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The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a deity of a parody religion founded by Bobby Henderson in 2005 to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design creationism as an alternative to biological evolution. In an open letter on his website, Henderson professes belief in a supernatural Creator entity 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.
The followers of The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) call themselves Pastafarians, a play on Rastafarians.
Beliefs
Many of the beliefs proposed by Henderson were intentionally chosen to parody arguments commonly set forth by proponents of Intelligent Design. These are the canonical beliefs set forth by Henderson:
- An invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, starting with a mountain, trees and a midgit .
- All evidence pointing toward evolution was intentionally planted by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The FSM tests Pastafarians' faith by making things look older than they really 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."
- "Ramen" is the official conclusion to prayers, certain sections of the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc., and is a combination of the Hebrew term "Amen" (as used in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and Ramen, a type of noodles. While it is typically spelt with both a capital "R" and "A", it is also acceptable to spell it with only a capital R.
Pirates and global warming
Pirates are a major component of the Pastafarian belief system. Supposedly "absolute divine beings", pirates were the original Pastafarians and are greatly misunderstood, according to the Gospel. The image of "thieves and outcasts" is all misinformation spread by Christian theologians of the Middle Ages. Instead, they were "peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will" who would distribute candy to children.
The inclusion of pirates into Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is linked back to the letter that began the mock religion itself. In it, Henderson explains that "global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s." A chart accompanying the letter purported to show the correlation between the increase in average global temperature and the decrease in the number of living pirates.
The graph is obviously misleading. Yet, there is indeed a statistically significant inverse correlation between global warming and number of pirates in the provided data set. This is an intentional disregard for the fact that correlation is not causation; irrespective of the rationale for the inclusion of this particular example, it shows that two things that cannot have any causal relationship can nevertheless have a statistically significant correlation. Thus, many things that people might argue are "related" are actually only "associated", like number of pirates and global warming.
Henderson has stated that all proceeds from The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster sales will go towards the purchase of a pirate ship "The plan, for some time now, has been to form a non-profit organization, and then purchase a pirate ship, for missionary work - tax free." *," target="_blank" >Henderson contends that such a ship would help spread Pastafarianism to those without Internet access, as well as contributing to a decrease of global warming [http://www.venganza.org/petition.htm.
The Eight "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts"
The Eight "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts" are the Pastafarian equivalent of the Ten Commandments. They originate from the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. According to Pastafarianism, they were given to Pirate Mosey, the FSM equivalent of Moses, by the Flying Spaghetti Monster himself. There were originally ten, but two were dropped "on the way down the mountain". The lack of the two last I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts supposedly partly accounts for Pastafarians' self-proclaimed flimsy moral standards.
History and developments
The site was featured on Sensible Erection on June 17, 2005. References on blogs and Internet humor sites such as Boing Boing, Something Awful and Fark.com, and the mainstream media soon followed.
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, or worshipped in, Pastafarianism. 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.
The Gospel
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. The book was released on March 28, 2006 and may now be ordered online and at traditional bookstores.
See also
- Creation and evolution in public education
- Creation-evolution controversy
- Frisbeetarianism
- Intelligent Design
- Invisible Pink Unicorn
- Russell's teapot
- Intelligent falling
- Last Thursdayism
- Open source religion
- Parody religion
- Parody science
- Project Steve
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
- SPAM, an FSM-inspired "schism" site
- 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
Anti-creationism | Fictional deities | Flying Spaghetti Monster | Intelligent design | Internet memes | Monotheism | Joke religions | Parodies | Internet celebrities
Pastafarisme | Flying Spaghetti Monsterism | Létající špagetové monstrum | Det flyvende spaghettimonster | Fliegendes Spaghettimonster | Ιπτάμενο μακαρονοτέρας | Pastafarismo | Fluganta Spagetmonstro | Pastafarisme | Pastafarismo | 날아다니는 스파게티 괴물 | Kirkja hins fljúgandi spagettískrímslis | Flying Spaghetti Monsterism | מפלצת הספגטי המעופפת | Vliegende Spaghettimonster | 空飛ぶスパゲッティ・モンスター教 | Flygende spaghettimonster | Latający Potwór Spaghetti | Flying Spaghetti Monsterism | Lentävä spagettihirviö | Det flygande spaghettimonstret | 飞行面条怪物信仰
"Flying Spaghetti Monster"