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Pastafarianism
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Pastafarianism is a parody religion. It emerged from a satirical creature (the flying spaghetti monster or FSM) imagined by Bobby Henderson,
intended to mock intelligent design during the Kitzmiller trial. Initially the flying spaghetti monster was a character in satirical letter which asked the Dover Area School district to consider teaching an "alternative" scientific theory based on their "deeply held beliefs" with questionable scientific evidence and appeal to textual authority (written accounts), appeal to popularity (millions of believers) and legal threats if their voodoo science wasn't taken seriously.
A mock religion grew around the FSM, as semi-serious movement known as Pastafarianism (a word play on rastafarianism).[1] Some adherents consider themselves "genuine" believers in Pastafarianism (to different levels of seriousness/parody) while others are members claim adherence only in protest of the very idea of organised religion. Some members have used Pastafarianism as a way to mock or exploit rules/laws that only favour religious believers (having extra privileges in prison or being allowed to ignore dress codes).
Origins[edit]
During the Kitzmiller trial, many thousands of people wrote in to the Kansas School Board. Many were scientists, appalled at the lack of scientific standards in the intelligent design that the 6 (out of 10) conservative board members were pushing, and somewhat abrasive.
Bobby Henderson added humor to an otherwise humorless decision, when he wrote his open letter to the Kansas School Board. Choice comments:
I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.
[....]
I cannot stress the importance of this enough, and unfortunately cannot describe in detail why this must be done as I fear this letter is already becoming too long. The concise explanation is that He becomes angry if we don’t.
[....]
I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (Pastafarianism), and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.
Four school board members responded to the letter, only three of them positively.
Pirates[edit]
Extending his parody from the controversy over ID to that over global warming, Henderson added:
Furthermore, it is disrespectful to teach our beliefs without wearing His chosen outfit, which of course is full pirate regalia.
[....]
You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti monster has kept up the good fight, publishing incontrovertible evidence of the pirates-temperature link.[2][3] Luckily, as the Church notes, "[p]irates, in many ways, are experiencing a renaissance in America right now."[4] The unpirate scourge shall walk the plank any day now!
See also[edit]
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For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Flying Spaghetti Monster. |
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