Comment on the Open Letter

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

2675 Responses to “Comment on the Open Letter”

Pages: « 1 … 8 9 10 11 [12] 13 14 15 16 … 134 » Show All

221 - October 9th, 2006 at - gill Says:

….think you’re missing the point, shai. It’s called satire, you know?
222 - October 9th, 2006 at - NZ pirate Says:

I am from NZ and even us in this small country in the middle of nowhere have heard of the great FSM. Also all you Christians posting, calm down and stop telling us to rot in hell.
RAmen
223 - October 10th, 2006 at - Bryce of michigan Says:

thinking like this is what makes things better for everyone although i myself am agnostic i support you in spirit and wish you the best in the future
224 - October 10th, 2006 at - Stevee Says:

Shai - Hahahahahahahahahah peace. You have hit the nail on the head, come and join us.
225 - October 10th, 2006 at - Starbuckaneer Says:

1) Everyone is writing comments in outline form! This makes it easy to just read the first line and get an idea of what is going on.
2) I like this way better than a HUGE paragraph, which, as an English major, I am comelled to find the Cliff’s Notes for. :)
3) My mom says it’s important to always number your points to make it easy to refer back to them (especially in conversation) and it makes them sound more important.
4) You guys must know my mom. Tell her I said hi.
5) As for stereotyping Christians, we’re not. They’re doing it to themselves. If you don’t like a sterotype, people, don’t perpetuate it.
6) That’s all.
226 - October 10th, 2006 at - Starbuckaneer Says:

7) Oh, and we’re not insulting organized religion, we’re insulting the individual people who have felt a need to publicly express their ignorance. This makes them fair game.
227 - October 10th, 2006 at - Mick Says:

I can understand that you are atheists, that you have your own opinions, like any of us. However, I don’t think it is a good idea to use Michelangelo’s painting of the Creation, modified in this way.

You may represent God as you perceive Him, but I am not glad to see your representation. This can hardly be called “humour”, but showing bad taste and offending without any reason. I do think that it would be a better idea to respect each other and live in peace.
228 - October 10th, 2006 at - SaucyWench Says:

Offending without any reason? Give me a break. I have plenty of reasons to offend Christians. Christians desexualized and demoted the Goddess , and tell me, a female, that I can never be as good and virtuous as she. What conclusion am I supposed to draw from that bit of wisdom? That I’m destined to be a subservient slut? That’s hardly empowering. And what about burning “witches” at the stake? Women of learning and skill at healing were persecuted and killed due to the influence of, you guessed it, Christianity. Can’t Christianity can’t handle a little bit of mockery and, FSM forbid, accountability? I feel worse about possibly offending Michelangelo’s spirit’s sensitivities. He’s probably at the stripper factory, though, and couldn’t care less.
229 - October 10th, 2006 at - David Says:

You guys kick ass! That’s the only way to counter the arguments of evangelicals–to ridicule and mock and deride them.
230 - October 11th, 2006 at - Unintelligent Design Says:

I love how some of the ID’ers try to pick apart small holes in the wide frabric of evidence for evolution while missing this one, patently obvious, factual hole in the concept of Intelligent Design: there isn’t ANY evidence of a designer!

There’s more evidence for little green men than there is for any sort of “god”. So until you find your god’s fossilized remains at the bottom of the Kansas city conservative water well, STFU, ok?

RAmen
231 - October 11th, 2006 at - One Eyed Jack Says:

Saucy,
/
Say “subservient slut” again… and arch your back a bit when you do… ;-)
/
From the book of Gemelli: “And behold, the FSM did make the first midgits. He created them two, pirate and wench. He then turned to the pirate (knowing his gender to be a little slow witted) and spake unto him. ‘pirate and wench, samey-samey, likey-likey… got it?’ From that day and ever after pirates and wenches did live as equals.”
/
RAmen.
232 - October 11th, 2006 at - spider Says:

yar me hearties

” …This is a waste of time because it is the same thing as ID. Who cares who the diety is. FSM and ID are equivalent in the eyes of science…” shai

THATS THE POINT.

and Jack, don’t encourage her to do that, tis hard enough to concentrate as it is.

RAmen
233 - October 11th, 2006 at - PÃ¡dua Pires Says:

I fear that the exposed correlations between global warming and pirate population is nothing more than a statistical artifact. Everyone knows that correlation does not imply causation. That’s why I advise the authors to consider the fall of vynil disc production as the real cause of global warming, the lateral displacement of piracy efforts towards the CD industry being just a side effect.

Sincerely yours,

PÃ¡dua Pires
234 - October 11th, 2006 at - Mick Says:

SaucyWench,

I respect your option (feminism, I suppose) but I cannot agree with you. What has witch-burning to do with Christendom?!?!? If someone called feminism a form of extremism I am sure you would get mad, but you accuse Christendom of stake-burnings and things…

But if you and others think that offending is better than dialogue and respect that’s it.
235 - October 11th, 2006 at - Mick Says:

P.S.

