Flying Spaghetti Monster: Noodling with religion and the Flying Spaghetti Monster Christmas tree ornament
November 16, 2007
The followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, known as Pastafarians, will be pleased to know that the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a religion will be included in this year’s American Academy of Religion fostering excellence in the study of religion annual meeting under the auspicious title Evolutionary Controversy and a Side of Pasta: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Subversive Function of Religious Parody, with Holy Pasta and Authentic Sauce: The Flying Spaghetti Monster’s Messy Implications for Theorizing Religion, and Noodling around with Religion: Carnival Play, Monstrous Humor, and the Noodly Master.
The concept of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a religion is a loosely ethereal one, as it sprang complete from the imagination of Oregon State physics graduate named Bobby Henderson in response to a Kansas School Board debate on the merit of including intelligent design as part of the public school science class curriculum.
Upon learning of the debate in 2005, Henderson wrote a letter to the Kansas School Board as the representative spokesman of the 10 million followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster for the satirical pasta god requesting the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a religion be recognized and included alongside teachings of evolution and intelligent design. The letter Henderson wrote was written at a time when it could become viral on the internet. It is difficult to calculate by number how many identify with the Pastafarians, but where at the beginning there were no real Pastafarians, an imaginary religion does have its pasta god following members.
It’s satirical. It’s parody. It’s a counterbalance of levity to the very weighty and serious issues of religion. No one actually believes anyone actually believes that a giant flying spaghetti monster created the universe — but that was never the point or intention of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
For Pastafarians shopping for a new tree ornament to hang on the Christmas tree this year, there is a hand-felted Flying Spaghetti Monster tree ornament on the market. [via: BoingBoing]