8 in 12 or... As if I wasn't in enough trouble with Margaret

Ok, not actually anything to do with 8 in 12, but John made me promise I would start my next blog post with it.

How come I keep missing stuff like this? I obviously don't read enough of those news websites.

With the insidious push to introduce "Intelligent Design" (the theory that life on earth is too complex to happen by accident, and therefore had intelligence and intent behind it, i.e. god) alongside Evolution in American Schools by George Dubya, someone has responded in a way that noone was really expecting, and can't really defend against effectively.

Bobby Henderson, an american physics student, wrote an open letter to the Kanas School Board asking them to include the teachings of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as part of their curriculum, which he proposed as an alternative theory of "Intelligent Design". His argument was that this was as valid a theory of intelligent design as any other, and deserved equal time in the classroom.

Needless to say, they weren't too thrilled, and one board member responded that it is a "serious offense" to mock God, just in case anyone was in doubt that they mean "Christianity" when they say "Intelligent Design". Equally needless to say, something like this can catch on in the internet so fast you won't know what hit you, and the "Church of the FSM" (or Pastafarians) has spread like wildfire. People have built up this whole mythology around the FSM, and someone has gone so far as to offer a $1 Million Dollar prize to anyone who can prove that Jesus is not the son of the FSM (although in fairness, this is a satirical response to a challenge made by Ken Hovind about empirically proving evolution, Jesus doesn't actually factor into the FSM "religion" and the challenge was issued by a third party).

Here is a picture of the "Intelligiently Designed" theory of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. As you can see, he started off by creating a mountain with trees on it, and a midgit.

Ultimately, I think it is funny, but fairly harmless. I don't agree that this is mocking Christianity or peoples beliefs as such, this is all aimed squarely at a tactic to teach christianity in schools and present it as science. There really is nothing to show that the Flying Spaghetti Monster shouldn't be taught in school alongside other "Intelligent Design" theories, beyond the fact that it is clearly made up (but you can't prove it was made up). It raises the question about whether they intend to teach other religious creationist beliefs, or just christianity, and I don't think anyone has really answered that question satisfactorily.

For those interested in reading a bit more about it, here is the Wiki guide. There is also a FSM Game, and a bunch of other stuff like hate mail received and wallpapers to download (WWFSMD?) on the main Church of FSM Website.