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

2339 Responses to “Comment on the Open Letter”

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101 - September 23rd, 2006 at 5:36 am - Souch Says:

Womderfully fantastic,I went onto google looking For personal belive and somethink to belive in other then the fact that i am so attractive (not a view shared by all) and stumble across this brilliant spaghetti God of yours. I love the idea and reasoning you have, also i may help to stop global warming by enlisting people as pirates as i agree with your stats (you can proove anything with a graph). I NEED TO KNOW WHERE CAN I WORSHIP THIS PASTA LORD. GOOD LUCK IN THE FUTURE ENJOY :-)
102 - September 23rd, 2006 at 8:06 am - the bad panda Says:

(Quoting Kate)
Science is the observation. Evolution is an interpretation of the observation. So is intelligent design.
To Kate:
Intelligent design is a theory expounded on the basis that the creation of certain species follows an intelligent designation instead of an undirected process such as natural selection.
Hmm.
Basically its saying that something “intelligent” formed it, because the design itself is intelligent.
Hmm.
Problem with that is the very foundation of this theory i.e. an intelligent being existing somewhere out there is scientifically impossible to prove. In simple language, this so-called scientific theory is just saying “Hey, this is really really cool. Someone really cool must have done this.”
Please.
Thats not science. Thats a guess. Like when I look at the sky and guess that clouds must be made out of cotton candy because its all soft and poofy.
To Zach:
You are a big potty mouth. Good Christians dont swear, even type-swearing shielded by ***-es. And youre making a bad name for Christians, because you sound like a dumb fuck.
At least get your freakin’ spelling right.
The fact that youre angry about the wrong issues (i.e. in our fanatical worship for His Noodleyness) shows that you, my friend, have been left behind in the evolution process.
Do you even have thumbs?
Repent O ignorant one, or we will send our mighty pirate ships TO DESTROY YOU!
ALL HAIL HIS LORDSHIP, THE MIGHTY ONE, KING OF FILLING CARBOHYDRATES.
Ramen.
103 - September 23rd, 2006 at 5:29 pm - Zorgon Maximus Zorgo Says:

Truly the prophet has spoken through you!

Joy unto man that this BLESSED revelation has been made known!

HOLY OF HOLIES, let man rejoice.

PASTA reigns and is known and is loved by man.

Let us strike our special parts with wet noodles.

Let us service the mighty one.

Lay down with Lasagna!

Cry out for Linguini to come within like a ram.

Holy HOLY HOLY…

Where do I sent my money?
104 - September 24th, 2006 at 8:10 am - Paulo Says:

I was Christened a Catholic but found it hard to repent in my early teenage years so converted to Islam. This I found a little harsh so tried a spot of Judaism for 3 years during my mid twenties, not particularly keen on the head wear I took up the Hare Krishna thingy for a couple of months before regressing into a Mormon. Alas the lack of booze forced me to become a Hindu which I practiced until I heard the calling of Satan…. But all that blood and torture was not for me so I abandoned it all and became Atheist. That was until 1 hour ago - I’ve found it after 29 years on this planet all hail his Noodleyness…

Don’t you think it’s a bit strange that all these religions believe they’re “the one”? Open your eyes and look around, stand on you own 2 feet (an other similar clichÃ©s), learn to think for yourself FSM is the way forward….

Aye Aye

Paulo
105 - September 24th, 2006 at 9:31 am - Gypsy Says:

This is the best site ever…I’m forwarding to all my friends. By the way…talk like a pirate day was really cold in Arkansas.
106 - September 24th, 2006 at 3:21 pm - St. Luke The Heretic Says:

RAmen, people. RAmen.
107 - September 25th, 2006 at 8:22 am - Helen Jefferson Says:

Absolutely delightful!! Whether it is proved true or not, it bears thought.
108 - September 25th, 2006 at 1:51 pm - Meeee Says:

Its come to my attention that a great number of individuals consider the existence of a greater being than themselves. Im not here to argue that, but rather the existence of the deity designated as the “Christian God”. After carefully reviewing the “facts” (Not just the bible, but other such tomes) its completely beond me how any person could possibly, assuming they have some sort of scientific know-how (highschool education), accept this massacre of physics and old english as the proprietor of the universe. The following are my reasons;

1. The bible defines God as an omnicient and omnipresent entity. This is impossible, as if he where so defined, he would know all that would ever happen. He would also be able to do or change anything. If this where true, God would know every thing thgat would happen, but be able to change it, then causing his predictions to be incorrect. I.E, this is a paradox. There is a comparable non-metaphysical component to this, such as “Can God create a rock so big that He himself could not lift it?”

2.It is impossible for god to be the creater of the universe for to reasons. One is that to creat an infinite universe, you would need an amount of energy greater than infinity, which, needless to say, isnt possible. The second reason is that If God where indeed alone in the realm of existence prior to the creation of the universe, he would have no reason to create the universe. This may seem like a phsycological reason, but it is in fact a proveable thing, see “The cause and effect theory”.

