You know it's big when an anti-religion is being discussed at the American Academy of Religion...
The Flying Spaghetti Monster, a fabulous pseudo-deity, was created to...
An Oregon State physics graduate named Bobby Henderson stepped into the debate by sending a letter to the Kansas School Board. With tongue in cheek, he purported to speak for 10 million followers of a being called the Flying Spaghetti Monster -- and demanded equal time for their views.
"We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it," Henderson wrote. As for scientific evidence to the contrary, "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."
challenge intelligent design.
The point was, of course, that what belongs is science classrooms is good science. What happened in addition to making that point is that the pseudo-religion caught on. "Pastafarians" as members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster call themselves, have meetings dressed as pirates and can take pride in the fact that their satire has produced intelligent (pardon the pun) arguments about religions place in science classrooms.
I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall in this session! Hurrah for science! And way to go Flying Spaghetti Monster!
Program of the AAR:Program of the AAR