Last updated 7/2008
Q: Who are you?
A: My name is Bobby Henderson. I’m 27. I grew up in Oregon and move around a lot. I have a physics degree and have successfully avoided a “real” job for years.
Q: Did you really send the Open Letter to the Kansas School Board?
A: Yes. But, I received no replies until after I posted the website online and the School Board started getting lots of emails about it. You can read some of the responses I received here.
Q: Are you an atheist / heathen / what?
A: I don’t have a problem with religion. What I have a problem with is religion posing as science. Teach Creationism in school, fine, but don’t teach it in a science classroom. And don’t change the definition of science so that you can teach these things. That’s retarded.
Supernatural explanations are by definition not science, so why would you teach them in a science classroom?
Religion, itself, isn’t bad. But it isn’t necessarily good, either. There are plenty of good Christians (and Muslims, and Buddhists, and Hindus), and plenty of bad ones.
Dogma is bad for everyone.
Q: You are making God angry.
A: I doubt it. If there’s a God, and he’s intelligent, then I would guess he has a sense of humor. And how do you know He is NOT a Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Q: Do you make money off this?
A: Yes. The Church makes money off T-shirts, car emblems, book sales, and occasionally donations. We are saving a lot of money and pretty soon here we’ll buy our first Pirate Ship which will serve as a floating church, open to all Believers.
Q: Your graph is messed up.
A: No, it’s not. The X-axis doesn’t have to represent time. And the data points don’t need to be in order. A graph is just a collection of data points, I can display them however I want. It might not be what you’re used to, but it’s not messed up. Please stop writing me emails about it (well over 200 at this point).
Q: There are more pirates now than ever. Look at the South Pacific. And song-downloading pirates, and blah blah blah.
A: Real pirates use swords (cutlasses, actually). Those “pirates” in the south pacific are guys with machine guns, cruising around in power-boats. They’re not pirates. And the song-downloading “pirates” are smelly nerds, and therefore not real pirates.
Q: Your grammar/spelling/etc is bad.
A: Yah.
Q: You’re wrong. It’s actually a linguini / mashed potato / dinosaur / elephant / whatever monster.
A: Maybe He just disguises Himself as those things. Also, you’re not funny.
Q: Can I reprint your letter?
A: Yes. Send me a link, please.
Q: Acceptible use of content?
A: It’s ok with me if you’re using the FSM images/content as long as it’s not for profit, and you’re doing it to further the Cause of the church. I.e. printing out FSM propaganda materials and distributing them is ok (and encouraged). Making FSM t-shirts, selling FSM merchandise, etc. is NOT OK.
Q: What blogging/cms software are you using?
A: The recently redesigned site is built on the Wordpress platform with the K2 template.
Q: How many members are there?
A: I don’t know. There are no membership records as such, so I can only guess based on the amount of traffic the site receives, etc. Traffic to date (September 2006) is somewhere in the vicinity of 350 million hits, and around 15 million unique visitors. Google returns close to 2 million results for the phrase “flying spaghetti monster“. So, who knows – your guess is as good as mine.
Q: Why Pirates?
A: We believe that humans evolved from pirates. Consider that humans share around 95% DNA with monkeys, and more than 99.9% DNA with pirates.
Q: Interview requests
A: I’m happy to answer your questions. I recommend you just send me your questions in an email with a subject that I’ll notice, like “INTERVIEW QUESTIONS”. You don’t need to ask permission or set up an interview for some future time, just send me the questions. Thanks.
Q: Website statistics
A: Somewhere around 10k-40k visitors per day, and somewhere around 500k-1million hits a day. Hits are extremely high because lots of people hotlink images,etc from the site. Which is fine w/me.
Emails – depends, but 50 per day is not uncommon. I have 13,839 unread emails right now (9/25/06). I’ll get to as many as I can.
Q: Why is there an FSM banner on my MySpace profile?
A: It’s a virus/worm that WAS NOT CREATED BY ME. I had nothing to do with it. I’m sorry – it caused everyone a lot of problems, and I do not approve of this sort of thing. You can remove it by following the directions here.
More questions? Ask me below, or email me at bobby.henderson@gmail.com
In FSM we trust !
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Hey Lauren- read the book of Genesis in the Bible. It explains the story of creation. Maybe you should be better informed before claiming that “you have a point” and that “there is no way anyone can possibly believe God is the real thing”. Because I do. My family does. Most of the world does, actually. So I’m pretty insulted by that.
