I realized recently that I am a Pastafarian—a follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I have been touched by His Noodly Appendage.

The FSM (as he’s known to the cognoscenti) is the invention of a physics grad student named Bobby Henderson, which he created to ridicule the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. Asking that Flying Spaghetti Monsterism be given equal time with evolution and intelligent design cleverly exposes the flaw in the “teach-the-controversy” attitude of many evolution-wafflers by showing that “evolution vs. creationism” is a false dichotomy. If you require “intelligent design” to be taught in public schools, why not Flying Spaghetti Monsterism as well? (Of course, this all misses the underlying issue: the conflict arises only because the government runs the schools. But that’s a subject for a different post.)

I don’t really believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, of course, but I’m serious when I say I’m a Pastafarian—not because of the narrow evolution-in-schools issue, but because I believe that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster treats religion with the proper level of absurd lightheartedness. It’s hard to take the Pastafarian religion seriously—but, when you take a close look at their beliefs, it’s hard to take any religion seriously. (The distrust many conservative Evangelical Christians show toward the Mormon Mitt Romney is a source of constant amusement. Something about black pots and kettles springs to mind…)

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is, to my knowledge, the only religion that fully embraces the absurdity of all religion. That is why I am a Pastafarian.

RAmen.