In America there’s this document in place called the Constitution. Said document guarantees the right to freedom of religion. This is a privilege that has caused much controversy in the past, especially when the issue of how far one can go with what they choose to worship surfaces. In recent years, it seems people have been running off the edge with their bizarre religions. The following of one in particular is currently expanding—the Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Pastafarianism, as the practice is called, is the belief that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe and that all scientific evidence of evolution is purely coincidence put in place by His Noodly Appendage. Pastafarians think that He built the world to make us believe it is older than it actually is–in scientific ways of course. Pastafarianism is also the belief that “pirates were peaceful explorers and it was due to Christian misinformation that they have an image of outcast criminals today.”
Besides the fact that the ideals presented in Pastafarianism are admittedly satirical, active Internet blogger and church founder Bobby Henderson stresses the point that the religion is real. Henderson says, “Some Pastafarians honestly believe in the FSM, and some see it as satire. I would just make the point that satire is an honest, legitimate basis for religion. Satire relies on truth to be effective. If it’s a joke, it’s a joke where to understand the punch line you must be conscious of underlying truth. He is also the “concerned citizen” that claims responsibility for bringing Pastafarianism into the mainstream world with the publishing of a letter he wrote in 2005. The letter was addressed to a school board in Kansas regaurding Henderson’s concern with the way scientific theories of creation are taught. In the letter, Henderson argues that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design and he requests that the Flying Spaghetti Monster theory be included into the lessons taught at school.
There are over 10 million FSM believers alongside Henderson who consider their religion to be legitimate because “religion doesn’t require a literal belief in order to provide spiritual enlightenment.” The FSM approves of same sex marriage and it is okay to use the image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster for t-shirt and sticker designs but it is not okay for those products to be sold.