I agree with you that most Christians don’t care about such websites, and that I am one of the few who try to have some dialogue with people who have sucg attitudes. But I am no longer that sure it is a good idea…
236 - October 11th, 2006 at - spider Says:

Mick.
Witch burnings WERE carried out in the name of christendom, they were sanctioned by the church and aided and abbeted by members of the church. I appreciate it is a crime in the past, as were crusades and inquisitions (and please before anyone else gets high and mighty about their faith, look carefully they all have their crimes) so modern day members of churchs always say “but that is history”, that doesn’t happen now.

of course we don’t burn people (too often, or anywhere with cable) but at the time they looked back on their predecessors and said at least we’re not like them. Perhaps in the future churches of whatever creed will look back and say similar things about the discrimination against women, or preventing access to contraception and STD control, or the quiet acceptance of paedophiles in the clergy, ad nauseum… your own church in your neighberhood maybe doesn’t carry out these crimes. but look in africa, south america, the indian sub continent and you’ll see massacres and atrocities aplenty all in the name of your lord, funded and given legitimacy by your church. just because your not holding the machete doesn’t stop you being an accomplice.

me. i don’t believe, but i like pasta. it hasn’t murdered anyone yet.

RAmen
237 - October 11th, 2006 at - Mick Says:

Dear spider,

I hope you won’t be angry with me if I tell you that none of you mention was carried out in the name of Christendom. Christendom means, among others, the Orthodox Church, whose member I am, and who did not burn any witch, neither did it carry out any crusade, or had anything to do with the Inquisition.

You mention atrocities done by Christians (which?!) in South America, Africa and India, but do not say anything about Mother Theresa’s work and other missionaries’. To call me an accomplice of those whom you mention would be as absurd as if I called you an accomplice of Mao Tse Dong (who killed more than 50 million people) or of Stalin (also millions of victims) just because you are atheist like them. I can never agree with such black-and-white patterns on either religion or atheism.
238 - October 11th, 2006 at - Starbuckaneer Says:

Mick: Get yourself a textbook. Not a Bible. A textbook.

*Witch burnings were carried out by the Christian religion. How do you think your SAINT JOAN OF ARC died? She was burned, as A WITCH, because she heard voices. Also, if you don’t want to believe that your non-Catholic denomination of Christianity had anything to do with it, what about the Church of England? (Where many of today’s Baptist-style faiths stem from, I believe… darn Pilgrims…) They beheaded people who would not convert. Beheading, burning, whatever. Entire villages in Europe were burned because one person was suspected to be a witch. In our own lovely country, the witch burnings were on a much smaller scale; but, again, a result of mysogynistic and megalomaniacal leaders of CHRISTIAN churches.

**SaucyWench’s opinion, while feminist, yes, is better categorized as the opinion, and extremely valid complaint, of the Wiccan faith. You preach it, SaucyWench!

***Yes, Mick, large amounts of people have been killed by ALL TYPES OF PEOPLE! It’s called GENOCIDE. Genocide, for any reason, and by anyone, is WRONG. It doesn’t make it any more right for it to be in the name of god.

****I used pretty *stars* instead of numbers!!!!!

*****Do not take offense, Mick, because we aren’t picking on YOU (unless you ask for it…) We are picking on the people who are fanatically obsessed with their religion enough to be intimidated by an IDEA or OPINION that differs from their own. If you’re so right, then what the hell do you care if someone doesn’t agree? If I say that my dog is a dog, and you say that she’s a cat, I may correct you once, but, if you really want to call her a cat, FINE! She won’t care, either, as long as you give her some of whatever you’re eating. It won’t hurt ME, and it won’t hurt HER for her to be mislabeled. The only one who looks like an idiot is the person calling her a cat, and the idiocy of another person is none of my business (until they’re RUDE.)
239 - October 11th, 2006 at - Starbuckaneer Says:

Oh, and speaking of burning things, let’s not get started on the BOOKS that are burned by churches. Don’t tell me they don’t do it, either, for I have witnessed it with my OWN EYEBALLS! (No eye-patch, either!) A church in my area (of which a friend of mine is a member) burned the Harry Potter books because they talk about *GASP* witchcraft. As far as I’m concerned, burning a book is JUST AS TERRIBLE as burning a person. Maybe worse than burning a person, depending on who the person is.
240 - October 11th, 2006 at - HIM Says:

WHOOO. Comment 241. Way to go me. I have 241 comments!!!

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An elaborate spoof on Intelligent Design, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is neither too elaborate nor too spoofy to succeed in nailing the fallacies of ID. It's even wackier than Jonathan Swift's suggestion that the Irish eat their children as a way to keep them from being a burden, and it may offend just as many people, but Henderson, described elsewhere as a 25-year-old "out-of-work physics major," puts satire to the same serious use that Swift did. Oh, yes, it is very funny. -- Scientific American