Tim Worstall

The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The Telegraph has a wonderful article on the spoof of Intelligent Design, The Flying Spaghetti Monster. I’ve seen references to it around the place, as I’m sure we all have, but I had’t realised that it was getting quite so much attention…..I guess because the ID "debate" is in itself considered ridiculous over here. From the article:

"Bring me my bowl of pasta gold!

Bring me my meatballs of desire!

Bring me my sauce with herbs untold!

Bring me my bolognese of fire!"

As
for whether there will still be Pastafarians in 2,000 years from now,
there are already signs of trouble ahead. Some of the faithful question
whether their Noodly Saviour might be made of linguini rather than
spaghetti. Such people, Mr Henderson says, "give me a headache".

The actual web page is here. This is a fun email:

Bobby,            

Today I was blessed to receive a divine revelation from our Almighty Flying Spaghetti Monster. I have the privilege of informing you that it is His will that I become His Bride, in order that the Savior of mankind (who is to be called Macaroni) may be born on this earth.The FSM has revealed to me that your body is to be the vehicle by which his holy seed shall be transmitted in earthly form.      
To that end, I have reserved a room for us at the Best Western Airport Inn, Boise, Idaho, for the evening of [removed]. I will be the woman wearing the WWFSMD t-shirt and eye patch.         

I look forward to meeting you and fulfilling the will of our noodly master.

            

Julie

To be ever so vaguely serious for a while I think this has a chance of putting the whole "debate" to bed. Laughter can be the best response to idiocy and this version of ID shows quite how stupid the proponents are. Absolutely all and any of the arguments for ID can be used to bolster the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. No, this won’t stop the Creationists, but it will, at least I hope it will, stop those who don’t really care one way or the other from giving the idea credence.

In

5 responses

  1. pete Avatar
    pete

    The worrying thing about intelligent design and creationism is that clever people who think they have the right to put these theories ‘to bed’, when polls in the US show that a majority of people want them taught in schools alongside evolution. I’m more worried by the elites who decide what the masses should do and what they shouldn’t than by what those same masses want taught in the schools they pay for. Elites who know best are responsible for some really crackpot theories, such as communism, which have cost more lives and caused more despair than ID ever will.
    Tim adds: A fair point.

    Reply
  2. John Thacker Avatar
    John Thacker

    I believe that the Flying Spaghetti Monster does suffer from the same general problem as most attacks on ID and Creationism, and indeed the same problem as much boosting of evolution by Richard Dawkins and the like– the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” is seen, and with reason, as an attack on the idea of religion itself. After all, if “absolutely all and any of the arguments for ID can be used to bolster the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster,” then similarly “absolutely all and any of the arguments for” the existence of God can as well. People reject a story of the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” creating the world for the same reason that they believe in God but not the FSM in general. It’s hard to imagine how one could use the FSM analogy only to poke fun at ID and Creationism without poking fun at religion in general.
    That is a large part of the problem. Starting with Huxley and proceeding on to Dawkins, there has been a long train of fanatical atheists who have insisted that one cannot simultaneously believe in evolution and religion, and that evolution gives all sort of reasons for doubting religion. It’s the same position as that of the wackiest Creationist, only reversed. Is it any wonder than when eminent scientists tell people that they must choose between religion and evolution, that some choose religion?
    And of course those eminent evolutionists who insist that believing in evolution means denying free will could convince other people to chose free will over evolution.

    Reply
  3. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    The story could be true and we’re all going to spend eternity in a big vat of simmering Dolmio®.
    ‘Whensa your Dolmio day?’
    I tell you, though – I hate these arrogant pseudo-intellectuals who tell me I must be stupid because I believe in God.

    Reply
  4. Milo Thurston Avatar
    Milo Thurston

    One may indeed portray evolutionary biologists as “Elites who know best”.
    However, the likes of Marx simply made stuff up to justify how they thought society should be run, whereas evolutionary theory is falsifiable, backed up by evidence (read http://www.talkorigins.org) and is descriptive rather than proscriptive.
    Hopefully, the FSM joke will point out that it is this lack of falsifiability that makes ID not science. As with communism, one can come up with all manner of excuses as for why it hasn’t worked, but there is no way to prove it false so it’s not science.

    Reply
  5. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    Eh? So science is all about proving things to be false?
    Scientist after scientist comes along just to prove all the other scientists wrong? Don’t understand that.
    In that case science is the pursuit of the impossible. I prefer the pursuit of the probable, myself.

    Reply

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