"Flying Spaghetti Monster" Religious Group Turning Heads at MSU

A group at Missouri State University is raising eyebrows with it’s not-so-mainstream take on religion.

The national "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" has a local chapter at MSU, and it's sending a strong message to students on campus.

It’s the second-largest religious group on Missouri State's campus, with more than 200 members, including MSU staff.

It's a student organization Jeffrey Markus wanted to be a part of as an MSU student.

“For the people that are not heavily into a religion it feels like a real welcome movement because here on campus there's a lot of people who are very confused on what they believe and on what they want to do."

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster began just a few years ago with only a handful of members and now its grown dramatically.

“A lot of times when you're talking about emotionally or religious charged issues its very difficult to have a reason conversation,” says the organization’s captain, J.T. Eberhard. “People on both sides, I think one side in particular have divorced themselves from reason to such a degree that is very hard to have a logical discussion with them."

The group is known for its sarcastic support of theories of intelligent design and has strong beliefs that the universe and everything in it was created by a flying spaghetti monster.

“We get a lot of support, more than you imaged,” he says. “In fact, the majority of our membership is made up of religious people. We have a Muslim member, we have several Christians that just that are in favor of a more imperially-based world view.”

Many members of the organization believe that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates since the 18-hundreds.

"Hardcore or hard-lining religious people take this movement as a very negative look,” says member John Apeine. “Most people on the street once they get to know what they are about kinda see a bit of satire in it and at the exact same time they see that there is a much stronger message. Not everyone may believe in the flying spaghetti monster in the way they believe in everything else."

Many members have turned to the internet to network, using sites like facebook for discussions, recruitment and event planning.

And although it gets a lot of support from both students and faculty, the group does get threatening letters and hate mail delivered to its members.