The first chapter in the book of Genesis is the creation story, which says how God made: 1. on the first day, night and day,
2. on the second day, the sky,
3. on the third day, the oceans, the dry land (earth), and all of the plants, trees, fruits, veggies, etc.,
4. on the fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars,
5. on the fifth day, all the living creatures that live in the water and all the birds that fly in the sky (and the Bible even mentions “the great sea monsters”- dinosaurs!), and
6. on the sixth day, all the living creatures from the earth (the Bible says “wild animals of the earth of every kind”- dinosaurs, Lauren!) and all humankind (you, me, and the rest of the human race IN HIS IMAGE! I’m glad God isn’t really a Flying Spaghetti Monster because then we would all look like him), and
7. on the seventh day, He rested.
So, judging by all this, which came directly from the Bible, your entire above statement has no real proof. This is what I believe, and what I think is true. Make of it what you will.
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I have a serious question for the FAQ section. I am a recent convert to Pastafanarianantidisestablishmentarianism or whatever it is, oh heck I just worship the flying spaghetti monster!! But I want to worship him the way he wants me to worship him. I do not want to blaspheme. I love eating spaghetti and all such yummy pasta sacraments. But I’ve noticed that I enjoy eating the pasta sacraments more if I get “toasted” first by smoking some herbal supplements. What does the FSM think about this? I know Jesus smoked herb so it’s OK for christians but what about Pastafawhatevers? Has the FSM ever spoke of this to his followers? Oh and what is DOG smoking and can I get some?
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wow.. even though i think this whole spaghetti monter thing is riddiculous….. it was nive to see lauren get put in her place by bethany…. Good job bethany… GOD is proud of you!
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Bethany you gotta be half retarded and you to skylerbug because god isn’t real nor is Jesus because if they were real where are they ? Jesus bones ? they just disappeared huh ? but all the people in his suppose time are still there . . . and some crazy guy could have easily wrote the damn bible and don’t tell me god did because no one saw him don’t tell me Jesus did it because theres no proof just a retarded book just like you two so if you don’t believe in FSM then deal with it we don’t believe in god and we deal with it and don’t make a big deal out of it we don’t go to your dumb sites and leave comments saying god isn’t real because we already know he isn’t so deal with it you dummy’s
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You know if you’re going to insult our religion we could just do it back we don’t because we don’t need to insult people to feel superiour and for all ofyou who do insult us you should really just stfu because some day this is all going to back at you (When pastafarianism is the main religion) when people insult christians or catholics everyone raises a big fuss about it and that’s what is going to happen when pastafarians are well known.
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I hope I do not get the benefit of any of Lauren’s “science” as she can barely type a comprehensible sentence so I am sure that skews the results – either by interpretation or implementation. Must have gotten a hold of Cleetus’s “herbal supplements” – and didn’t share with the rest of the class.
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I can’t believe you don’t believe in the FSM. You will spend eternity with the purple oyster!!!!
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Kourtney, eating Spaghetti is indeed paying homage. If you’ve witnessed communion is Christian masses, you see them drink wine symbolizing the blood of Christ, and eat a mass produced cracker thingy symbolizing the body of Christ. When I eat Spaghetti, I feel a spiritual connection to our beloved creator.
And a question for Bobby:
With your approval (or if I need it) and to symbolize my devotion to our faith, I would like to become a priest/minister whathaveya for the Church of the FSM.
Thank You,
P.S.: Denying my priesthood may leave me no choice but to form my own fundamentalist sect.
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haha bethany u do realise that no sea creature was ever a dinosaur, only marine reptiles. secondly, a day is a mesurement made up by man, a thougth put in2 our heads by his noodleiness, surely if the bible is exactly how things happened it wouldnt say a day, probably sumthing like “a presumed amount of time”. k thanx gud chat :)
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hey robert your a girls dick, go and suck on my chubby god penis
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Dear Bobby,
I stumbled across your website while searching for some information regarding intelligent design and creation science. Frankly I am saddened by your view point, but as I am sure you are not alone on this. Whether you believe in intelligent design or not, or whether you believe there is a God or not, you have to ask yourself, why am I here? Does my life have a purpose or am I just a mass of goo derived from an unbelievable amount of perfect circumstances to make me exist as a human being?
I would say it takes more faith to believe that there was not a creator than the faith it takes to believe there is a God. And no, I don’t think you actually believe God is a flying spaghetti monster, but I must say that was a pretty good choice you came up with.
Anyway, I am not here to argue, but I think you must be an intelligent person to be able to come up with all of the things you do. However, being intelligent does not make one wise and certainly does not make one understand and know the truth. In fact sometimes it is harder for an intelligent person to accept that they are not in control of the things around them. You see, God wants us to look to him and let him give us our guidance, but usually we try to take thngs into our own hands and eventually they get messed up. A little child will accept the things of God easier than an adult, because children live by faith, just as Jesus instructed us to do. A child has faith that there will be food on the table for supper, or that their parents will pick them up after school and take them home, but they do not know that for certain, they just believe.
Whether there is a God or not, and I believe there is a loving God that wants all humans to be his children he said he does not wish for even one to perish, if I live my life by christian principles believing that you treat others the way you want to be treated with love, kindness, and compassion
then I am a better person for it. So when I die, I will have left good things on the earth because of the principles I was taught, and I will have left the earth a better place, but also, as a christian that has accepted Jesus as the savior, then I will spend eternity with God in the manner he intended in the beginning. But, if like you believe there is not really a God, then I am still as good as others, I have left the earth a better place and suffer no consequences upon death. But unlike those that do not believe in Jesus as the son of God if I am right, I go to a heaven and rejoice, but others will go to a tormenting hell to perish. I don’t like to take too many chances on earth with things I can control, so I certainly don’t want to take a chance with my soul and eternity. Why would I even take the chance of going to hell when I can go to heaven by just accepting that Jesus was the son of God sent to earth to die for the sins of man, and for those that confess that they have sinned and believe in him will be saved and have eternal life. Life not as we have in this physical body, but a spiritual body which will live forever with him.
I know each of us feels the God shaped void in our life, and we try to fill it with so many physical things, such as drugs, money, sex, alcohol or even with relationships, or doing good things for the earth, etc. But nothing really fills that void until we accept Jesus as the savior of our life, then we finally understand, and the truth comes forward and as the bible says, our eyes are open. I know it is hard to understand until you have experienced it, but it is sort of like knowing what a banana taste like if you have never tasted one. You can’t know what it is like until you do. Thanks and God Bless!
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my name is joshua from ohio and i think you are the coolest freakon person ever and i was wondering how you found the church of the flying spogitti monster. i was wondering how i could join the church and also one last question is how do you pray to the flying spogitti monster?
your answers would be greatly apreshated.:)
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i am doing a informative speech about your church which i think is alsome , i saw a vidio on utube about it and he had a hand out describeing the heaven and hell of the place and the 4 main points of the church and the reason about pirates and i was wondering if you could send me a copie of the handout to my email plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
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After browsing your site i have fully converted to believe on the FSM, as much as i belive in any other creator of our lifeform.
Although i have one concern…one component in pasta is egg, so what existed first, the chicken or the egg?
As a new son-of-a-pirate i advice that Carthage must be destroyed!
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hey david… wtf is a girls dick???
you must have had one screwed up childhood o.O
can the fsm grant me a wish? i want a pirate ship on roller blades
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Does heaven have to be a stripper factory and a beer volcanoe? What if I died when I was 6 years old?
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Peace ‘n Love :)
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I sent in a question before and it came up on the website (thanks for that by the way) but I was kinda hoping for an answer.
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*Gives thumbs up* :D
(P.S.) If you’re wondering what website I will put up, it’ll be a simple collection of Motivational Posters, mainly. I will include one of his Noodly Appendage which I will make myself, and post the link.
(P.S.S.)Hey Anne Bonny, the ONLY reason why the government says children can’t have alcohol is because it slows brain development! If you’re in His heaven, you can have it, in heaven NOTHING bad happens!
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What do pirates and global warming have to do with Flying Spaghetti Monsterism? And how does that correlation support the religion?
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Anne Bonny: Come on, six-year-olds LOVE pizza and beer. Hell, I was a big fan of strippers when I was ONE.
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666th post!
