Flying Spaghetti Monster

At London South Bank University, images of the Flying Spaghetti Monster have been banned.^[1] Muslims were offended by the Flying Spaghetti Monster.^[2] According to Google trends data, public interest in the Flying Spaghetti Monster has fallen - as has interest in evolutionary ideas.^[3] Meanwhile, global creationism is growing.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of "Pastafarianism", a parody religion that began as a critique of the Kansas Board of Education's decision to allow the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. Arguing that intelligent design was a thinly-veiled attempt to bring religion into the classroom, Bobby Henderson constructed "Pastafarianism" as a new theological system and argued that, if schools wished to "teach the controversy," they should teach "Pastafarianism" alongside evolution and intelligent design.^[4]

Since then, many atheists and secularists have claimed to be "Pastafarians", implicitly using its obvious shortcomings to criticize actual religions, especially Christianity. More prominent atheists and agnostics have also mentioned it, such as new atheist Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion.

"Pastafarians" worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a flying pile of spaghetti and meatballs, by eating spaghetti and dressing in pirate regalia. "Pastafarianism" also holds pirates in high esteem, claiming that they were good men whose deeds were perverted by the media. They attribute global warming to the decrease of pirates, presenting graphs showing that global temperatures have risen over the past centuries in rough inverse correlation to the number of pirates.

According to the letter by Bobby Henderson to the Kansas Board of Education, the Flying Spaghetti Monster has the following powers:

• Flight
• Invisibility
• Can travel through solid matter
• Can create and alter anything
• Plants evidence and changes test results to confuse evolutionists.

See also: Essay: Attention British, militant atheists! Brace yourself for the mighty, religious wave that is coming

Rory Fenton, who is the president of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS) declared in 2014:^[5]

"...at London South Bank University our members were told they could not invite speakers who criticised religion at all, or even engage religious societies in debates, putting joining the South Bank Atheist Society on a par with joining the BNP. This February the same university banned images of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a satirical deity in which nobody believes, on the grounds that they were "religiously offensive".^[6]

Muslims were offended by the Flying Spaghetti Monster.^[7]

See also: Desecularization of Britain in the 21st century

See also: Internet atheism and Google trends - Atheism and agnosticism terms and Google trends - Global searches for atheism and agnosticism terms

According to Google Trends, Google searches for the term "Flying Spaghetti Monster" is dramatically down.

• Santa syndrome
• Atheism symbols
• Essay:Evolutionist Spaghetti Monster

Humor:

• The Flying Spaghetti Monster is losing what little popularity it had

1. ↑ Why are British Student Unions imposing Islamic rules?
2. ↑ Why are British Student Unions imposing Islamic rules?
3. ↑ *Flying Spaghetti Monster - Google trends data worldwide
   • Flying Spaghetti Monster - Google trends data for the United States
   • Flying Spaghetti Monster - Google trends for Google UK
   • Worldwide interest in evolutionary ideas
   • Jesus vs. Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers - Jesus wins!
   • Worldwide online interest in Jesus vs. worldwide online interest in Charles Darwin
   • How stale and boring is evolutionary indoctrination? Is the public fooled or are they suspicious? What is the trend?
4. ↑ Verbatim: Noodle This, Kansas - Washington Post
5. ↑ Atheist students must fight back
6. ↑ Why are British Student Unions imposing Islamic rules?
7. ↑ Why are British Student Unions imposing Islamic rules?

• Official Website of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster