip one up for you. They’re going to be around $20, but rather than going to my pocket, the proceeds are going to the group – which means it’ll fund posters, events, and other awesome stuff for us! If you like the Pastafarians at USC, consider a donation or a purchase. We’ll love you forever.
The Secular Student Alliance regularly awards affiliate groups for work in activism, education, service and many other categories. In 2009 we received the best media coverage award for the whirlwind media blitz we enjoyed, including a front page New York Times story and other radio and television interviews about our activities. We are happy to report that we can add one more distinction to our group’s accomplishments, since our organization advisor and friend Dr. Barry Markovsky has won this year’s SSA Best Advisor award!
Barry doing a presentation at the Secular Student Alliance’s 2010 Southeastern Leadership Summit in Columbia!
In what seems like forever ago, I walked into Barry’s office with Matt Sulem (the group’s co-founder) to discuss the plans we had for putting together a much needed group on campus to support the interests of secular students and secular principles. Matt met Barry through his popular and excellent class called “Sociology of the Paranormal,” a class I would later take (I highly recommend it to all USC students!). What struck me then and still strikes me now is that Barry is an extremely down to earth professor, who also happens to be a genius. He obtained his PhD in Sociology from Stanford and is a heavy weight in the field, but you wouldn’t know it until you start really talking to him. He demonstrates a great balance between intellect and friendliness that I believe allows him to be an excellent resource and friend to our group and its individuals.
In recognition of his help, I nominated him for the University of South Carolina Best Advisor award in 2010 and he won!
Since then, he has continued to help and guide us. He is always willing to meet with us or allow us to bounce ideas off of him when we need to, but also lets the officers lead and take ownership of the group. He has stepped up despite his busy schedule of teaching, research, and grant writing to personally get involved with us. For example, he gave a presentation about cults after a showing of the documentary Jesus Camp. Most recently, he presented at the Secular Student Alliance Southeastern Leadership Summit held on the USC Columbia campus. He loyally attends our events and gives his support. When we struggled to find a PA system for our debate on the question of America as a “Christian Nation,” he went through the trouble of acquiring and lugging his bands’ equipment to the venue so that the audience could hear what was going on. (That’s right – he plays and sings in a band, too. What a cool guy!)
I’ll share a few words from the nomination I wrote that won him the USC award, which still rings true today:
Dr. Barry Markovsky graciously offered to be the adviser to the Pastafarians student organization almost three years ago. Though I didn’t know him when we founded the group, I have come to know him best out of any other professor or professional at the University of South Carolina, which I believe is a testament to his voluntary caring and investment in student life. Dr. Markovsky has consistently taken interest in the success of our group but has maintained the perfect balance between giving solicited advice and allowing the officers autonomy to sculpt and run the organization ourselves. He wishes to see us succeed in all our endeavors and his assistance clearly portrays what all student organization advisors should aspire to – an advisor who relegates himself to the background as a supportive figure, rarely taking deserved credit so that students can shine and learn to lead themselves… it is time for him to be recognized for his outstanding work as our advisor and friend.
Barry and I after him winning the advisor of the year at USC in 2010.
Congratulations again for being recognized as a great advisor and mentor!
Happy and creepy! Perfect propaganda!
An Austrian man has won the right to wear a colander in his driver’s license photo on the grounds that it is religious headgear for his faith, Pastafarianism (hooray, us!).
After a three year legal battle Niko Alm has won this right, which began as a response to Austria’s recognition of “confessional headgear” in government I.D.s.
It is worth mentioning that Niko was required to undergo an evaluation for mental fitness before being allowed to drive under his new license. Perhaps this should be standardized for all claims of the supernatural with regard to public safety. 
In contrast, France has become the first country to ban Islamic veils in public.
My personal feelings towards this are mixed. I have no sympathy for Islam – in so small part for its subjugation of women – and I find it hard to believe that any right-minded person would submit to this type of self-loathing. (In all fairness, I find it hard to believe that any right-minded person would hold any religious leaning whatsoever, but I digress . . .)
However I oppose this type of censorship for the same reason that I oppose the banning of swastikas or the Confederate flag – the censorship of one type of symbol opens the door for all other forms of censorship: ban the burqa today and tomorrow the image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
In short, I feel that Mr. Alm’s photo sends a very strong message that gets to the core of Pastafarianism – You are free to have whatever political or religious leanings you want, but we reserve the right to think that they’re horribly backwards and worthy of mockery.
It seems I am fashionably late to the blogger introductions. Well, one does save the best for last, right?
Michael Ethan Lambert. Third-year student at U. of South Carolina. Atheist, proud Gamecock, and former resident of a vast void of country somewhere between southwest Alabama and the Mississippi River. Hopeful graduate in English literature, despite my love of sentence fragments. And unapologetically obsessed with the French, as my inaugural post will show.
