I wrote the Open Letter sometime around January of 2005 and posted it online several months later after receiving no reply from the Kansas School Board. Within days of posting it online, the letter became an internet phenomenon, generating tens of thousands of visits each day, as well as personal responses from the school board members themselves. To date (August 2006), the venganza website has received upwards of 350 million hits, and somewhere in the proximity of 15 million unique visits. This website operates on a dedicated server and uses 600 – 800 GB/month in bandwidth. I’ve received over 15,000 emails in response to the letter.
The letter, after being blogged heavily for months, was printed in several large newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Sun Times, and many others. The newspaper articles caught the attention of book publishers, and at one point there were six publishers interested in getting the Word of the Flying Spaghetti Monster out to the public. In the end, the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was released by Random House in March of 2006.
It’s now been over a year since the FSM phenomenon started. I hope that a year from now we will be recognized as a legitimate religious organization, with all the same benefits *and tax loopholes* that the mainstream religions enjoy.
Please leave me a comment on the Letter, the FSM movement as a whole, or whatever you like. Thanks,
-Bobby
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…theist seals…yeah…
Um, crap, got off on a tangent there, anyhow, keep up the good work Bobby, perhaps I’ll become a part-time pastafastarian.
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May your divine creator the Flying Spaghetti Monster bestow greatness upon ye!
Ramen
P.S.I also seemed to notice an interesting detail to be noted for your pirate/global warming charts: not too long ago the global temperature apparently seemed to drop a couple degrees, which must be a good sign in your church, right?
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Come on Tyler, I think you are pulling my noodley appendage. But just in case you are acting as a real Christian apologist, how did you come up with this bullshit? God ordered the killing of all the people in a city, including infants, because they were afflicted with a genital disease?
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Why didn’t God just help mankind develop penicillin a few millenia early? And why kill the infants? Surely they weren’t infected because they had been fucking without condoms.
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Your reasoning reminds me of my not-too-bright, 20-year-old Grandson’s explanation of how the marsupials ended up on Australia after the “Great Flood.” Grandson believes that the flood was a literal event, that the earth is only about 6,000 years old, and that evolution is bunk. In some science class he’d heard of continental drift, so he explained that the marsupials native to Australia got off the Ark, climbed onto the chunk of land destined to be Australia, and floated south.
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Never mind that continenetal drift proceeds at a rate of a few centimeters per year. Once hooked on a literal interpretation of the Bible, a Christian’s justification for the truth of the fairy tale Biblical passages has to be an even bigger fairy tale.
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It’s good that you hate arguing, because you are lousy at it. I’ll be happy to review any REAL evidence that supports your imaginative explanation of God’s wrath in the passges I cited.
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ATSAP REVOL, Bullshit Buster
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Im Changing Religon!!!!
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Pirates are fighting ninjas! I repeat, pirates are fighting ninjas!!!
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I am sooo a Pastafarian now, and since I have started my weekly worship dressed as a pirate, the area I live in has gotten over a foot and a half of snow, the first time in nearly 20 years I might add.
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Last night I partook of the flesh and blood of our saviour FSM, and today I feel like I have been reborn.
Hallelujah! It’s time to wash the dishes!
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All I got to say is Belive what you Belive in the end we will all float… P.S I Love the spahgetti pics Bow to my meat Balls!!!
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It made me hungry for pasta.
And what kind of sauce is your moster best with? Hopefully a non meat sauce.
Me, I believe in the slow growth universe and life dieing and growing until all the planets in the universe were formed by way of a magnetic field which has been created because of the inteaction between planets. This took longer than both theories of religion and science. So someone has got the time thing wrong. But since the universe is endless and without time I am concluding that your all wrong. Planet and star rotation also has created the sun from friction which science disbelieves but I disagree with science and religion and government and criminals and popularists and corporations. And anything else that doesn’t agree with me. Because one day the monster magnet that lurks in the vast nothingness of space will come through this little area of the universe and it is so large beyond comprehension that all the dirt that make up all the planets and stars and such will be turned to just another dusty haze because of the energy of the magnetic fields which are so far out in space that remnants of it hold this universe together. Yes yes the friction of the planets created it but now it is so strong it is its own entity. And then when it leaves all the dirt reforms and this part of the universe starts over with a brand new story when the human idiots are born on whatever ball of dirt that allows them. In reality all the planets have had life on them and when this planet dies and goes into dormancy another planet comes out of theirs and begins again. That is why we think there is life in the universe. A little off on the timing again and that is why people believe in a god because the man in space is another life on another planet. Much to thier dismay they are also more inteligent. Possibly not all of them but I am to guess at least two of them are. And they land here possibly and plant poison and disease in our soil. So the more we try to go to another planet because we think we are smart the more likely they will retaliate against us when we are dead. What about if they concreted the whole surface of earth so we couldn’t emerge again. Wow we are so screwed. Good luck with that spaghetti monster theory. Anyway just dropping a line about the death of the universe renewed by yet another means. And would love to hear your sauce for the spaghetti monster. All life started in plant form. So keep it vegetarian.
