The Sunday Mail
IT all started in Kansas in the year 2005, when the Kansas Board of Education issued a statement about teaching Intelligent Design along with the Theory of Evolution to its students or not. Intelligent Design is the idea of one God creating the earth, as opposed to the earth having gone through millions of years of evolution. Upon hearing about this, a certain physics graduate named Bobby Henderson wrote a letter to the school board, apparently asking them to also consider the other possibilities that lie within the context of intelligent design.
In his letter, he introduces himself as a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and a concerned citizen. He argues that if intelligent design was to be added to the curriculum, then so should Pastafarianism, which is the belief that the Flying Spaghetti Monster- an invisible being with the shape and form of pasta noodles with two meat balls- designed the universe and is in fact responsible for everything in the world. It was a cleverly-worded satyr protesting the board’s decision to teach a religious idea alongside science and scientific theories.
The Spaghetti Monster is a parody of the concept of a being that is supernatural. Henderson goes on to say that the Flying Spaghetti Monster has created the world and all evidence pointing otherwise is simply a diversion by the Spaghetti Monster himself. For example, a scientific process may display data that shows the world has undergone thousands of years of evolution, but in truth, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there, in an invisible and undetectable form, manipulating the results. It was his intent, according to the letter, to convince the board to teach other alternate theories, like Pastafarianism, along with Intelligent Design, in order to accommodate all beliefs, and that the theory of evolution is considered a belief rather than a fact-Spaghettimonster.com