3.God is perfect. God also created man in his image. Man is imperfect, however. Therefore, God is imperfect and thus disproves himself.

4.If we do in fact have free will, this contridics the idea that God is omnicient. This is because he would already know everything thats going to happen, in so saying we could not have any choices.

5. A more meta-physical theory would be the “Problem of Evil” in relation to an omnipotent and omnibenovolent diety. This one would take a really long time to explain, so just google it.

6. Fossiles combined with “The origin of species” strongly conflict with the explanation the bible gives of creation.

Most of these arent really theories (exept number five) and are all comonly accepted as proveable. If you have anything to add, for the existence of God or against, I strongly encourage you to post.
109 - September 25th, 2006 at 4:34 pm - your mom Says:

you all retards
110 - September 25th, 2006 at 9:05 pm - Program Director Says:

We need to spread the pasta gospel. I think we should set up a broadcast network similar to the other religious broadcasters and solicit money to convert the ignorant.

The network and affiliates would of course be unlicensed. And what do we call unlicensed broadcasters? …….!

His noodleyness is wise.

I would like to submit my application to be the program director of the flag ship station WIIR. (pronounced of course “Aye-Aye-Arrrgh”).
111 - September 26th, 2006 at 9:11 am - Septimus Bean Says:

Pastafarians Unite! RAmen! …end of line.
112 - September 26th, 2006 at 11:40 am - pray you do not overcook Says:

Our Spaghetti monster
who art cooked al dente
oregano is thy friend
thy taste sweet with red wine
On with parmejan, on with parmesan
Give us bread with olive oil and a nice balsamic
lead us not into stale bread, but give us a nice baker
so we can have yummy food with lots of garlic
113 - September 26th, 2006 at 1:04 pm - Kelso Says:

Firstly I would like to congratulate you on bringing this brilliant alternative theory to the attention of the Kansas School Board and other institutions who falsely promote the Christian “Intelligent Design” theory or the blasphemous “evolution” theory.

Unfortunately, detailed research - which is far too complex and convoluted for me to go into detail here - has led me to conclude that your assertion that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster is not completely correct. Although He does appear to have created the universe, it is in fact a widespread conspiracy across many, many galaxies that has invented the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a front for their own evil doings.

Essentially this conspiracy is a mixture of aliens, pirates and members of the Rothschild/Illuminati/Priory of Sion/British Royal Family/Mormon/Welsh sects, who have disguised themselves as lizards, been beamed down to our planet and implanted mind-control chips in the brains of Pastafarians. These mind-control chips cause the deluded belief that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, while in fact the Flying Spaghetti Monster is nothing more than a bowl of ordinary spaghetti, found on the floor of a kitchen in Rome in AD54, painted by a short-sighted artist, and found on the walls of a cave occupied by a little-known civilisation credited with the invention of democracy, AM radios, the electric hammer, red wine, pyramids and chocolate buttons.

The conspiracy has infested you! But it is not too late. BELIEVE in the evil lizard-alien-Royal-Welsh-pirate conspirators, and they will be forced to leave you alone and concentrate their evil doings on some other planet (which, by the way, are all occupied by hyper-intelligent talking dogs named Patrick).

May you break free from the chains of mind control.
114 - September 26th, 2006 at 1:50 pm - TivoliMonster Says:

I am wondering if this is someone who is being quite serious, or whether they are completely joking. I’m confused…..
115 - September 26th, 2006 at 3:36 pm - Lindsey Randal Potts Says:

OK, I should be allowed to get in on the action here…

I have promulgated a Unified Field Theory Diagram that I think links all that exists in one nifty model. It consists of a tetra-torroidal convection cell. Yeah, that’s right all that exists can be said to function in relation to everything else in the fashion of that model.

So I wonder, why didn’t anyone ask me how everything is supposed to work? You know, it always happens that way nobody ever asks me anything…

Lindsey
116 - September 26th, 2006 at 4:29 pm - Abby Says:

Hello fellow pastafarians. I myself am a christian, BUT, i fully support the FSM. I feel I have been touched by his noodly appendage.

I think we should all come up with a FSM chant/cheer of some sort. Who’s with me?
117 - September 26th, 2006 at 4:31 pm - mortgageratesetc Says:

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118 - September 26th, 2006 at 4:34 pm - Abby Says:

ps-i so talked like a Pirate on Talk Like a Pirate Day.
119 - September 26th, 2006 at 8:05 pm - Paul Says:

I lost hope in this world until I was touched by His Noodly Appendage. Now I believe I have the will to go on! Can I get a RAmen?
120 - September 26th, 2006 at 10:26 pm - JimBob3 Says:

Certainly makes more sense than the christian “Intelligent Design”

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Purchase the Gospel

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