The Tampa Tribune reports the Polk County School Board was caught by surprise by the widespread response to their interest in Intelligent Design. They have decided not to pursue the teaching of Intelligent Design.
I suppose it’s a victory for science, but I was optimistic about Polk County being the first to introduce Pastafarian theories into the curriculum.
The article by Billy Townsend is titled “Polk Needled, Noodled in Evolution Flap“.
Public floggings hurt, even when administered by satirical sacred noodles.
Ask the Polk County School Board. The panel made news last month when five of its seven members declared a personal belief in the concept of intelligent design, the religiously based explanation of the development of life believed in by many Christians.
Four of those five sympathetic board members said they would like to see intelligent design taught in Polk schools as an alternative to Darwinian evolution, at a time when new state standards mentioning evolution by name for the first time are under consideration.
Just like that, it appeared the Darwin wars had found their newest battlefield.
Yet a few weeks later, the controversy is dying with a whimper. There’s no board support for a challenge to the proposed standards. Some of the five school board members blame the local newspaper for trying to start a fight.
“It’s not our agenda,” said Tim Harris, one of the board members. “My personal opinion and how I vote don’t always jibe.”
What happened? You can start with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The satirical religious Web site asserts that an omnipotent, airborne clump of spaghetti intelligently designed all life with the deft touch of its “noodly appendage.” Adherents call themselves Pastafarians. They deluged Polk school board members with e-mail demanding equal time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism’s version of intelligent design.
“They’ve made us the laughingstock of the world,” said Margaret Lofton, a school board member who supports intelligent design.
It’s an excellent article. I’m even quoted a couple times. I admit it sounds like I’m against the inclusion of supernatural theories in science, which would include Pastafarian beliefs as well as Intelligent Design, but I assure you my statements are part of a larger strategy of some sort, in the best interest of Pastafarianism.
Here’s the article, enjoy!
We Win, The power of pasta shines through!
Oh yes, Merry Chrisfmas and Happy Holidays to all!!!
No FSMism in schools yet, but now we know we have influence…
The Spaghetti Monster will live to fight another day…
why do they keep calling us satirical? I’m tired of this marginalization.
and Margaret, we didn’t make you the laughing stock of the world.
The best ChriFSMas present of all n.n
@DPG–I like the idea of an organized email campaign. I think Bobby does a pretty good job at it right now. However, there are organizations, like the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Wallet (Family), not to mention members of the US congress that could use email bombardment by us Pastafarians. Definitely something to think about.
“Lofton, a former geometry teacher with a master’s degree in mathematics and one of the pro-intelligent design board members, said she has no interest in engaging with the Pastafarians or anyone else seeking to discredit intelligent design.”
.
How can you justify your own beliefs if you refuse to defend them?
Every incident like this makes me laugh hysterically. Good show, FSM. Your noodly appendage has shown us to the most efficient way of dealing with morons!
@Satan
“she has no interest in engaging with the Pastafarians or anyone else seeking to discredit intelligent design.”
The ostrich employs the same defence mechanism as this old bird.
Yay!
@rmw
“I like the idea of an organized email campaign. I think Bobby does a pretty good job at it right now. However, there are organizations, like the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Wallet (Family), not to mention members of the US congress that could use email bombardment by us Pastafarians. Definitely something to think about.”
.
In that case, drop me an email sometime at t.p.c.klaver@qub.ac.uk.
How cool. A clean win, you know this tactic should be applied to all agencies of the govenment that attempt to advance a fundamentalist agenda. I have heard that the National Park service is advancing the idea in its guided tours of the Grand Canyon, that that wonder of nature was not created by the slow work of geological forces (tectonic plate movement and erosion) over tens of millions of years, but rather was created rather recently by the “Great Flood”, and, yes, they do mean Noah’s flood.
No doubt this is the work of some Bush apointee, but its’s it just as likely that that structure was created by the action of Noodly Appendages?
YES!! I can post comments again!
Hey everyone, and hope you had a cool chrifsmas!