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Okay well i believe God created this universe not some stupid spaghetti monster i mean do you seriously not have anything better to do then sit around and come up with this stupid “religion”. You definately need some Jesus . Read the bible go to a real church it makes alot more sense than that flying meatballs and noodles are something that you should believe in and what created this universe and every thing in it .
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I think you are all nuts.
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I’ve moderated all I want to.
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There are MALE strippers in heaven (or hell, whatever, I’m not always nice) too right?
Otherwise I’m just gonna try finding the the fountain of youth.
Although findigt the fountain of youth is sure gonna be a lot of trouble, and I’m lazy.
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i suppose this makes me an important person in pastarianism by fate
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David,
may you be touched by his noodly appendage.
RAmen.
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ummmmm… whats the difference???
isnt it about WHO you are worshiping not WHAT you are worshiping
i hope the God really is a spaghetti monster and you can go to hell for hating on these people who are just trying to spread peace and love…how very christian of you….noob.
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This proves that (some) Christians are egocentric and ignorant as to not wanting us to pursue our religious beliefs!!
R’Amen!
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So I pretty much think you’re amazing and courtesy of you, I’m a devout Pastafarian. I’d be lost in life had it not been for you spreading the word of FSM. Thank you. :]
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Lo, I have seen the LIGHT!
I humbly give myself to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
After a lifetime of simple atheism, I now come to the true faith: Pastafarianism.
Once I was lost, now I am found! All praise to the Monster! She IS the LORD.
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I don’t care what the “8 I rather you didn’t’s” say, I’m starting a splitter group. We evolved from “midgets” not pirates. So stick it.
Baron VonA-hole
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jesus was a carpenter…. u have a physics degree…. u win
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……)…..(……..)..ooo….)…………..ooo)………/…………..
…..(…….)……( ooooo..(………….ooooo……/……../…….
……)…..(…….ooooooo-_-_-_-_ ooooooo…..(……..(……
……\……)……..ooooo_-_-_-_-_- ooooo……)……..)……..
……..\…(………..ooo _-_-_-_-_-_ ooo(……(……..(……..
……….\..\_____(___((……(…..(…(___)___)……..)…….
…………\______)____)……)…..)…….(……………(……..
…………………..(……./……(__ /______\________)……
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may he bless us all
RAmen
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I have done much searching for a faith that is right for me, and I have now finally found the way. I thank you.
R’Amen.
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I’m new to this party. Can someone more versed in Pastafarianism tell me if there is a Satan-like adversary to the FSM (blessed be his noodly appendage)? You know, like an anti-Pasta?
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Surely not. Pasta would be the raw firmament of the universe. When it comes into contact with anti-pasta, they cancel each other out and create black holes. It’s important to note that however black holes are created, what they ARE are ninja-pirates, a thing too cool to actually exist in this universe – consider, that ninjas are undetectable and so are black holes, and pirates plunder. To a black hole, EVERTHING is booty.
Truely, She works in mysterious, but very cool ways.
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WE LOVE YOU!
I think your amazing, I only became a pastafarain yesteday
and Im already touched by his noodly apedage!
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There should totaly be something about astoyabi, the festival of the exploding squid festival.
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I am wondering if it is possible to become ordained, and if so, would it be legal in the U.S. to perform a wedding ceremony. My step-daughter has asked me if I would like to officiate her ceremony. We live in Ohio but they are going to be married in Florida. I have no religious affiliation and consider myself at the very least, agnostic, if not atheist.
Thanks…by the way I love your website and your concept.
Debra
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Okay, I am a Christian. I see this kind of stuff and can not believe how some can call us Christians “nut cases”. This is the most ridiculous thing ever. It is quite funny though. If you have no problem with God, then why mock different religions. I do find this more amusing than evolution. I mean, if we evolved from an apelike ancestor, then why have we stopped evolving? May God bless you all!
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Baron Von Ahole said “I don’t care what the “8 I rather you didn’t’s” say, I’m starting a splitter group.”
This is not to be confused with a SPLINTER group. Yes, the splitter is the split-finger fastball. The good Baron has taken up residence in the bullpen of – who else? – the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Well, when was your church founded?
also, this is sad.
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Andrea,
What you wrote at 3am is very sad. We havent stopped evolving. You need some education. Evolution is the process by which species change over time. Just because you don’t like the idea that many millions of years ago you shared an ancestor with the extant primates doesnt make it untrue. And besides, I think that YOUR beliefs are amusing. For example, you believe that babies need to be dipped in water because thousands of years ago a woman (made from a rib) was tricked into eating from a magic tree by a talking snake. You also believe that you will survive your own death if you telepathically tell a guy who was his own father that you will submit to him. Now who’s being “amusing”?
