In 2005, the Kansas State Board of Education voted to require public schools to include the “intelligent design” theory as a viable alternative to the Darwinian theory of evolution.
This decision prompted a physics graduate student named Bob Henderson to draft a somewhat satirical protest letter. Henderson argued that any legitimate “intelligent design” theory could not be presented as scientific fact without acknowledging a God, which would violate the separation of religion and science in public schools. He presented an argument in which an all-powerful flying spaghetti monster could logically be credited with creating the known universe.
This letter became the basis of a parody religion known as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Followers of the “faith” claim that a “Spaghedeity”, the flying spaghetti monster, used his Noodly appendage and other powers to create everything on the planet after drinking heavily. If a scientist were to use techniques like carbon-14 dating to disprove this theory, the Invisible Monster would actively skew the results in his favour.
While many of the Church’s texts and beliefs of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are little more than exercises in college satire, there is an underlying point to the movement. Intelligent design theory is complicated to explain on a purely scientific level, as the theory inevitably leads to questions about the “intelligent designer” responsible for creation. While the more established theory of biological evolution uses rigorous scientific data to prove its case, intelligent design theory is often stymied without adding religiously based evidence. Henderson used a Flying Spaghetti Monster theorist to highlight the difficulty of presenting a largely faith-based creationist theory in a scientific setting.
Henderson created a satirical “Sacred Text” that further outlined the Church’s tenets of the flying spaghetti monster. Many of these principles are loosely based on or suggested by Judeo-Christian scriptures, such as the Ten Commandments. Henderson’s version of the Commandments is “Eight, I wish you didn’t do that,” for example. Church followers call themselves Pastafarians, a play on the Jamaican-based Rastafarian religion.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster might best be described as a parody religion, like “Bob” Dobbs’ Church of the Subgenius, or an anti-religion, somewhat akin to Scientology or scientific agnosticism. It is still prevalent on many college campuses, especially among those who feel deprived of mainstream religions or are generally attracted to countercultural lifestyles. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has its website, and its literature is available in many bookstores and libraries.
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