Today we took time out to report on the decision just taken by a court in Australia not to recognise a church as a legal entity.
Yes, Pastafarians are reportedly fuming after the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was denied legal status.
The religion was launched in the USA (where else?) back in 2005 when Bobby Henderson came up with the idea that a supernatural creator that closely resembles spaghetti and meatballs is changing carbon-dating methods.
He submitted the concept to the Kansas State Board of Education to protest against the idea of intelligent design or creationism being taught in biology classes.
Extraordinarily it’s since taken on a massive following and Pastafarians have been allowed to take regulation photos for things like drivers licenses with a pasta strainer on their heads because it’s part of their religion.
However, that’s certainly not the case in Australia.
Tanya Watkins has tried several times to get the ‘offbeat movement’ officially recognised as an incorporated association. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), she had hoped to get it listed as a not-for-profit organisation, legally certified in South Australia.
However, she was recently knocked back by South Australia’s Corporate Affairs Commission.
The Adelaide woman then escalated that decision to the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT), where she asserted that the Church was started for a ‘religious, educational, charitable or benevolent purpose’. She claimed that because of that foundation, it fit South Australia’s criteria for the Associations Incorporation Act.
Sadly for Tanya, SACAT Senior Member Kathleen McEvoy didn’t feel the religion was rooted in anything that was genuine and she relegated it to a hoax or meme religion.
In handing down her decision, Ms McEvoy took issue with the various ‘Pastafarian texts’ that Tanya outlined because they ‘contain some surprising articulations’.
Hilariously, the books of the Bible are referred to as the ‘Old Testicle’ and ‘New Testicle’.
Ms McEvoy added: “In particular there are numerous expressions which reference the texts of established religions, mimicking those texts in form and language, but in a clearly parodic form.
“I do not accept the applicant’s explanation of the use of these expressions (and numerous other similar expressions, many expressed in racist and sexist terms, referencing texts or practices of other religions) as examples of humour, and for the purpose of generating curiosity.”
“It is my view that the Pastafarian texts can only be read as parody or satire, namely, an imitation of work made for comic effect. In my view, its purpose is to satirise or mock established religions, and it does so without discrimination.”
So there!
Returning to home turf, and being a Tuesday I was once again joined by Margaret Mills who took us on over to OSEA ISLAND, close to Maldon. There are connections there with both early aviation as well as alcohol. So two separate links to getting high, maybe!
You can listen again here to what Margaret told me today: –
Anyway that’s me done for another time but I look forward to having your company again next week,
Scott