Author | Bobby Henderson |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Satirical religious text |
Publisher | Villard Books |
Publication date | March 28, 2006 |
Media type | Print (Paperback) |
Pages | 192 pp |
ISBN | 0-8129-7656-8 |
OCLC | 65065501 |
818/.607 22 | |
LC Class | PN6231.R4 H46 2006 |
The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a satirical book written by Bobby Henderson that embodies the main beliefs of the parody religion of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Pastafarianism. [1] [2] The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) was created by Bobby Henderson in an open letter to the Kansas State Board of Education in which he parodied the concept of intelligent design. After Henderson posted the letter on his website, it became an internet phenomenon and was featured in many large newspapers, which caught the attention of book publishers. Released in March 2006 by Villard Books, The Gospel elaborates on Pastafarian beliefs and practices established in the open letter.
The Gospel includes a creation myth, set of eight "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts", a guide to evangelizing, and discusses history and lifestyle from a Pastafarian perspective. Henderson uses satire to show flaws with creationism and prove the Flying Spaghetti Monster, offering an alternative to the intelligent design movement in the process. The book, which has sold more than 100,000 copies, [3] was generally well received.
In 2005, Bobby Henderson, then a 24-year-old Oregon State University physics graduate, parodied the concept of intelligent design by professing belief in a Flying Spaghetti Monster in an open letter to the Kansas State Board of Education. [4] [5] He sent the letter prior to the Kansas evolution hearings as a satirical protest against the teaching of intelligent design in biology classes. [6] In his letter, he noted,
I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.
— Bobby Henderson [7]
In May, having received no reply from the Kansas State Board of Education, Henderson posted the letter on his website. [8] Shortly thereafter, Pastafarianism became an internet phenomenon. [2] [9] As public awareness grew, the mainstream media picked up on the phenomenon. The Flying Spaghetti Monster became a symbol for the case against intelligent design in public education. [6] [10] [11] The open letter was printed in many large newspapers, including The New York Times , The Washington Post , and Chicago Sun Times , [12] and received "worldwide press attention" according to one journalist. [13]
According to Henderson, newspaper articles attracted the attention of book publishers; at one point, six publishers were interested in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. [12] In November 2005, Henderson received an $80,000 advance from Villard to write The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. [14] Henderson said that he planned to use the proceeds to build a pirate ship, with which he would spread the Pastafarian religion. [15] The book was released on March 28, 2006. [16]
The book is necessary so that people see how much hard evidence supports the existence of the FSM. You can make a pretty strong argument for His existence. Especially if you use the same sort of reasoning the [intelligent design] people do: specious reasoning and circular logic.
— Bobby Henderson, explaining why he wrote The Gospel [15]
The Gospel presents the tenets of Pastafarianism—often satires of creationism—elaborating on the "beliefs" established in the open letter. [2] [17] It includes a creation-myth, a "propaganda" guide for evangelizing, some pseudo-scientific "proofs", and several pasta puns. [2] Along with crude drawings and altered stock photography, Henderson employs irony to present perceived flaws with evolution and discusses history and lifestyle from a Pastafarian perspective. [17] The book also provides a Pastafarian "Guide to the Holidays." [18] Furthermore, Henderson discusses the original Pastafarian "belief" that the decline in the number of pirates, who are revered by Pastafarians, has directly led to a rise in global temperature. He provides further "evidence" of this relationship with the observation "that many people dress up as pirates for Halloween, and the months following October 31 are generally cooler than those that precede it." [13] This and other scientific claims made by Henderson are intended to be disputed. [19] The claim that declining numbers of pirates have resulted in rising temperatures is meant to demonstrate that correlation does not imply causation. [20]
The book urges readers to try Pastafarianism for 30 days, saying, "If you don't like us, your old religion will most likely take you back." [21] Henderson states on his website that more than 100,000 copies of the book have been sold. [3]
The Gospel begins with the creation of the universe by an invisible and undetectable Holy Flying Spaghetti Monster. [13] On the first day, the Flying Spaghetti Monster separated light from darkness; on the second, because He could not tread water for long and had grown tired of flying, He created the land—complemented by a beer volcano. [19] Satisfied, the Flying Spaghetti Monster overindulged in beer from the beer volcano and woke up hung over. [22] Between drunken nights and clumsy afternoons, the Flying Spaghetti Monster produced seas and land (for a second time, accidentally, because he forgot that he created it the day before) along with Heaven and a "midget", [23] which he named Man. [24] Man and an equally short woman lived happily in the Olive Garden of Eden for some time until the Flying Spaghetti Monster caused a global flood in a cooking accident. [19]
