Gods and Spaghetti Monsters
If they can teach intelligent design in Kansas, why not the increasingly popular theory that the universe was created by a "Flying Spaghetti Monster?" That's the premise of the Web site of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster featured in a Wired News story on Thursday.
In a satirical open letter to the Kansas Board of Education posted on his site, 25-year-old physics graduate Bobby Henderson of Corvallis, Ore., demands "equal time for a different, 'equally scientific' theory of intelligent design, in which a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world," the article says.
"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 Web site 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," according to the article.
Henderson also is working on a book on the movement, "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster," scheduled for publication in March. He says the book will rely on the same types of "hard evidence" that supports the intelligent design theory, namely "specious reasoning and circular logic."
I've got some theories of my own about all this, and some property in Florida if anyone is interested.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
