Frommy’s World

 Many a morning I have spent at Burgerville eating my sausage bagel, drinking my diet coke, and reading the local Daily News paper. Today I was perusing through the different sections (I usually end up reading the Sports section) and found an interesting article on religion and science from the Associated Press called “Faith & Noodles” by Justin Pope.

The article explained how a mock-religious deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster has grown in pop culture and made its way on the agenda of the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting.  

The whole idea of this religious deity began in 2005 when intelligent design (creationism) was being debated by a Kansas school board as something that should be taught in public school sciences classes along with the theory of evolution.

“An Oregon State physics graduate named Bobby Henderson stepped into the debate by sending a letter to the Kansas School Board. With tongue in cheek, he purported to speak for 10 million followers of a being called the Flying Spaghetti Monster — and demanded equal time for their views.

“We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it,” Henderson wrote. As for scientific evidence to the contrary, “what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage.” 

The whole point is that there is no more scientific basis for intelligent design than there is for the idea of a creature made of pasta who created the universe. 

“The only reasonable solution is to put nothing into sciences classes but the best available science.”

What truly caught my interest in the article was the irony of how this mock-religion has truly become a religion of its own. With the help of the Internet the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has litterally spread around the world and found its way into online chat rooms, college campuses, and even on the docket of the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting.

The article raised some interesting questions:

“What defines a religion? Does it require a genuine theological belief? Or simply a set of rituals and a community joining together as a way of signaling their cultural alliances to others?

“In short, is an anti-religion like Flying Spaghetti Monsterism actually a religion?”

So what do you think…What constitutes a religion? A cult? Science? Do you find the whole idea behind the Flying Spaghetti Monster funny? Disappointing? Philosophically interesting? Or do you find it just plain stupid?