Q: Who are you?
A: My name is Bobby Henderson. I’m 26, currently living in Arizona, Originally from Oregon. I have a Physics degree and am happily unemployed.
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 on the T-Shirts?
A: Some. Not enough to buy a pirate ship, but enough to avoid a real job for a while.
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
i dont get it
i once believed in scientology, but now….
Your credentials are as good as any prophet’s have ever been, and better than most.
As an avid traveller and theologist, I find the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to be a resreshing break from the contradictions of todays mainstream religions. In fact I would argue that ANY intelligent design theory should only be presented alongside the teachings of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It is also my hope that we will eventually see education institutions founded and conducted by the Church of the FSM. Thank You Bobby Henderson for helping so many others to see the light, this page and all the lives that have been changed by it is testimony to the fact that your Physics Degree has not been wasted.
wow… ithink im going to convert. i have seen the light, or should i say his “noodly appendage”
Hi
I am glad I stumble upon your site. You see I have been searching for a new religion on which to base my beliefs.
You almost had a convert. There I was, gazing into the steaming hot bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, preparing myself to dive in ….
But then a nagging snigglet from somewhere down deep crystallized into a thought.
The problem I was having is that if you want to actually follow and practice the fundamental beliefs of most of the really popular religions (notably the big five), you can’t honestly use them as justification for being truly horrid to other people, particularly those of the same faith.
So I have been investigating the many smaller, newer, some would say “fringe†religions and sects. Those would, at least mathematically, provide a larger group of non-believers to persecute.
What is the terrible tribulation from which this faith sprang?
Where is the history of being persecuted and persecution?
Where is the history of violence?
Where is bloodshed?
… the countless thousands of senseless deaths of unbelievers?
But apparently this is part of what sets Pastafarianism apart, and I seen it as a weakness in the claim that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has true “religion†status.
I was about to move on to the Moonies, but then I had another thought (yes two in one day, I must have been trulu inspired)…
It’s a young religion; those days are yet to come.
Then inspiration!
Maybe I have come here for some predetermined purpose. Perhaps to help write that history. To help take Pastafariaqnism to the next logical step. To give the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster the psychological weight of bloodshed and murder to it’s C.V.
A purpose! (Joy!)
Now I am kind of squeamish about actual blood and guts and stuff like that. I’m more of an ideas person, preferring to leave the actual doing to others, but I do need a little more specific inspiration. Tell me of how it will all conclude. Surely there will someday come a tumultuous battle between the forces of good and evil, a final great conflagration, a great battle of Parmesan.
P.s. is it a safe assumption that martyrs will be rewarded in the afterlife with jobs as quality control inspectors at the stripper factory?
Hey Bobby, can you make a new version of the book? A real bible/gospel looking text would be awesome.
I agree that a real bible-looking text (instead of a flimsy paperback with a picture of a bible on the cover) would be awesome. I think that if there was enough interest, they might put one out. I’ll see what I can do.
Bobby, I’d totally buy a bible-looking version of The Gospel. No questions asked. Put a section on the site, and give a general price amount, and take a poll. I’m sure you’ll find there’s MORE than enough interest.
Bobby,
As a devout pastafarian I have to challenge you on this:
“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.”
One cannot be a “good” Christian because:
1) If one is a “good Christian” because one is particulary adherent to the Bible, one would be murdering everyone who worked on Sundays, torturing, raping, etc. as Christian God instructs.
2) If one is a “good Christian” because one takes a very liberal interpretation of the Bible and is generally an OK person, one is living a total contradiction by not standing up for what their Bible says, and one is also fostering a culture where it is taboo to question religion.
There is nothing good about religion - positive morals/values can be found through reason and are more compelling that way.
Bobby- first of all, love the church, religion, website. It rocks! I have been converted. Could you please tell me if the Kansas School board is still keeping up this farce? i don’t want to send angry letters if they realized thier mistake. And whose the 4th minority person?I only saw three reply letters. I won’t pester the people on our side. I plan to put up posters in my school and hand out pamphlets, as soon as the office lets me. I am an avid pursuer of the sciences, and fully hate ID. Please reply, but I’ll understand if you don’t have time.Keep up the good work and Raamen!
Anna
P.S.- This Sept, 19th is national talk like a pirate day, in case you didn’t know
Arrrr..
Telling folks at work about national talk like a pirate day (which we’ve been observing for years) is how we found FSM :)
I’m checking at my B&N store for the gospel today, I imagine I’ll end up having to order it.
I just came across a giggle. I now have a religious reason for continuing my low-carb lifestyle!!!!! I can curb my carbs out of respect for our starch-based deity ;) That’ll add a great opportunity for spreading the word, as people ask me about my diet all the time.
how do u know god isnt a giant beer bottle
Why did the beacon of Pastafarianism move to Arizona? Doesn’t FSM get all hard and brittle in that arid climate? That’s why no pirates, signs of life, or decent football teams have ever been found there.
Come back to Oregon, and continue receiving enlightenment from FSM when he is saturated and dripping it everywhere.
You might want to emphasize the issue of ID (intelligent design) being considered in science classes. It is not an issue of the ideas presented by ID, it is in the authoritative stance of the idea-presenters and their relation to the rest of society. It’s not god or the spaghetti monster - it’s about fundamentalism vs empiricism. My suggestion (based upon the hate mail) is that you make that clear in some way on the site, to reduce philisophical banter on the issue.
i apologize for my unclear phrasings- if you have any questions feel free to email me back.
i really love what you did here by the way
Does the Flying Spaghetti Monster play dice with the universe? and if so, is that game of craps happen near the beer volcano or the stripper factory?
Its great that someone avtually came up with an Intelligent design theory that alows its followers to think about the religon they are following and not what the religon thinks they should be thinking.
Chris, you are obviously well educated on Christian beliefs, being that you wrote absolutely nothing true about Christian beliefs in your blog. You did, however, account for Judaic, pre-Christian beliefs. Good job…
Bobby, your site is amusing, and I can agree that ID does not belong in science classes. However, I also believe that Evolution does not belong in science classes for much the same reason. Let’s stick to chemistry, physics and biology based on the scientific theory.
Good luck with the site.
As a devoted pyrate, a long time have we been vexed upon by the “official” navies of the world and thought of as moderatly lax in our morals. Although most of we pirates know that we’ve been “touched by gods,” recognizing the height-discouraging push of HIS appendage has been a graceful brush by a quite-saucy god.
We at The Pyrates Way try to do our part in passing on the word next issue (Winter) when we print interviews of Pastafarians and show pirates on this earth that they can come out of the seachest and expose their slops for all to see.
If you are interested in helping us bring the world temperature down while giving rise to the pirate population, please join us at www.pyratesway.com.
Yours with a side-salad, rich in Italian dressing,
Steve “The Black Fox” Kimball
Publisher, The Pyrates Way
I think Talk Like A Pirate Day should be secondary holiday. So when is the offical day to celebrate the Flying Spagetti Monster? If there isn’t already a set date, I’d like to suggest the date of the original letter.
Thanks!
Keebler