For those of you unfamiliar with the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it started as a letter to various school boards that are considering teaching "Intelligent Design" or have already passed rulings that it will be taught in their districts. Basically it asked them to teach the theory that everything was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster alongside of Intelligent Design. You can read the original letter HERE. I'm sure it was seen as some sort of childish prank by the recipients of the letter(s), however there is a lot more behind this than simple fun.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of people see "Intelligent Design" as a much bigger, sad joke that has never been funny. Trying to pass off mystical nonsense as science is not funny, especially when you are corrupting the minds of children with your bullshit.

Science is based on observation and testing. When one scientist doubts the findings of another, they can check each other's work and come up with the same answer. If they have different answers, there is usually more testing until ultimately someone comes to the truth. Science not only explains the world around us, but it improves EVERYONES lives in more ways than we can even fathom.

Religion works a little differently. Thousands of years ago people who could not come to terms with the world around them due to lack of scientific explanations for phenomenon, came up with stories to explain them. These stories varied from culture to culture, but all were similar in that they gave the people peace of mind, because at least they had some explanation for what was going on. Leaders and priests would use religion to bend the will of the people to fit their agendas (sound familiar?). The stories were then transcribed and translated over and over throughout the years to the modern day into what is known as the Bible. People who believe in the Bible take everything that is written in it as a given. The infallible word of God resides in that book. Religion holds back society's development by trying to get people to ignore scientific findings. At least they stopped killing scientists a few hundred years ago for helping out the world.

Flying Spaghetti Monster was made up by a man, the same way as the Bible was. Both of them are ridiculous stories with little if any basis in reality. If Christianity is taught in school then why not Buddhism, Islam, Jainism, Shintoism, Judaism, Hinduism and all the other possible religious choices? They are just as probable as Christianity if not more so.

I don't have a problem with the Bible being taught about in school, but keep it to world religion classes and sociology. Everyone needs to be able to choose which religion (if any) that is right for them. Force feeding your stories to others and saying that they will go to hell if they don't believe in them is ridiculous, and cruel. Especially so when they are young and impressionable children.

Fly on, Spaghetti Monster! Deliver us from ignorance and intolerance.