This creation is described as having happened only 5,000 years ago. [19] Because of evidence of things dating before 5,000 years, Henderson satirically retorts that the Flying Spaghetti Monster presented all evidence to the contrary in order to test Pastafarians' faith. [25] In addition to parodying certain biblical literalists, Henderson uses this unorthodox method to lampoon intelligent design proponents, [19] who, he believes, first "define [their] conclusion and then gather evidence to support it". [25]
The book contains the Eight "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts", adherence to which enables Pastafarians to ascend to heaven, which includes a stripper factory and beer volcano. [26] According to The Gospel, Mosey the Pirate captain received ten stone tablets as advice from the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Of these original ten "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts", two were dropped on the way down from Mount Salsa. [27] This event "partly accounts for Pastafarians' flimsy moral standards." [28] The "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts" address a broad array of behavior, from sexual conduct to nutrition. [26] One reviewer commented that this parody of the Ten Commandments "reads like a bitter shopping list of the same criticisms" given to organized religions. [1] One commandment is "I'd really rather you didn't build multimillion-dollar synagogues / churches / temples / mosques / shrines to [His] Noodly Goodness when the money could be better spent ending poverty, curing diseases, living in peace, loving with passion and lowering the cost of cable." [27]
Year | Language | Translator | Title | Publisher | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | Japanese | Natsumi Kataoka | 空飛ぶスパゲッティ・モンスターの福音書 | Tsujiki Shokan | ISBN 9784806713401 |
2008 | French | Diniz Galhos | L'Évangile du Monstre en spaghettis volant | Le Cherche Midi | ISBN 9782749111186 |
2008 | Italian | Marco Lunari | Il libro sacro del Prodigioso Spaghetto Volante | Mondadori | ISBN 9788804574491 |
2008 | German | Jörn Ingwersen | Das Evangelium des fliegenden Spaghettimonsters | Goldmann | ISBN 9783442546282 |
2010 | Turkish | Umut Ulus, Uğraş Turan Öner | Uçan Spagetti Canavarı'nın kutsal kitabı | Altıkırkbeş Yayın | ISBN 9786055532093 |
2015 | Russian | Mikhail Samin | Евангелие Летающего Макаронного Монстра | ISBN 9785447496692 | |
2016 | Danish | Inger Winkelmann | Evangeliet om Det Flyvende Spaghettimonste | Gyldendal | ISBN 9788702210330 |
Scientific American described The Gospel as "an elaborate spoof on Intelligent Design" and "very funny". In 2006, it was nominated for the Quill Award in Humor, but did not win. [3] Wayne Alan Brenner of The Austin Chronicle characterized the book as "a necessary bit of comic relief in the overly serious battle between science and superstition." [17] Simon Singh of the Daily Telegraph wrote that the Gospel "might be slightly repetitive... but overall it is a brilliant, provocative, witty and important gem of a book." [13] Reviewers at both the University of Pittsburgh [1] and Penn State [29] were generally positive about the book. In his book The God Delusion , biologist Richard Dawkins commented: "I am happy to see that the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has been published as a book, to great acclaim." [30]
Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute, the hub of the Intelligent Design movement, labeled the Gospel "a mockery of the Christian New Testament". [31]
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. In its broadest sense, creationism includes a continuum of religious views, which vary in their acceptance or rejection of scientific explanations such as evolution that describe the origin and development of natural phenomena.
Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Proponents claim that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." ID is a form of creationism that lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses, and is therefore not science. The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute, a Christian, politically conservative think tank based in the United States.
A parody religion or mock religion is a belief system that challenges the spiritual convictions of others, often through humor, satire, or burlesque. Often constructed to achieve a specific purpose related to another belief system, a parody religion can be a parody of several religions, sects, gurus, cults, or new religious movements at the same time, or even a parody of no particular religion – instead parodying the concept of religious belief itself. Some parody religions emphasise having fun; the new faith may serve as a convenient excuse for pleasant social interaction among the like-minded.
John Corrigan "Jonathan" Wells is an American theologian and advocate of the pseudoscientific argument of intelligent design. Wells joined the Unification Church in 1974, and subsequently wrote that the teachings of its founder Sun Myung Moon, his own studies at the Unification Theological Seminary and his prayers convinced him to devote his life to "destroying Darwinism." The term Darwinism is often used by intelligent design proponents and other creationists to refer to the scientific consensus on evolution. He gained a PhD in religious studies at Yale University in 1986, then became Director of the Unification Church's inter-religious outreach organization in New York City. In 1989, he studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in molecular and cellular biology in 1994. He became a member of several scientific associations and has published in academic journals.