@thalassophopic pie rat, I agree with your idea that in order to encourage growth we need to give positive affirmation after good decisions have been made, although in this case I think it was to save their own asses from not being re-elected. I still think a positive note to the board would show the kind of class I am used to seeing from people on this site.
@DPG, I also like the idea of organization, I think it could maximize the benefits of our efforts.
I’m loving this! Keep the E-mails going to Pinnellas county! I know we got the “Florida” Tag and all, but there are some people who still have a brain here!
Bobby,
we DO want intelligent design in schools; that of the FSM.
If that means it’s next to the ‘original’ *cough* christian *cough* ID; then that’s ok.
Think about it.
If kids have to decide wether they want some warmonging fool or a happy FSM (kids love spagetti with meat balls); who do you think they’ll chose? And kids are always telling you the truth. Another proof that the FSM is true and kicking.
I’m partly disappointed by this board.
Theo
Got up this morning and tuned to CNN. The news from Pakistan is not good. Benezar Bhutto assinated-presumably by Islamic fundamentalists. The secondary story was how Hindu fundamentalists went on a killing spree in India, burning several churches in the process.
I am beginning to think that fundamentalist–Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Islamic are at the root of all of the most intractable problems of our world.
Of course everyone in Western cultures recognizes the problems violent Islamic fundamentalists are creating for all of us, but few recognize how Christian fundamentalists are a major problem as well.
I remember when 911 happened Jerry Falwell proclaimed the reason as being God’s punishment for our society tolerating homosexuals. What he proposed as an alternative homosexual policy for a western government conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal–only he knew. He never specified it. Sometimes these guys just like to stir the pot with their base–the base can then fantasize their own policy and imagine Jerry and the Lord are behind them one hundred percent. In short they keep their proposals vague when they articulate their hate speech because if they say something concrete-like concentration camps and arm tattoos for gays the reality of what they propose will repulse all but the very most extreme among them.
But the fact is the Xtain right wing is more responsible for 911 and the mess in Iraq and the middle east than any other segment of the world’s population. It is they who elected George Bush who ignored the warning signs that an attack was coming. Any other competent President would have acted on the inteligence-as Clinton did during the proposed New Years Eve attach on Lax–and prevented it through increased security. Moreover, nobody but Bush would have invaded Iraw as a follow up on 911. I can’t conceive of any other president who would have let Bin Laden slip through the trap of Tora Bora. In short, by putting their boy in, the fundies weakened us, allowing the middle east to spin out of control and become the mess it is today.
When I read that FSM has made the Polk county board of education the “laughingstock of the world” I know the system is working. Right on. What better weapon than satire to turn on these people. It is hilarious when they act like wounded water buffalo in the process. What else do they have a right to expect when they try to cram their shit down everyone’s throat. At least Polk county was able to avoid defending a costly lawsuit because these idiots backed off. Now all we need is their resignations.
In a democracy with free speech, this is the way things are supposed to work. Social pressures are what is supposed to reign in the excesses of the kook fringes. In recent years we have dignified these far right characters. New organizations have taken people like Pat Robertson seriously when he suggests as a matter of policy, the US government assassinate Hugo Chavez or Jedrry Falwell says that the TEle-tubbies preach tolerance for the “homosexual agenda”. The larger question is why what they say is newsworthy. Why carry the shit these cranks espouse at all. By doing so, news organizations give these outre players a seat at the table, when they should be banished to the back porch.
A lot of this is the result of having such a right wing administation in the White House, of course. When you have a POTUS who says it’s only fair to teach all theories of human origin, including ID, you lower the bar on what passes for serious discourse at the national level.
Hopefully, the pendulum is going to start to swing the other way. If someone like a Huckabee is nominated and is CRUSHED that would help. In many ways this next presidential election could be about how the nation will be defined for the next 50 years. Let’s hope the right person wins, and wins big.
Neal would you please refrain from using the words “elected” and “Bush” in the same sentence, unless you’re referring to the Sr. Bush. It only brings back painful memeories of watching our nation’s freedom circling the toilet bowl.
Aside from that, Great post.