Austrian Man Really Using His Noodle

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-license photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".  Niko Alm first applied for the license three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional (i.e., religious) reasons.

After the photo was rejected by authorities, Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion. The idea came to Alm as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point.  Alm has admitted that he took up his cause in protest to the government's recognition of religious headgear in official photos (at the exclusion of other types of headgear).

A self-confessed atheist, Alm now says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted, U.S.-based faith whose members call themselves "Pastafarians". The group's U.S. website states that "the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma".

After public pressure forced the Austrian police to allow the picture, authorities then lashed out with one final gesture of defiance-- they required Alm to obtain a doctor's certificate to prove he was "psychologically fit" to drive.

The next step, according to Alm, is to apply to the Austrian authorities for pastafarianism to become an officially recognized faith.