The "teach the controversy" campaign of the Discovery Institute seeks to promote the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design as part of its attempts to discredit the teaching of evolution in United States public high school science courses. Scientific organizations point out that the institute claims that there is a scientific controversy where in fact none exists.
An intelligent designer, also referred to as an intelligent agent, is the pseudoscientific hypothetical willed and self-aware entity that the intelligent design movement argues had some role in the origin and/or development of life. The term "intelligent cause" is also used, implying their teleological supposition of direction and purpose in features of the universe and of living things.
The Kansas evolution hearings were a series of hearings held in Topeka, Kansas, United States from May 5 to 12, 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how evolution and the origin of life would be taught in the state's public high school science classes. The hearings were arranged by the Board of Education with the intent of introducing intelligent design into science classes via the Teach the Controversy method.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Pastafarianism, a parodic new religious movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion. It originated in opposition to the teaching of intelligent design in public schools in the United States. According to adherents, Pastafarianism is a "real, legitimate religion, as much as any other". It has received some limited recognition as such.
Intelligent falling (IF) is a parody of the intelligent design (ID) movement. It is a deliberately pseudoscientific supernatural explanation of the effects of gravity. The joke originated on Usenet, and has appeared in several online parodies. An article about Intelligent Falling in The Onion described free fall as being caused by "the hand of God".
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design (ID), ultimately found by the court to not be science. In October 2004, the Dover Area School District of York County, Pennsylvania, changed its biology teaching curriculum to require that intelligent design be presented as an alternative to evolution theory, and that Of Pandas and People, a textbook advocating intelligent design, was to be used as a reference book. The prominence of this textbook during the trial was such that the case is sometimes referred to as the Dover Panda Trial, a name which recalls the popular name of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, 80 years earlier. The plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and that the school board policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The judge's decision sparked considerable response from both supporters and critics.
The intelligent design movement has conducted an organized campaign largely in the United States that promotes a pseudoscientific, neo-creationist religious agenda calling for broad social, academic and political changes centering on intelligent design.
Religious satire is a form of satire that refers to religious beliefs and can take the form of texts, plays, films, and parody. From the earliest times, at least since the plays of Aristophanes, religion has been one of the three primary topics of literary satire, along with politics and sex. Satire which targets the clergy is a type of political satire, while religious satire is that which targets religious beliefs. Religious satire is also sometimes called philosophical satire, and is thought to be the result of agnosticism or atheism. Notable works of religious satire surfaced during the Renaissance, with works by Geoffrey Chaucer, Erasmus and Albrecht Dürer.
Bobby Henderson is an American physics graduate, known for being the founder of Pastafarianism.
Truth in Science is a United Kingdom-based creationist organisation which promotes the Discovery Institute's "Teach the Controversy" campaign, which it uses to try to get the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design creationism taught alongside evolution in school science lessons. The organisation claims that there is scientific controversy about the validity of Darwinian evolution, a view rejected by the United Kingdom's Royal Society and over 50 Academies of Science around the world. The group is affiliated with the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement, following its strategy and circulating the Institute's promotional materials.
The Discovery Institute has conducted a series of related public relations campaigns which seek to promote intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms "Darwinism". The Discovery Institute promotes the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement and is represented by Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm.
Villard, also known as Villard Books, is a publishing imprint of Random House, one of the largest publishing companies in the world, owned in full by Bertelsmann since its acquisition of a final 25% stake in 2019, and grouped in Penguin Random House since 2013. Villard was founded in 1983.
This timeline of intelligent design outlines the major events in the development of intelligent design as presented and promoted by the intelligent design movement.
"A Clockwork Origin" is the ninth episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 97th episode of the series overall. It aired on Comedy Central on August 12, 2010. In the episode, Professor Farnsworth leaves Earth after being frustrated by anti-evolutionists' belief in "Creaturism", a form of Creationism. He and the Planet Express crew arrive at a lifeless planet and the Professor introduces nanobots into the environment. The nanobots rapidly begin evolving into mechanical organisms, allowing the crew to witness a whole new evolutionary history that unfolds before their eyes.
The relationship between intelligent design and science has been a contentious one. Intelligent design (ID) is presented by its proponents as science and claims to offer an alternative to evolution. The Discovery Institute, a politically conservative think tank and the leading proponent of intelligent design, launched a campaign entitled "Teach the Controversy", which claims that a controversy exists within the scientific community over evolution. The scientific community rejects intelligent design as a form of creationism, and the basic facts of evolution are not a matter of controversy in science.
The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a light and enjoyable read that takes a humorous approach to the Intelligent Design/Evolution debate, leaving neither side unscathed in the process.
The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a humorous and refreshing poke at a serious and controversial topic.