The American climate toward “non-religion” can hardly be called favorable. We who choose to exercise our freedom from religion often understand, all too harshly, how deep run the roots of faith in American society. Despite the overlooked skepticism of the Founding Fathers and the Enlightenment tolerance present in our governing documents, the majority of Americans (or, at least, the ones closest to the microphone) still considers this nation a Christian nation. The historical value of this assumption has a cheap value when compared to the actual impact such an assumption has: the exclusion of the secularists and skeptics, the feelings of seclusion and apartness in one’s own culture, and the constant devaluing of one’s opinions. Against these threats, many American non-religious fight to have our government, at every level, recognize its intended secular character.
Can this goal be achieved? Does the possibility even exist? Yes and yes. It has been done before and can be done again. But who dares to be the shining example of secular government? You guessed it: the French.
Well, perhaps you didn’t guess it. But it’s true regardless.
La laïcité (or secularism) has been a central pillar of French government since its revolution. This pillar has stood the test of little over 200 years without serious alteration or opposition. Even when Napoleon struck his “concord” with the Catholic Church, he only claimed that the majority of French were Catholic. He did not say that the government itself was Catholic or supported Catholicism. With the republics of the 20th century, secularism grew more and more important to political discourse, despite the rich religious diversity among the French (and a long-standing tradition of Catholicism). Speaking with the French I know personally, the common tactics of American politics – the opening of council sessions with prayer, the proof of church affiliation among candidates, etc. – would cause nothing short of a media scandal if they occurred in France.
So, despite all the jabs Americans love to throw at the French, they have accomplished something it seems we cannot: separating our personal and public beliefs. The power of religious should be the transformative power of the personal, the immediate, the “soul” (if you want to go there). However, the social realm should be the place where neutrality reigns, where the betterment of all comes before self-affirmation.
Mon pays, fais attention! Lève-toi! Un monde laïc t’attend.
Also, a quick reminder: Celebrate la Fête Nationale this Thursday (Independence Day for the French, in case you were wondering).
To further research French secularism, visit http://www.lemondepolitique.fr/culture/laicite-en-france. And put the sight into Google Translate. Because it really isn’t that hard.
Today is the fourth of July. That means cook-outs, fireworks, beer, and chants of “AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!” ad nauseum. Many atheists may feel a sense of unease or discomfort towards this holiday, not because we’re pinko commie anti-American bastards*, but because much of the United States happens to view us that way. A video from a Memorial Day parade where atheist American soldiers are being booed and harassed proves this point.
To counteract such an idea, the American Atheists are flying banners from planes over 26 states for the fourth of July. The messages read “God-LESS America” and “Atheism is Patriotic”. I find the latter message to be a bit strange because atheism isn’t patriotic. Neither is Christianity, or any other religion for that matter. I will say that devotion to religion and country can seem very similar (e.g. Boy Scouts with their duty to God and country), but patriotism and a particular religion are not mutually exclusive. But I’m off on a tangent about semantics.
Blue States have Banners, White States Do Not. Note the white block for the southeastern states.
Why aren’t the banners flying in all fifty states, though? Because pilots are refusing to fly them.
“I’ve been in this business for 20 years and I’ve never run into so much resistance on people flying,” Jaye said. “I’ve had pilots who are actual atheists who said, ‘Justin, I am an atheist and I won’t fly it because I can’t wear a bulletproof vest.’”
Jaye said while some feared for their lives, others feared for their marriages. He had one pilot say his wife would divorce him if he made the flight. Red Calvert, a pilot and president of Pro-Air Enterprises in Indianapolis, said his reasons to decline the flight were based on his personal beliefs.
“I respect our country and I respect our churches and we’ve got enough problems in our country without stirring up some more,” he said. “If those people want to do something they believe in, fine, just don’t include me.”
Calvert is juxtaposing religion and patriotism again. I (to a degree) understand and respect his refusal to fly. It’s just frustrating to see how some people believe that trying to assert that atheists are as patriotic as any other American is ‘stirring up trouble’.
I personally like what Dave Silverman had to say to the resistance.
“This is a clear reminder of why we need to keep fighting because the bigotry against us is so thick that a lot of the pilots are afraid to fly our banners.”
It’s so frustrating and saddening to see that pilots are afraid to fly due to the anti-atheist sentiment in this country. What exactly is unpatriotic about not believing in a deity? Is it because we fight to separate government and religion? We fight to NOT make religion and patriotism mutually exclusive? I find that the separation of church and state is one of the most patriotic things to fight for, and I’m not just saying that for atheists, but for Baptists as well.
There shouldn’t be fear over what one believes (or doesn’t) in this country. Freedom of (and from) religion is what we are based on, and if people deny that, they’re denying their own history. I’m satisfied that these are going up, even if I don’t necessarily agree with the semantics (after all, we’ve seen that the American Atheists aren’t the best at marketing). It’s just sad that I won’t be seeing them over my home state. (Note: Really? Mississippi AND Alabama, but not South Carolina? I am disappointed.)
