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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,69905-0.htmlPassion of the Spaghetti Monster
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By Kathleen Craig | Also by this reporter
Bobby Henderson is holed up in the boonies -- Corvallis, Oregon -- hard at work on his next entry into the fray over just what students should learn about the origin of species.
When the Kansas Board of Education proposed balancing evolution instruction by teaching intelligent design, said to be a scientific theory that supports an "intelligent creator" of all life, the decision outraged many, including 38 Nobel laureates (.pdf).
Henderson responded with a satirical letter to the Kansas board demanding equal time for a different, "equally scientific" theory of intelligent design, in which a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Pastafarianism, turned into a phenomenon, appealing to scientists, academics and many others, who flock to Henderson's website to pick up FSM mugs and T-shirts, play games and learn about other school boards hostile to evolutionary thought. The site now draws as many as 2 million hits a day.
Meanwhile, public debate over intelligent design is intensifying. One Georgia suburb recently put warnings on biology texts stating evolution was "a theory, not a fact," prompting a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union heard last Thursday in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- a ruling is expected next year. And Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that intelligent design couldn't be mentioned in biology classes in Pennsylvania public schools, deciding a closely watched case that evolved from a Dover, Pennsylvania, school board policy that steered students to the intelligent design textbook Of Pandas and People.
Now Henderson -- a 25-year-old physics graduate -- has banked a reported $80,000 advance for the still unfinished The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, scheduled for publication in March. He isn't talking much publicly while he writes, but he took time for an exclusive conversation with Wired News about the Gospel, a future influenced by intelligent design and his plans to build a pirate ship to convert heathens.
Wired News: Why does Pastafarianism deserve equal time in science classrooms where intelligent design is taught?
Bobby Henderson: Our theory is as much science -- in fact much more so -- than what the ID (intelligent design) guys are proposing. And, if you are going to redefine science to include supernatural explanations, you have to allow them all. To include intelligent design in a science classroom you have to first expand the definition of science to include supernatural explanations, rather than only natural ones, as it is now.
WN: Supernatural?
Henderson: They are saying that a "designer" created everything, and that natural phenomena can't have caused these things to happen, that a designer must have magically made these things the way they are. If it's not supernatural, I don't know what it is.
WN: How were you inspired to write The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Henderson: 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 ID people do: specious reasoning and circular logic. I suspect the mainstream religions will concede after reading it.
WN: I notice there's a Wikipedia FSM Bible page. Is that a draft of the Gospel?
Henderson: Nope. There's actually another FSM "bible" brewing on the discussion forums. Neither of those are particularly similar to the "real" one.
WN: Why do you think so many people have responded to this, so many scientists?
Henderson: I think it's just because they have a better understanding of what the ID nuts are trying to do. I think part of it is that the science community, itself, is pretty quiet about the issue. Their strategy is to ignore the "debate" so that the ID people don't get the forum.
WN: Do you think that's a mistake?
Henderson: Yeah, totally. They need to be out there calling these people retarded all the time. Nonstop. The ID people are winning because the scientists think if they ignore the issue, it will go away. Plus, I'm sure it would be therapeutic to make fun of the ID people. I think it's pretty amazing that these people without scientific backgrounds -- or really any education at all -- think they have the right to decide the science curriculum. And it blows my mind that they are getting away with it.
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