Responsible opposing viewpoint.
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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| FSM Gospels Hit Bookstores Tuesday |
| 2006-03-27 |
| ...Worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster — "Pastafarianism" as it is known to its adherents — began as a whimsical side dish in last year's standoff between advocates of evolution and intelligent design. FSM, as it is known to its followers, took shape in a protest letter to Kansas officials who were embroiled in a controversy about how to teach students about the origins of life. The parody religion leapt from those pages to become an Internet phenomenon, finding fans among supporters of the theory of evolution —— and receiving e-mailed threats of bodily harm from evolution's opponents. "I wrote the letter for my own amusement as much as anything. And it totally snowballed. Some people say I'm going to hell," says FSM's 25-year-old creator, Bobby Henderson, who recently moved from Oregon to Arizona, partly to escape the uproar. But his paperback testament, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster ($13.95, Villard), which arrives Tuesday, reveals the tenets of the parody religion. A few of them: • A "Flying Spaghetti Monster" created the universe, Earth and its creatures, making a few mistakes on the way after drinking heavily from heaven's beer volcano. • The FSM hid dinosaur fossils underground to "dupe mankind" about Earth's true age and is the secret force behind gravity, pushing everything downward with its "noodly appendage." • The FSM wants everyone to talk and dress like pirates. Global warming is considered a punishment for the relative scarcity of pirates these days. • Every Friday is a sloth-filled holy day. Instead of "amen," devotees end missives with "R'amen," in honor of the college student's favorite noodle fare... Please note that, in defiance of scripture, I am not wearing a Pirate outfit as I am posting this. Nor am I dressed as a Ninja. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 All hail Bob! All hail Bob! All hail Bob! All hail Bob! |
| Posted by: N guard 2006-03-27 13:43 |
| #2 Responsible opposing viewpoint. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-27 13:40 |
| #1 Responsible opposing viewpoint. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-27 13:39 |