Happy Independence Day, Y’all.
*For those readers unfamiliar, to ‘combat’ Communism, the words ‘Under God’ were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. It was also written by a Baptist minister without Under God in 1892.
Along the border between science and theology is a growing movement to link the spooky and complicated world of quantum mechanics with the tired claims of religion. Adherents of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the modern weirdness of the “New Age” faiths seem quick to try to justify their claims about metaphysics through the popular misunderstanding of REAL physics – a claim that I believe anyone with a high school understanding of these concepts would find laughable.
In my travels on the interwebs I’ve picked these references from the churning sea of pseudoscience:
From Hinduism and Modern Physics:
“Eastern thought, and more generally, mystical thought, provide a consistent and relevant philosophical background to the theories of contemporary science.”
“Similarly, the Eastern mystics assert that, in transcending time, they also transcend the world of cause and effect. Like our ordinary notions of space and time, causation is an idea which is limited to a certain experience of the world and has to be abandoned when this experience is extended.”
From The Metaphysics of QM:
“…[b]ut it looks to me that a very good case could be made that God must exist, upholds reality (the doctrine of creatio continuans) through observation, and imposes complete sovereignty without appeal to a vitalistic force, if Copenhagen is true.”
“Far from being a ‘modern Goliath’ that challenges Christianity, quantum mechanics seems to provide as good a proof of God’s existence as there is. The subject is so complicated, however, and easy to obfuscate, that few if any theists or atheists know the truth about quantum mechanics. This provides great opportunity as an apologetics tool, given that the anti-intellectual bent in the Christian community over the last 100 years usually puts theists in a defensive position on apologetics issues (atheists often find these problems with their position 20-30 years before Christians catch up). If we took the offensive on this issue, for once we would be ahead of the game in our dialogue with atheists.”
Of course, the central problem with interpreting science as support for a religious argument undermines the basic foundation of science – With religion you are finding facts to support a preconceived conclusion. With science you seek a conclusion to match the facts you find.
I have taken courses in quantum mechanics. I’ve read through Einstein, Bohr, Bardeen, Planck, and Schrödinger, and I can say that in my journeys I’ve found nothing to support the metaphysical claims made by the links above. However, the wonderful thing about science is that you don’t have to take my words on faith. Here, read!
Wikipedia to the Rescue! Also this one!
“As classical physics and non-mathematical language cannot match the precision of quantum mechanics mathematics, anything said outside the mathematical formulation is necessarily limited in accuracy.
Also, the precise ontological status of each interpretation remains a matter of philosophical argument. In other words, if we interpret the formal structure X of quantum mechanics by means of a structure Y (via a mathematical equivalence of the two structures), what is the status of Y? This is the old question of saving the phenomena, in a new guise.
Some physicists, for example Asher Peres and Chris Fuchs, argue that an interpretation is nothing more than a formal equivalence between sets of rules for operating on experimental data, thereby implying that the whole exercise of interpretation is unnecessary.”
The truth of the matter is, there is no magical space at the quantum level that hides a god. There is no wondrous land of infinite possibilities. (Unless you go too deep into that many worlds interpretation, but there’s no hard evidence for this. ) The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics introduces an uncertainty in MEASUREMENT. The bodies in play still follow physical law – there is no Boson with a non-integer spin, there is no luminiferous aether, and you will never find a magical, bearded, Jewish carpenter hiding behind a muon.
From the way you hear mystics talk you’d think the physical world wasn’t fascinating enough without religion.
Until next time, I remain your humble contributor.
My name is Sarah Nell, and I, too, will be writing for this blog. I’m a senior double major in Psychology and German (no, I do not want to become Sigmund Freud). I’ve been involved in the Pastafarians for about a year now. Most of my posts will probably deal with gender equality issues and cultural differences and their relationships to religion/secularism/humanism, respectively, as those are relevant to my interests.
Also, please pardon any vagueness in my posts; I rarely edit my entries before publishing. If you have a question, don’t hesitate to ask.
I am a sophomore studying linguistics at USC. I consider myself a secular humanist with a passion for the scientific worldview. Although I am admittedly not a perfectly rational person, I try to look at the world objectively, and hope that others will come to do so as well.
If you know who I am, you may be wondering why I chose to be represented under a pseudonym instead of under my real name. My father is a member of the clergy, which makes religious issues particularly personal to me – but also means that I must maintain anonymity on the Internet regarding atheism/skepticism/irreligion for the time being.
I also take forever to write blog posts, since I’m constantly reading and re-reading what I write to make sure everything is phrased correctly. I suppose this is a good thing?
Anyway! I look forward to writing more, and reading what everybody has to say.
