Pastafarianism

There's been a lot of jocularity recently about a letter that was supposedly sent to a board of education complaining that the creation views of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism ought to be taught to school children in the name of fairness. This piece of sarcasm was prompted by a move by the Kansas Board of Education to give intelligent design equal time with evolution in the class room. If like me you have no shortage of friends who use the word "snarky" you no doubtedly have heard of this joke and perhaps found it funny. Why is it funny?

Nevermind what you think of Intelligent Design, it would seem to mean different things to different people, but why is this childish prank so funny when the schism involved is so important? Does Pastafarianism shed any light on our current problems or is it just a Limbaugh-esque attack on people who hold religious beliefs?

A lot of people these days seem to equate religious beliefs with low levels of education or provincialism. Like the last election when many Democrats I know were so shocked that we didn't hold a clear majority, some people forget that the majority of the human race is religious in some shape or form and have been for millennia. Are they wrong? It can't be proven. In the last few centuries we've begun to understand the mechanics of biology and physics, but that doesn't mean we are in any position to disprove the idea of God. We can definitely discount many of the superstitions passed down to us by the religious people that went before us, but not the existence of a god. Where does that leave us? Science and religion, two fields of study or articles of faith, since I'd say a lot of people believe in science with little scientific understanding, which don't appear to be mutually exclusive. There are plenty of religious scientists out there as well as atheists who can barely operate a computer.

It occurred to me just now that maybe Pastafarians are making fun of both camps since the manner, the means, and the nature of whatever set the whole cosmic ball of wax in motion is a question we'll probably never answer. Ask a cosmologist or physicist to describe the shape of the universe sometime. Ask him/her what existed before everything started existing. Sure we have theories, but who doesn't? This bloke over here believes in a giant gob of Italian food! When the chips are down, in my opinion, an honest broker from either side will just shrug. No answers.

It's enough to make you cross-eyed.
el Jefe