The Flying Spaghetti Monster

About

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a satirical deity for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a parody religion with followers known as “Pastafarians”. The being resembles a large floating mass of cylindrical pasta with two large eyestalks and carrys a meatballs on each side of its body.

Origin

In January 2005, the Kansas Board of Education was considering making changes to its science standards. The board was proposed presenting “intelligent design”, the claim that a conscious being created the universe, as an alternative explanation to evolution, and teachers would be require to state that evolution is a theory and not a fact.

Bobby Henderson, a 25-year old Oregon University student at the time, noticed that the Board had only specified “Intelligent Designer” and not the specific name of any one known deity. This inspired Bobby to protest the proposal by creating the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Bobby wrote an open letter to the Kansas school board about his worries that students would hear only one version of intelligent design:

It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.^[2]

The Board did not respond until it gained significant interest when Bobby posted the letter on his website in May 2005. The responses have been posted on the official website.^[3]

Spread

The FSM has been featured on sites like Fark, SomethingAwful. BoingBoing^[4] posted an article mentioning the Kansas School Board and FSM on June 22nd, 2005, and followed up with a $1 million dollar Intelligent Design challenge^[5] on August 19th, 2005.The New York Times^[6] published an article on August 29th, 2005 An FSM flash game was developed by Plasmic Studios^[7] in September 2005.

Pastafarian Drivers License

On July 13th, 2011, The Telegraph^[8] published a story about Austrian Niko Alm who was awarded the right to wear a colandar on his head in his driving license photo, as it had been deemed “religious headgear”. Niko wrote on his blog^[9]:

“Today I was able to get my new driving licence, and in it you can clearly see that I’m wearing a colander on my head to demonstrate my allegiance to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster”

Search

Search queries started picking up in June of 2005, shortly after Bobby Henderson posted the open letter, and reached its highest spike in October that year.

Media

Images

Video

External Links

^[1] The Washington Post – Kansas Education Board First to Back ‘Intelligent Design’

^[2] Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – Open Letter

^[3] Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – Open Letter Responses

^[4] BoingBoing – Dear Kansas: Why stop at “Intelligent Design?” What about Spaghetti Monsters?

^[5] BoingBoing – Boing Boing’s $250,000 Intelligent Design challenge

^[6] The New York Times – But Is There Intelligent Spaghetti Out There?

^[7] Plasmic Studios – Flying Spaghetti Monster: The Game

^[8] Telegraph – ‘Pastafarian’ wins religious freedom right to wear pasta strainer for driving licence

^[9] Niko Alm – Holy License

^[9] The Daily What – Everybody Needs A Hobby of the Day