flying spaghetti monster

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of a parody religion founded in 2005 by physics graduate Bobby Henderson to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. In an open letter on his website, Henderson professes belief in a supernatural Creator that resembles spaghetti and meatballs called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and calls for Pastafarianism to be taught in science classrooms, essentially invoking a reductio ad absurdum argument against the teaching of intelligent design.^[1][2]

Followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) call themselves Pastafarians, a portmanteau of pasta and Rastafarian.

Beliefs

Henderson proposed many of the beliefs to parody common arguments by proponents of intelligent design.^[2] These are the canonical beliefs set forth by Henderson:^[3]

• An invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, starting with a mountain, trees and a midgit [sic].

• All evidence for evolution was planted by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The FSM tests Pastafarians' faith by making things look older than they are. "For example, a scientist may perform a carbon-dating process on an artifact. He finds that approximately 75% of the Carbon-14 has decayed by electron emission to Nitrogen-14, and infers that this artifact is approximately 10,000 years old, as the half-life of Carbon-14 appears to be 5,730 years. But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. We have numerous texts that describe in detail how this can be possible and the reasons why He does this. He is of course invisible and can pass through normal matter with ease."

• The Pastafarian belief of heaven stresses two points. "A) It has beer volcanos as far as the eye can see & B) It has a stripper factory."^[3]

• "RAmen" is the official conclusion to prayers, certain sections of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and so on, and is a combination of the Semitic term "Amen" (used in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and Ramen, a noodle. While it is typically spelled with both a capital "R" and "A", it is also acceptable to spell it with only a capital R.

Pirates and global warming

According to the Pastafarian belief system, pirates are "absolute divine beings" and the original Pastafarians. Their image as "thieves and outcasts" is misinformation spread by Christian theologians in the Middle Ages. Pastafarianism says that they were in fact "peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will" who distributed candy to children.

The inclusion of pirates in Flying Spaghetti Monsterism was part of Henderson's original letter to the Kansas School Board. It illustrated that correlation does not equal causation. Henderson put forth the argument that "global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s."^[3] A chart accompanying the letter shows that as the number of pirates decreased, global temperatures increased; it shows that things with statistically significant correlations are not necessarily related.

The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Main article: The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

In December 2005, Bobby Henderson received a reported USD $80,000 advance to pen The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. According to the author, he plans to use the proceeds from the sale of the book to build a pirate ship, with which he may travel the world in order to convert heathens to the Pastafarian religion.^[4] The book was released on March 28, 2006 (ISBN 0-8129-7656-8).

The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the Pastafarian equivalent of the Bible. It parodies biblical figures with characters such as Captain Mosey, a pirate and the FSM equivalent of Moses. The Gospel contains The Eight "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts", parodying the Ten Commandments.

History and developments

Bobby Henderson founded the "religion" for his website primarily as a satirical attack on the teaching of intelligent design in science classes. The site was featured on Sensible Erection on June 17, 2005^[5]. References on blogs and Internet humor sites such as Boing Boing, Something Awful and Fark.com, and the mainstream media soon followed.^[6][7][8]

In August 2005, in response to a challenge from a reader, BoingBoing.net announced a $250,000 challenge, later raised to $1,000,000, of "Intelligently Designed currency" by other bloggers, payable to any individual who could produce empirical evidence proving that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, though Jesus is not a part of Pastafarianism.^[10] The challenge is modeled after a similar challenge issued by creationist Kent Hovind (an award of $250,000 to anyone who can prove evolution "is the only possible way" that the Universe and life arose) that has been criticized by scientists as being logically flawed in design.^[11] Pastafarians in Australia recently used the Census in Australia of 2006 to raise public awareness of Pastafarianism in a campaign similar to the Jedi census phenomenon. They asked Australians to record their religion as "Pastafarian" in the August 2006 Australian Census.^[12]

The Myspace Worm

A flash worm appeared on www.myspace.com in July 2006, replacing a user's "books" section with a link to the Gospel's website. A large, black banner promoting Pastafarianism also consumed the top portion of any affected Myspace. An estimated 170,000 users were affected. The FSM website and Bobby Henderson were not responsible, and instructions on a fix were posted on the same website the worm advertised.[1]

The Flying Spaghetti Monster in pop culture

• The band New York Dolls added the FSM to their music video "Dance like a Monkey".
• The FSM Ichthys logo is becoming a popular car decoration amongst evolutionists and Pastafarians.
• Hoobastank member Douglas Robb thanked the FSM in the acknowledgements on the album Every Man for Himself.
• A section of the open letter to the Kansas School Board appeared in the January 2006 edition of Playboy.
• On the TV series The IT Crowd, a picture of the FSM can be seen on the wall behind Moss's desk, directly above a filing cabinet.
• In the web comic Ctrl+Alt+Del, Ethan once hides in the bathtub to avoid the FSM.

See also

References and notes

Footnotes

General references

Other media coverage

External links

• Originating Website, including Henderson's open letter sent to the Kansas Board of Education
• Official website's hate mail archive
• Uncyclopedia - Flying Spaghetti Monster More information about the paradoxically true and false nature of the flying spaghetti monster.
• Glutenheim.org - The world's first museum dedicated to the art of pasta, pirates, and the deities that inspire them.
• alt.religion.pastafarianism - Usenet Newsgroup discussing FSM
• Henderson news article
• Purported video of FSM as seen in Hamburg, Germany
• Sampling of Evidence in Support of the FSM - from the Science Creative Quarterly
• Australian Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster