So I'm at my regular Thursday night Dungeons and Dragons game last night (What? I'm an engineering student, I HAVE to play D&D; it's the RULES!) when one of my friends tells me that the Secular Student Alliance at the University of Delaware is planning to show up last Friday morning in full pirate regalia and preach the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, as well as pass out pamphlets and free ramen. Naturally, I decided to at least take a look, especially because of the possibility of a religious throw-down.
You see, there's this guy, who we call Crazy Jesus Man/Kirkbride Guy, who shows up every so often in front of Kirkbride Hall on South College Ave. here in Newark, DE, and preaches fire and brimstone at all the heathen college students. It's rather entertaining. He's virulently anti-video games, anti-Democrat, and also anti-Catholic, just to name a few things he stands against. He'll show up with his easel and his box of literature and stand there yelling about how we sinful college students are all going straight to hell in a hand basket, and what we should do to change our lives for the better (naturally, by accepting his fanatical, fundamentalist, evangelical point of view of Christianity).
Now, I'm not particularly anti-Christian. Really, I'm not. I was raised Catholic, and confirmed in the church. However, not too long ago I left it behind in favor of something a little more, down-to-earth, shall we say. My own personal beliefs aside, I have often stopped to talk with this gentleman (and I use that term lightly), and have usually come away from each conversation with my faith in humanity's ability to reason deeply shaken. So, the first time I saw someone in pirate regalia preaching the glories of His Noodly Appendage, I was shocked, awed, and highly amused.
I already knew about Pastafarianism (I'm a scientist, and so take particular interest in the Intelligent Design-Evolution debate), and had read a good bit on it. I recognized what this guy was doing immediately, and got a good laugh. I later found out that, on several occasions, he and others had shown up when Kirkbride Guy was there, and had begun preaching, much to his chagrin. Evidently, things nearly got to fisticuffs on more than one occasion (A fundamentalist getting flustered? Mon Dieu!).
So when I heard about the event today, I knew I just had to go. I walked over around 10:30 that morning, and saw several people in pirate regalia, with the readings from the Gospel of our Noodly Master already begun. There were signs, pamphlets, and, of course, free ramen noodles. There were also water bottles, kindly provided by the folks at the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, about 100 feet further down the sidewalk.
That made my morning.
After a brief bit of talking, I was convinced to go back to my dorm and get my guitar, book of folk songs (including many sea shanties), and pirate outfit. I returned shortly thereafter and spent the next hour or so playing sea shanties for the lot of them. I unfortunately had to leave shortly thereafter for a job interview (in suit and tie, not pirate outfit), but I heard many good things about the rest of the day.
It's a shame there isn't an FSM analogue for the GOP. It would make things a hell of a lot easier for us. At any rate, just a little bit of humor to brighten your day.