Scott
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Scott is right, but why, oh why do these Christians never get the point that our faith is deliberately designed to highlight the silliness of theirs?
They often ask in a pathetic tone, ‘OK OK it’s funny, but why mock us?’ We do it because the other religions are funny, and we want to point that out. Also to have a laugh.
Forgive the rant.
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FSM is preventing us from evolving until we find a way to bring back pirates!!!
until so global warming” a myth” with continue on to haunt us.
in my opinion religion is a pathway out of hard times. not to completely fulfill your head with stories that were misinterpreted by people who thought otherwise.
the stories like adam and eve were about self responsibility, according to this history channel show adam or eve lied about the fruit and blamed a snake. that was the moral of the legend. take responsibility or take the punishment.
this is why im athiest, no confusing book that tells me what to do with my life
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“Andrea
Jun 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 am
…I do find this more amusing than evolution. I mean, if we evolved from an apelike ancestor, then why have we stopped evolving?…”
Can you produce any evidence that we have stopped evolving? There’s plenty of evidence about that we are still being ruthlessly selected, although these days by our own stupidity rather than things like parasites and carniverous animals. Designing an experiment to show, or not, actual evolution would be very interesting (if not conceptually impossible?). There is at least plenty of historical evidence of our having evolved, and the undoubted occurence of selective elimination in human populations allows us to plausibly suppose that in the future selective evolution will continue.
The “we’re not evolving any more” is commonly hear, and seems to be just an assumption. In many cases it is probably based on the further assumption that humankind represents the pinnacle of some sort of process of improvement, which is itself debatable.
Can we also stop bashing Christianity/other religions? This is like criticising custard for not being very good gravy. The real fallacy of setting Creationism against “Darwinism” is that it sets up Darwin’s theories and their relations as an ism. “Darwinism” is obviously an ism and as such is paraded around as such by Prof. Dawkins and others like him. As such it is highly comparable to Creationism or any other ism. Isms aren’t science, they are isms.
Science is about providing useful answers which fit the data as understood at the time. These useful answers are abandoned the instant a better useful explanation and/or more/better data comes along. Unless, of course, any particular useful explanation is taken up by some well-connected academics/celebrities and hawked around in an ism-like manner.
The theory of phlogiston was a useful explanation, and never being an ism, was abandoned very promptly upon the discovery of oxygen. This is why we no longer see labels on jars saying dephlogisticated marine acid – mildly wrong though the phlogiston explanation was, it was a useful heuristic scheme which enabled us to produce and explain hydrochloric acid and many similar compounds. The various theories and subtheories stemming from Darwin’s work are themselves useful heuristic schemes and every bit as liable to be jettisoned in whole or in part according to the supply of data and plausible analysis.
As long as Creationsim vs Darwinism is a battle of isms, it will go on, since any idea which becomes an ism loses thereby much of its use and force.
If Creationism is examined in the context of scientific investigation, that is to say, dispassionate analysis by scientific method, it becomes one of a multitude of potentially useful heuristic schemes, testable for internal consistency, consistency with the data and ultimate explanatory usefulness.
Religion isn’t science, and it is as intellectually inappropriate for the anti-religious to juxtapose the two as it is for Creationists to do so. Religion and science don’t address the same questions and attacking either demeans both without achieving any result of use.
Creationism is sterile and uninteresting, and as demeaning to Christianity as it is useless to scientific investigation. Hawking “Darwinism” about tends to have a similar effect on science and contributes vastly to broad and general misunderstanding. Anyone who has the least doubt on this score should have a look at Prof. Dawkins’ website, and especially the discussion threads.
And now I have to catch a bus into town.
(Any fossils of Flying Spaghetti Monsters? Or is this impossible on principle?)
Matt
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Scott: “you believe that babies need to be dipped in water because thousands of years ago a woman (made from a rib) was tricked into eating from a magic tree by a talking snake. You also believe that you will survive your own death if you telepathically tell a guy who was his own father that you will submit to him.”
Thanks! I’ll be stealing this!
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Are donations tax-exempt?
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