The church of the flying spaghetti monster?!?! Is this for real?

I was at a wedding a few weeks ago and a friend of mine mentioned, in passing (as if this isn’t a big deal), how her brother-in-law recently got married under the traditions of the church of flying spaghetti monster. She kept on talking to get to some other point of her story, but I had to stop her right then and there. I mean, was she joking? Did she make it up? Did she really say The Church of the Flying spaghetti monster?

Sure, I’ve heard of the church of scientology. I mean, Tom Cruise is the President or something which obviously made that famous. But I can’t say I’ve heard of the Church of the flying spaghetti monster (FSM)? I have since confirmed it exists! Apparently, the church is 10 million followers strong and is continuing to grow. Followers of this religion refer to themselves as Pastafarian;