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Pastafarians

09/09/05

  11:26:53 am, by Nimble   , 329 words  
Categories: Distractions, Thoughts, Religion, Science

Pastafarians

Link: http://www.venganza.org/

I just get such a kick out of the satire of Intelligent Design that has been catching on, that of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Intelligent design is, of course, Creationism trying to dress itself up as science, though it provides "controversy" but no explanatory power.

Cleverly, of course, it posits an "Intelligent Designer" to explain away things that are "too complicated" to have formed by natural processes, but omits mentioning who the "Intelligent Designer" is, ostensibly to get around issues of separation of church and state.

Since the Intelligent Designer Who Shall Not Be Named is transparently a fundamentalist Christian God, this leads to some utterly deserved satire. If Intelligent Design is truly science, as they claim, then the Intelligent Designer could be anyone or anything, right? Aliens? Protozoa? The Old Ones?

Clearly, Flying Spaghetti Monsterism has a lot going for it. For one, there's the beautiful picture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster touching Adam's hand.

For another, unlike the Invisible Pink Unicorn, male geeks don't have to get uncomfortable about the words "pink" or "unicorn".

There's a fun little chart in the middle of the venganza site cross-referencing the increase in world temperature with the decrease in the number of pirates. Pirates have snuck into the mythology in a great way.

If you take a look at the Last (Noodly?) Supper fresco on the page, the thumbnail doesn't give it away, but arrrr, there be pirates!

If that isn't appealing enough, there's even a game where you convert the heathen into Pastafarian Pirates. Don't touch the school administrators, though (who else in education would fall prey to such religio-political shenanigans?); they'll shock you!

I have no idea if this will remain an enduring icon, but until then,

Parmesan sanctu. Ramen.

Arrrrr.

By the way, on a somewhat unrelated note, remember September 19th! It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Perhaps this will increase the number of pirates, and thus reverse the terrible global warming evidenced by the chart ;)

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