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It’s not that I don’t like the Church or Idea of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It has as much basis as any other religion and every right to be known.
Because I stand from the viewpoint of not so much an atheist, but as one who really doesn’t care, I can’t seem to grasp why, how, and generally “WTF.” Please, some kind person, dumb it down for my simple and not-so-caring mind.
One last thing. There are really 17 pirates left? I’d be amazed at that. Oh, and am I the only one who is slightly creeped out by the thought of giant food floating invisibly through my house? If so, then I’m obviously crazy.
Cheers! I wish you luck with the spread of your faith! And I also hope those damn Christians stop telling you that their god loves you. It’s annoying.
Sincerely,
.Slucer.
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Just wanted to say how much I appreciate this letter. Way to go Bobby. Also I wanted to ask you to google “intelligent falling” which is the latest atrocity of the evangelical “scientific” community.
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The reason why Christianity is bashed so much is because of its presence in America. I recently started noticing how prominent it is in our society and it is a bit overwhelming. Other atheists take notice of this and thus they bash Christianity. If it wasn’t trying so hard to force its values, morals and beliefs on us, then we really wouldn’t complain so much. And yes, I know that many Christians and other religious peoples aren’t trying to force their religion upon us, but there is a large amount of Christians that try.
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Finally a religoin I can believe in, count me in as one of your flock as you are now my god.
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Ok, this is pretty darn funny. Actually, this is hilarious. I respect any religion that helps people strive to do good deeds and treat all people with respect.
With that being said, I think we all know that the Theory of Evolution is the real sha-bang. Its FACT! Enough said. However, faith is something so special to people and has been for may, many years. We should all respect religion.
Now, when it comes to teaching ANY faith in public schools it should be illegal. We have a separation of church and state int his contry and it should not ever be touched on in public schools. PERIOD!
The moral of the story…? Respect all religions. AND respect the separation of church and state.
CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG ALREADY AND BE FAIR AND LOGICAL!
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Send this to Arkansas too, I want to learn about this!
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3912 – Slucer
It’s about the religious right con artist sales team’s disingenuous call to teach “Both Sides” (TM)
Simpler…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGArqoF0TpQ&feature=player_embedded
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Oh and just to reiterate, I love the FSM, its funny, intelligent, well thought out and is probably one of the best religious satires ever, keep up the good work. Believing in a higher power doesn’t make your sense of humor shrivel up.
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I’m the new Messiah of pastafarianism. As long as any other religion has sects, for an example Christianity there are catholics, protestants, orthodox and many others. I claim to be the leader of new understanding of FSM. It is called “macaronism”.
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I love the way you state that “evolution, cannot create genes it can only change existing ones.” – but that’s how it happens you ignoramus! Mutated genes are created by a number of possible processes – these genes then face natural selection and if they survive we have a new gene type. Magic.
Life didn’t begin with a “single cell organism” – there were most likely precursor complex molecular objects which evolved cell walls and other cell requirements via good old natural selection. Evolution fully supports the diversity of life over millions of years – I assure you that the earth has not remained static over this period – we have had many ice ages, huge volcanic events and the continental drift has been considerable! Please state some of these evolution problems you talk of; I would be most interested to discover that the almost globally accepted theory of evolution has insurmountable flaws!
Gravity is not a law – it is a force. Many theories have been devised to explain this force and predict its effects. First Newton, then Einstein and finally The FSM and his noodley appendages…
You have no idea what a scientific theory is do you? A scientific theory (as opposed to a religious one) is a description of a process which explains all available observable evidence and predicts as yet unobserved effects. Natural Selection fulfils this definition; Creationism doesn’t!
Evolution is a fact – it is undisputed by all truly scientific minds. Natural Selection is a theory as to how evolution occurs – and may be incorrect (unlikely) – that fits the observable evidence best at present.
Finally, I actually agree with you that the bible is not to be believed literally; What idiot would attempt to do such a foolish thing! Any religion that can not stand up to questioning is indeed unworthy of belief – yet christianity and islam can not stand up to questioning! They have no evidence whatsoever. I see you state “You cannot argue an unprovable idea with another unprovable idea.” – but that is religion down to a tee.
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#3921 – You schismatic bastard! May you bake forever in a cheesy sauce!!
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To New Holly Pasta @3921
Does this mean we will need to follow other religions lead and pin you up to something?? An over sized fork maybe?
RAmen
Gordon
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Let’s burn the infidels
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#3925
No…no burning. We leave that kind of behaviour to all the dogmatic religious extremists. However flogging with wet al dente noodles (I suppose we could use slightly hot noodles :) or walking the plank at the point of a cutlass are Pirately acceptable.
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@3921 – New Holly Pasta
Oh we have some sects too..
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Pastafarian_Schisms
I personally seem to remember the Alfredo reformists being particularly vocal at one stage.
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